Monday, April 15, 2002
Silence of the lambs
AUGUSTA, Ga. — His presence makes them do strange things. When he is leading, Tiger Woods does the mind mambo on every player at the Masters. He affects them more than the wind or the greens or the ghost of Bobby Jones. Maybe Tiger is the ghost of Bobby Jones. Woods won the Masters Sunday mostly by showing up.
What a day it was going to be. Six of the seven best players in the world, all on the leaderboard. If Woods were to win his third green jacket, he'd have to earn it. Yeah, right.
Here's Retief Goosen, setting the tone early, cooking himself by three-putting the first green. Goosen, the co-leader, lost five shots to Woods in the first eight holes.
There's Ernie Els, making a triple-bogey at 13, when he needed a birdie, by trying to hit his second shot through half a dozen trees. Ernie had a bird chance, only it was from a drop zone 194 yards out. There's Vijay Singh finishing the job on 15, with a magnificent quadruple-bogey 9. All it took was two wedges in the pond, each from less than 100 yards.
By then, Woods could have teed off with a toothpick and won by a shot. It was like winning the Daytona 500 under a yellow flag. “He's the only leader you don't have the hope he'll falter. You have to go after him to catch him,” Phil Mickelson said.
Lefty tried, failed
Mickelson, bless him, tried. He faltered when his putter failed him. If you think it's tough on the rest of the pros chasing Tiger, consider the lot of Mickelson, who seems to finish on Woods' shoulder every other week. Mickelson bears the weight of Tiger Mystique like an elephant in his golf bag.
“When you get in that frame of mind that you can't make mistakes, you make mistakes,” said Thomas Bjorn.
They all made mistakes. “(Woods) never really had to do anything,” allowed Goosen. Nobody forced him to. Nobody protested. A day of no wind was also a day of no heroes. Everybody laid up — and down — for Tiger.
By the 11th hole, Woods was so secure in his standing, he avoided the green with his approach. That's great, but No. 11 is a par-4. He did it again at 13, Augusta's signature go-for-it par-5. Tiger Woods laying up at Augusta is like Babe Ruth refusing a drink.
“Everybody thinks everyone laid down,” Woods said. “That's not how it was. We all try a little too hard at times.”
When Woods is leading a major on Sunday, the effect on the contenders is creepy, especially here. For them, Augusta becomes Awe-gusta. By the end, Woods' stroll up the 18th fairway — golf's grandest walk — was as eventful as opera. “He was on cruise control,” said Goosen. At only 26, Woods wears a green jacket the way the rest of us wear blue jeans. We don't know whether to praise him or tell him to take next April off.
We all knew Tiger Woods' ability to provoke Masters' roars on Sunday afternoon. Now, we've seen his ability to silence them. Completely.
Somebody better come up with the game and the guts to take it to Tiger at the Masters. Until they do, “golf's cathedral” will be as quiet as church.
Contact Paul Daugherty at 768-8454; e-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com.
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DAUGHERTY: Silence of the lambs
