Woods over par? End is near

SHELTON E-mail: Click here Archive

By GARY SHELTON

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 15, 2001

TULSA -- The world is ending.

The signs of the apocalypse are everywhere. There are tornado warnings. There is a flood watch. Soon, they will tell us about the locusts and the approaching meteors and the pale horse that just galloped onto the 18th fairway.

Oh, yes. Also, there is this.

Tiger Woods is over par.

Gasp.

My advice: Make your peace while you have time.

Tiger Woods is over par? Something is horribly, unexplanably wrong here. Tiger is never over par. Everyone knows that. He was born under par, he has lived under par, and by gum, he will die under par. There are a few things in life you can count on: You don't find fish in trees. You don't find logic in Congress. And you don't look for Tiger to be on the north side of par.

Yet, there he was, three strokes into the ugly, tied for 76th place. The U.S. Open had begun, and darned if it hadn't started without him.

Remember all those days you wished you were as good a golfer as Tiger? Thursday, you were. For whatever reason, Woods woke up as a mortal, and he spent the rest of the day with the same confused look the rest of us wear to the course all the time.

He tossed a club. He hit a tree. He was in the sand. He was over the green. He three-putted. He had bad bounces. He misread greens.

My goodness, Tiger Woods was you.

Or, worse, me.

For so long it appeared all Woods had to do was think of a number and then go out and shoot it. Coming into the Open, he had 15 straight rounds of under 70. He had 38 straight of par or under, and 94 of his last 96. In major championships, he had played the past 19 rounds at par or under.

Imagine the shock, then, of seeing Woods struggle through Thursday's half-round. Heck, while you're at it, imagine seeing it through Tiger's eyes. For years he may wake up screaming over the way he played the ninth hole. He hit his second shot into a tree, and the ball dropped into the bunker. He then hit over the green in the general direction of Muskogee, where, as everyone knows, they don't make a party out of loving.

You almost expected Woods to turn to his caddy and say, "By the way, what do they call two strokes worse than par?"

"They call it a double bogey, Mr. Woods. Please don't fire me."

Such is the fickle nature of golf, and it is high time Woods discovered it. One day, the world seems ready to concede you a fifth straight major championship. The next, you're getting spanked by a guy more than twice your age.

Hale Irwin, bless his heart, seems convinced it's still 1974, and no one seems to have the heart to tell him it isn't. Irwin hung a 67 Thursday morning, which is 11 digits higher than his age. On a day of storms, you get Hale. Of course you do.

But as Tiger approached the first tee shortly past noon, no one figured Irwin would be safe at 67. At the time, all but nine people on the course were lining the fairways in front of Woods, and the opinion seemed to be that Woods could do pretty much as he wished with the Southern Hills course.

"Is it going to rain?" someone in the gallery asked.

"Depends. Does Tiger want it to rain?" someone answered.

That sums up how people thought of Woods. With apologies to the Temptations, he can make a castle from a single grain of sand, and he can make a ship sail on dry land.

Thursday, however, he couldn't play golf. At least not to the standards he has made us used to. The first defection from this year's Open was a golfer named Phil Price, who pulled out Thursday due to illness, which can be interpreted as meaning he was sick of the way he was playing. And Price was plus 7, only four shots behind Tiger Woods. In the years to come, Price will wear out his grandchildren telling them of how he was hot on Tiger's tail before he was done in by bad chili. He won't mention the exact numbers, of course.

This was Tiger the Mortal, scrambling and scrapping, fussing and fuming. He hit only three of eight fairways, only five of 10 greens. He didn't play like Tiger. He played like Eldrick.

By the time the rain came, not to mention the talk of tornadoes and floods, it was a blessing. After all, Woods already had recorded the day's ranking disaster, and it must have seemed like a grand idea to him to suspend play. He had a five-foot putt for par on No. 10, but it was obvious it wasn't Woods' day, and it was merciful to give him the rest of the day to regroup. Maybe the guy was right. Maybe by then Tiger had willed it to rain.

All that said, all the misery noted, and it would be smart to keep this in mind: Woods still might win.

Look at the leaderboard. None of the usual suspects are up there. Yes, Irwin is a great story for those of us with white in our hair. Heck, if you're 50, that gives you six more years to work on your game to be where he is. It would be very great indeed if Hale were hale enough to win this Open.

But he won't. Irwin already is the oldest guy to win a U.S. Open, and that was 11 years ago. It isn't going to happen again. Irwin is merely playing the nice, familiar story of yesterday's hero leading today's tournament.

Retief Goosen, the slamming South African? Nope. Goosen has been struck once by lightning. This would make twice. It won't happen. Loren Roberts? He had his shot for an Open in '94 when he was in a playoff. He lost. Toshimitsu Izawa? Nope.

The thing that gives Woods hope is that the real threats didn't run away and hide. David Duval and Ernie Els are 1 under, but neither has completed his round. Of the big names who have finished, Phil Mickelson is at par. Davis Love III is 2 over. Vijay Singh is 4 over. Tom Lehman is 6 over. It's still anyone's tournament.

Even Tiger's.

Except, uh, not that Tiger.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright