The Written Word
for July 29, 2001

Is Tiger Woods now just an ordinary golfer? Has his indifferent play in this year’s US and British Opens proved that he is no longer anything really special?

I don’t think so. But I believe it has shown that even so remarkable a golfer – and person - as Tiger can feel extraordinary pressure.

We had come to believe after Woods won all four majors consecutively – the only man ever to do so – that he was super human. What we should have conceded to ourselves is that he is super human – sometimes. When this year’s US Open arrived, Woods was made favourite by 8/5 and by some books no better than even money! Think on that. With the world’s best golfers from all over the world playing one of the tough courses of the world one man, using the same 14 clubs and ball as the rest, facing all the vagaries of a championship golf course, and the best in the world would only get you dollar for dollar if he won. And this after winning four straight majors.

I began to see some cracks sometime before the US Open in fact. At the Tournament Players Championship for example, a so-called "near" major which Tiger had never won I watched in disbelief as he came within a whisker of putting his ball in the water on the short 17^th. He did this by trying, with a two shot lead over the ever dangerous Vijay Singh, to "feather" a nine iron in by the cup where any other time the real Tiger Woods would have hit a hard wedge to the middle of the green and taken the water out of play. I thought I detected a bit of pressure altering his usually steely discipline. He won – but he was very lucky not to have blown it. In a previous tournament we saw Tiger win after having two tee shots saved by a tree and a spectator from going out of bounds. But the other chink in the armor I saw was in the Masters. After birdying the short par five 11^th Tiger put his second shot on the par 5 15^th in absolutely the most perfect spot for a man with a one shot lead – about 15 feet below the hole. All he had to do to seal the championship was cosy the ball up for an easy birdie and a two stroke lead over David Duval who was facing a four footer for a birdie on the 18^th. Woods three putted missing a dinky little second putt that, in fairness, he joked self-deprecatingly about in the Clubhouse later. In the event, Duval jerked his putt and Woods won by two strokes with a meaningless birdie on 18. In short, he won these two huge tournaments going into the two Opens but not in typical Tiger style. (What I think fooled us is that he did win one in typical style at the Jack Nicklaus – the fact remained that Tiger was showing signs of pressure – and who the hell wouldn’t?)

He will be back – and then some. He is 25 years of age with six majors under his belt. He has a superb golf swing and a superb attitude. But, in a sense, he’s victim of his own success for everyone is getting better. There are fewer and fewer fat bellies out there and more and more travelling fitness counselors. There are fewer players in the clubhouse having a few after the day’s round and more and more out on the practice fairway hitting a few.

Tiger hasn’t gone anywhere – it’s just that a lot of players, seeing the bar raised so much by his efforts, have come from nowhere to challenge him.

And Lordy, Lordy, has he ever made the game of golf more interesting!