LEMONT, Ill. – The answer is yes. He watched to the end. All the ups. All the downs. And both monumental collapses. “That was my punishment.’’ Tiger Woods laughed when he said it, but, damn, it hurt. For the first time in 39 majors – two as an amateur – Tiger was controlling the remote for the final two rounds of the U.S. Open, not his destiny. There wasn’t a blessed thing he could do but watch. And, you know him. He could be a dozen shots our and he’s still fighting, hoping for a miracle – knowing if anyone can pull one off, it’s him. And for the record, he thought it was Colin Montgomerie’s tournament to win – or, as it turned out, lose. Not Phil Mickelson’s. “In the fairway on 18 with not only in the fairway, he was on the right side, on the flat spot with a perfect angle with his fade,’’ Tiger said. “It doesn't get any better than that. “With Phil on the tee, anything can still happen. He could still make bogey on the last hole and lose the tournament. I thought it was Monty's tournament -- put the ball on the green and it's over. Obviously that didn't happen, and then Phil had his mistakes. It was a very interesting finish, one that none of us who are involved in the game of golf probably ever would have predicted we would have seen happening.’’ No one would have ever predicted Tiger’s missed cut, either. But when you come to Winged Foot with your B game, it doesn’t matter if you’re the best player in the game. The course is that unforgiving. Two weeks, one spearfishing expedition and many practices later, Tiger’s back at the Cialis Western Open. Ready to take on a course where he’s won three times. Not ready in the least for Hoylake. “I haven't been there, haven't seen any photos of it,’’ he said with a grin. “All I know is it's in Liverpool. ‘’ And, oh, Stevie Williams caddied there in 1983. “And he can't really remember anything about it, except that he caddied there in '83.’’ They won’t see it until next weekend, either. Ah, Tiger. Phil game plans his game plans. Tiger gets the feel. Whatever works. No one was more surprised than Tiger when he couldn’t pull the shots out of his bag at Winged Foot. Was he rusty? Of course. He had been off for nine weeks, dealing with family and the emotions of watching his father, his best friend, pass away. But it wasn’t emotions that cost him at Winged Foot. It was disparate pieces of his game. “I didn't execute properly, there's no doubt about that,’’ he said. “There are no excuses for it. I had the same opportunities as everybody else to hit shots and I didn't do it. “It was very disappointing because I had good practice sessions, I felt I was prepared, and come game time I did not hit the proper shots. I didn't putt well on top of that, and it was just bad from tee to green.’’ Tiger logged overtime on the range last week, and started to “piece it together, slowly but surely.’’ And this week? Chicago has always been an elixir. His eye loves this course and his game fits it. Three wins here. One runner-up finish. Two other top 10s. He shot 5-under on pro-am day with an eagle at the 15th and a birdie at the 18th. And he came off the course relaxed and ready for the gaggle of media – and questions on every subject imaginable -- waiting for him outside the back door to the clubhouse. • White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he would bet he could make a par on the PGA TOUR before Tiger could get a hit in a major league game. “I’d make a bet on that,’’ Tiger said. “On both.” • On Isleworth practice pal Annika Sorenstam’s U.S. Open win, which ties her with Tiger at 10 majors each, and their traditional major text messages: “Yeah, she texted me. We're all square now. .. It's fun having a friend who's competitive just like I am. She's one of the greatest that's ever played this sport. To see her go out there and how she prepares, it's pretty phenomenal to watch, not only from the golf standpoint but from the physicality standpoint of the effort level she puts into it. There's really no surprise why she's that successful if you watch how she prepares.’’ • On the media push for a showdown rivalry between Tiger and Phil: “Well, all my career I've had rivals with Ernie, for a stretch with Vijay, with Duval, and I've had it with Phil. Just as long as I'm part of each conversation over the rest of my career, it's never a bad thing.’’
• On Geoff Ogilvy: “He's a heck of a player, there's no doubt about that. He hits it long, wonderful putter, and he actually plays better in majors for some reason. He can get a little hot at times, and in majors as we all know, you have to be level headed in major championships, you can't flatten the handle, and I'm sure that helps him.” • On whether Phil can bounce back quickly from the U.S. Open collapse: “I don't know. More than likely to stay competitive you have to, especially in our sport. In our sport we fail more time than we succeed. Failure is a part of our sport; that's just the way it is. You pick yourself up off the ground and you have the next week to play. If we had a percentage very similar to baseball, if you put a .300 in your winning percentage, you'd have one hell of a career. But that's normally not the case. Your winning percentage is a lot lower than that, and you have to deal with losses quite a bit. It's nothing new to him, nothing new to any of us. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, come back out the next week and play.” Tiger’s done just that more times than he would like to count. Like Phil, he’s doing it again this week. Under a tighter microscope. And, with the constant questions about how he’s doing since losing his dad. “I'm sure it gets easier, but it's something you'll never, ever forget,’’ he said. “I don't think it's ever something you ever really want to forget or ever really want to truly put behind you because having a parent that is so loving in your life and that you love so much, you never, ever forget that. Life lessons always come about, each and every day. I've talked to a bunch of my friends who have gone through it before, and they think about their lost parent every day. It happens. “That's something I've done and I will continue to do probably for the rest of my life.” Earl? He would have been the first one to make sure Tiger watched the final two rounds and he would have called it punishment, too. And then he would have chased him out the door for some spear fishing too. How many did he catch? Tiger grinned. “A lot.” Yes, he’s back. He’s relaxed. He’s ready. For Chicago, Hoylake and, next month, a return to Medinah where he won the 1999 PGA Championship over Sergio Garcia. “It's been nice to get away and be at home with the family and deal with that,’’ he said. “Now it's back to try and make birdies and try and win championships.’’ |
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