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In shrinking Augusta he expanded the game....
Tiger WoodsIn the galleries at the Masters, people started at Tiger Woods as if he were from another planet. And may be he is.
With a 69 on the final day for a 72-hole score of 18-under-per 270, he not only won by a tournament record 12 strokes, but he shattered the Masters record of 271 that Jack nicklaus and Raymond Floyd had shared.
And he did it as a 21-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour Whose nickname is enough to identify him.
But it is not so much that Eldrick "Tiger" Woods won the Masters, as the way he won it. He virtually shrank Augusta National into a pitchand-putt course. At the 500-yard 15th hole, he cursed 350-yard drives and lofted 150-yard wedges over the pond. He finessed chip shots. He putted the linoleum-fast greens as if he were using a feather-duster.
But beyond his physical talents his mental maturiy sets him apart from golf's grinders. You could see his competitive flame burning as he strode the fairways with cool confidence. He reacted with disbelief when he missed a putt that was makeable. He enjoyed his best shots with a dazzling boyish smile and a quick pump of his right fist.
It is as if Tiger Woods, lean and limber at 6 feet 2 inches and 175 pounds, had drawn a lone across the fairways and greens of golf history: B.T. and A.T. -Before Tiger and After Tiger.
He did for golf what Nicklaus did in 1965 with his 271, whcih prompted bobby Jones, the Masters' patron saint, to say," He plays a game with which I am not familiar." Over four days at Augusta, Woods not only played a game with which even Nicklaus was not familiar, but he played one that elevated the sport to a new sociaological plateau.
This only child of an american black father who served in Vietnam and a Thai mother is not only the first golfer of colur to put on the green jacket that symbolises the Masters winner, but also the first towin one of golf's Grand Slam tournaments.
"It's going to open up a ,ot of doors, a lot of opportunities, and draw a lot of people into golf who never thought of playing the game," he said when asked, on the night before the fourth round, what his victory would mean. "On this stage and this kind of media, I think it's going to do a lot for the game as far as minority golf is concerned."
He was not surprised. Whenhe arrived at Augusta two years ago as a Standorf freshman in the first of his two appearances as an amateur, he talked about how he was here "to win." He was not ready to win then, of course, but in his first Masters as a pro, he predicted he was "ready" to win. And he did, spectacularly.
His triumph sweetened the memories of Charlie Sifford and other skilled black golfers who were incited by the Masters committee in the years before a victory on the PGA Tour automatically earned an invitation.
At his Houston hom, the 74-year-old Sifford, who still plays in Senior PGA Tour events, called Woods' victory a "wonderful thing for golf-never mind the racial thing." He likened watching Woods to watching his grandson, adding, "This is the kid who's doing what I wanted to do, but never had the chance to do."
It is not a surprise to Nicklaus either. He has won a record six Masters, and Arnold Palmer has won four. But after playing with Woods for the first time in a Masters pratice round that alsoincluded Palmer a year ago, Niklaus, 57, who isgenerally considered the best golfer ever, touted Woods' potential.
"Arnold and I both agreed," Nicklaus said," that you could take his Masters and my Masters, and add them together, and this kid should win more than that."
Not could win more than 10 Masters, but should win more than 10 Masters. But now that Woods has won his first at age 21, and considering the way he won it, maybe he will do what Nicklaus predicted.
But for all the tournament exemptions he has earned now as the Mastes winner, he will not be exempt from future pitfalls.
-Will his celebrity status sabotage hislifestyle, which has been chaperoned by his parents since he was a golf prodigy?
- Will he marry a good woman to accompany him and keep him on a straight and narrow fairway, as his parents have kept him?
-Will he guaranteed income, notably his $40 million Nike contract, dampen the flame of his competitive desire?
-Will his back, so flexible now in helping generate so much clubhead speed, hold up under the physical pressure?
-Will his golf swing desert him every so often, as heppened every so often to all the great chapions of the past?
-Will the game itself, in which one golfer cannot prevent another from playing even better, always be kind to him?It is no as if Woods were the first young champion. Gene Sarazen was 20 in 1922 when he won both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. Bobby Jones was 21 when he won the Open in 1923. Nicklaus was 22 when he won the Open in 1962. Seve Ballesteros was 23 when he won the Masters in 1980.
But for all that those chapions accomplished, the game did not let them win all the time.
Even so, Woods is suddenly a candidate who must be taken seriously to accomplish what not even Nicklaus did-a Grand Slam of golf's four major titles in one year: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. Nicklaus was the last to win the first two in a single year, the Masters and the U.S. Open, in 1972.
This year the U.S. Open will be at Congressional outside Washington, D.C., June 12-15 the British Open at Troon in Scotland, July 17-20, and the PGA at WInged Foot in Mamroneck, New Youk, August 14-17.
All three will have more rough and narrower fairways than Augusta National, but each is regarded as suited to Woods' game' then again, there is not a course in the world that is not suited to his game.
In recent years, only Nick Faldo generated realistic Grand Slam speculation. Before that, only Nicklaus and Palmer did, along with Ben Hogan in 1953 when he swept the Msters, the U.S. Open and the British Open but did not enter the PGA because it conflicted with the British Open.
But even if Woods doesn't win another major this year, he is now golf's marquee man.
The line of succession happens in every sport every so often Connie Hawkins, one of basketball's first fliers, once was talking about how Julius Erving had succeeded him and how Michael Jordan now as the highest flier.
"I can't wait to see the next guy," the Hawk said.
In golf, the next guy has arrived. As if from another planet, and wearing a green jacket.
Courtesy The Sportstar
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