Lyle said it right about Tiger first: His play is unique
Web posted 04/13/97
What did he think of Tiger Woods? The 1988 Masters Tournament champion shook his head and frowned.
``I'm sorry,'' Lyle said, ``I've never played there.''
That's probably not the first time you heard that story. Golf fans have gotten a good chuckle out of that one for the last few years as the Tiger Woods legend has burgeoned before our eyes.
Three straight U.S. Junior Amateur titles. Three straight U.S. Amateur titles. Three wins in his first eight PGA Tour events as a professional.
Each exhibition of golfing excellence gave us another chance to play Mock the Scotsman.
Tiger Woods?
I'm sorry. I've never played there.
Ha-ha. Silly Sandy.
And then comes this week at the Masters. Then comes this incredible display of shotmaking by the very same Tiger Woods, now 21 years old.
He's pounding 330-yard drives without working up a sweat.
He's dropping deft little half-wedge approach shots onto greens he could practically reach out and touch.
He's shaking off a discordant opening movement - 4-over after nine holes - and plowing ahead with a sweet symphony of sporting excellence.
He's taking the world's most mythologized golf tournament, held on one of the world's most mythologized golf layouts, and dumping the whole thing on its collective aura.
``Absolutely amazing,'' six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus said Saturday, shaking his head like a scientist confronted with impossible data. ``It makes the game awfully easy when you hit the ball like Tiger. Nobody else can play that game.''
And then it hits you. Suddenly, Sandy Lyle is no longer some ignorant haggis-eater who hasn't won in years. Rather, he's a seer, a shaman, a wise man of the highest order.
Tiger Woods?
I'm sorry. I've never played there.
Of course he hadn't. None of us ever have. Maybe no other human ever will.
Now we understand what Lyle was trying to say. We thought he was talking about some new golf course somewhere.
We were wrong.
He was talking about Planet Tiger. He was talking about golfing Zen. He was talking about the unattainable, the unthinkable, the previously unseen.
Ha-ha. Silly us.
This has been one incredible week all right. Woods comes here without a PGA Tour win in the last three months, seemingly in his first real slump. Then he goes wacko.
On successive days he goes head to head with some of the biggest names in golf.
Thursday, he dusts Nick (Six Majors) Faldo by five shots.
Friday it's Paul Azinger's turn. Woods crushes the 1993 PGA champion by seven.
Saturday's snack is Lyle's fellow Scot, curly-haired Colin Montgomerie. Captain Swoosh pounds him into mincemeat, beats him by nine.
Sense a pattern here?
Poor Costantino Rocca. The jovial Italian has the distinct misfortune of playing in the final twosome for today's final round. It's bad enough Rocca sits nine shots behind Woods, but to top it off he must walk side by side with one of the greatest match-play juggernauts in the game's history.
Sorry, Signore Rocca. You lose by 11 today.
No, we haven't forgotten what happened to Greg Norman at this very house of horrors one year ago. Yes, we realize some have tossed away huge leads in major championships before.
Norman lost that six-shot advantage. Hubert Green was up by three at the start of Sunday at the '78 Masters. Ed Sneed took a five-shot lead into the final round of the '79 Masters. Arnold Palmer once blew a seven-shot lead over the back nine at the '66 U.S. Open.
It can happen. It has happened.
It won't happen here today.
Not to Woods, whose every waking hour has been devoted to this moment, one way or another, since he was wearing Pampers.
Not to Woods, possessor of prodigious length and flawless mechanics and feathery-soft hands and - most importantly - one of the strongest minds this incredibly cruel game has seen.
Put it this way: Tony Robbins could fly into town, chase Woods around all morning and fill his head with the same psychobabble he dropped on Norman this week, and the kid still wins by 12 shots.
Robbins could even buy a badge off somebody, slap on a rainbow-colored wig - a la Rollen (John 3:16) Stewart - and follow Woods around the course today yelling ``NOONAN!'' every time he putts, and it won't make one bit of difference.
``He's very smart,'' Nicklaus said of Woods. ``He's very intelligent, the way he plays. That's why I don't think anything is going to happen.''
Nothing except more fodder for the legend.
Nothing except another excuse for Earl Woods to ratchet up the hype a few more notches (if that's possible).
Nothing except another four-hour explanation of an oft-repeated comment long thought to be a joke.
Tiger Woods? I'm sorry. I've never played there.
Smart guy, that Sandy Lyle.
