Woody Austin looks down a dark tunnel and figures a train is coming. He looks at the clouds in the sky and expects rain.
For Austin, the only kind of luck is bad, the only kind of outcome negative.
So it's no wonder that when Austin stands over a putt, he expects it to stay out of the hole.
That wasn't his mindset on Sunday at the Buick Championship, and his ball dropped into the cup. The birdie on the first playoff hole gave Austin, a Tampa native, a sudden-death victory over Tim Herron and new life.
"I'm a little bit of a pessimistic person when it comes to my golf game," said Austin in a major understatement.
Austin, 40, who grew up on the Babe Zaharias Golf Course and went to Chamberlain High in Tampa before playing for the University of Miami, used to work at the GTE Federal Credit Union, an Eckerd Drug store and tended bar while trying to keep his dream alive.
Then, after toiling on minitours and the Nike Tour, Austin finally made it to the PGA Tour in 1995. He won the Buick Open that year and was rookie of the year.
And he didn't win again until Sunday.
From 1996 through 2002, Austin barely kept his job on the PGA Tour. He needed to return to the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament after the 2002 season and birdied the final three holes to earn his card again for 2003.
Last year there was a bit of a resurgence, as he finished 44th on the money list. But that came with the knowledge that he blew the MCI Heritage, twice missing close putts that could have won a sudden-death playoff against Davis Love.
Putting has always been Austin's nemesis. This year Austin is 175th on tour in putts per round, but he managed to average 28.5 to win the Buick.
"It's a tough game if you can't get he ball in the hole no matter how good you hit it," said Austin, regarded as one of the game's best ballstrikers. "You guys talk about how Tiger ( Woods) might struggle in putting, and yet he's still in the top five. Put him down at 180th like me every year, and now we'll see how the scores change a little bit."
ERNIE'S WOES: There is good reason to believe Ernie Els will return to the Chrysler Championship next month at Innisbrook - because he all but has to.
In recent weeks Els, who contended in all four major championships this year, has bemoaned the fact that he must play so many PGA Tour events to receive special releases to play in Europe, where he is also a member of the PGA European Tour.
Any PGA Tour player who competes in at least 15 events is given three releases to play tournaments elsewhere that are played the same week as a tour event. Hence, Els needed a release to play in this week's Omega European Masters in Switzerland, where he is the defending champion.
But here is the tough part: Els is expected to play an additional five events for every other release he requests, a number he finds difficult to meet. In fact, he can't meet it, so he "negotiates" with the PGA Tour over extra releases. This year he needs to play a minimum of 17 PGA Tour events.
So far Els has played in 14. The American Express Championship in Ireland this month will be his 15th. Because he doesn't come back to the United States until late October, Els can only play the Chrysler Championship and the season-ending Tour Championship to meet the requirement.
Els isn't upset about the last two events, rather the schedule he felt he had to keep earlier this year in order to make the number. At one point Els played a head-scratching six straight tournaments, concluding with the U.S. Open, where a final-round 80 cost him a chance at winning the championship.
He should have taken off the week before, which followed his victory at the Memorial, but had agreed to play the Buick Classic at Westchester - an event the tour manages.
"I didn't properly celebrate the Memorial," Els said. "I wasn't able to get back to practice. I was so ready at Westchester, and you, like, hold yourself back."
LOCALLY: The Chrysler Championship, Oct. 28-31, is in need of volunteers for the PGA Tour event. For information call 727 939-3844 or visit www.chryslerchampionship.com ... The Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, the local Champions Tour event at the TPC of Tampa Bay, has announced its charitable recipients for the 2005 event: All Children's Hospital, Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance, Hannah's Buddies - Fight SMA and Pediatric Cancer Foundation. The tournament will be played a week later next year, Feb. 25-27.
Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
