Saturday, June 16, 2001
Tiger is human after all
TULSA, Okla. — So there he was on the 5th green, hacking it around like everyone else. The 18-foot birdie putt had been wide by a foot and a half, the equivalent of a shanked extra point. The three-footer for par missed right and rolled four feet past the hole.
Tiger Woods leaked a little grin then. A little lopsided, you-gotta-be-kidding-me crease found his mug.
“Sometimes, you just gotta laugh at yourself,” Woods decided later.
What else could he do? Gods, as it turns out, have off days.
We weren't ready to anoint Woods as the greatest golfer of all time and the best athlete of his era. We'd already done that. Only on Friday at the United States Open, his wings fell off. If they'd been
golf balls, they'd have flown left and right and into little sand divots in the middle of the fairway.
Most definitely, they'd have been six-foot putts, fluttering two feet past the cup.
“I pulled a couple, fatted a couple, hit some left, some right. I ran the whole gamut,” Woods offered.
He is 5-over par. He has three birdies, total, about as many as he averages in an hour. It was shocking on Friday. Especially those first five holes, when Tiger was in the woods more than we've seen him since he played the Open as an amateur. It was like watching Jordan have his shot blocked or Ali take one square to the nose.
And here we are, on the morning of the third round of a major championship, prime Tiger time, getting pumped to watch Retief Goosen. What kind of major championship is this, when Tiger Woods is sweating and Retief Goosen is cruising?
Someone took the United States Open. The U.S. Open, starring J.L. Lewis.
It was a great joke. But really, we'd like it back now.
The Open is made for suffering, but we figured Woods to be immune. He started his day Friday at 7 a.m., finishing up the round that was drowned out Thursday. Woods dropped a six-footer at No.10 to save par, and we figured, even at 3-over par, he'd be close by noon.
Then at the par-5 13th, Woods put his approach into the water and needed a 15-foot putt just to save par. At 18, he missed an 8-foot par putt.
Woods missed three of the first four fairways to start Round 2. He bogeyed the 4th hole after his approach buried in the bunker. He bogeyed the 5th when he missed that 3-footer.
Woods had a bad case of the lefts and rights. He was hitting barely half the fairways and an equal number of greens. He was looking for a tourniquet.
Woods did have short birdie putts at 5 and 6, but missed both. Any momentum from birdies at 12 and 13 was lost at No. 16, where Woods missed the fairway and couldn't hack his ball to the green from the Brill-O bermuda grass rough. Another bogey put him at 5-over and walking the ledge of a missed cut (he made it).
“Sometimes things don't go your way. There's nothing you can do about it,” explained Woods, as close to a concession speech as he'll ever offer.
He had been seamless for so long. That early-season “slump” this year? He was practicing shots he'd need for the Masters. Of course, he won the Masters.
The notion Woods was overpowering the sport? Endorsed by everyone, including the overpowered. Paul Azinger called Tiger “the most dominant athlete in the history of sports” and that was just two weeks ago.
Tiger is mortal, apparently. Who knew?
We'll find out some things about some players now. Woods thinks he still has a shot — “If I get to even par after (the next) 18 or 27 holes, I'd get myself right back in this ballgame,” he said — but Tommy Bolt has a better chance.
With Woods off their lead erboard and out of their heads, who will seize the weekend? The players who have admitted to playing for silver medals just got a rare chance to go for major championship gold. Without Tiger stalking him, can Phil Mickelson win his first major? Can David Duval?
Or will we settle into Sunday afternoon watching an epic duel between Retief and J.L.?
“You've just got to keep plugging along,” said Tiger, who until now, never bothered with that part of it.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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DAUGHERTY: Tiger is human after all
