Dorsey: Angry Tiger can be dangerous
Web posted 04/08/00
Woods shot 4-under par 68 on Saturday, his first sub-70 round at Augusta National since claiming the 1997 green jacket. It's the type of golf the world has expected from Woods all week.
Golf is not a light switch, where you can turn the good shots on and off. Woods' struggles with his putter, his personal Kryptonite, have kept him off the star-studded board.
The echoes of doubt swirled around Woods these last two days, as the preordained champion eked under Friday's cut line. After his even-par round Friday, Woods went to his rented West Lake Country Club home and flipped on The Golf Channel.
There he heard the talking heads on Viewer's Forum assess his weekend chances. Mark Lye stuck a fork in Tiger. Bad move.
``A lot of people were saying I was completely out of it,'' Woods said with a steely glare. ``I'm not out of it.''
Remember those words. They could become prophetic.
You never know how an athlete gains motivation, but there's usually a chorus of doubters singing the melody. Lye sang the tune Friday, and Bob Drum sang it 40 years ago, a song that Woods wants so desperately to prove wrong.
Before the final 18 holes at Cherry Hills in 1960, Palmer trailed Mike Souchak by seven strokes and was eating lunch prior to his final round when Drum, a longtime Pittsburgh newspaperman, walked nearby.
Drum, known for his gruff demeanor, had known Palmer since the King's boyhood days. Palmer, looking for an assessment of his chances, asked Drum, ``What would a 65 do?'' To which Drum replied ``Nuthin'. You're dead.''
His blood boiling, Palmer promptly drove the 343-yard first hole on his way to a final-round 65. He won by two shots, outdueling both Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan.
That became the first of many lessons from golfers to the press room: don't doubt us.
Now here's Woods listening to those ready to toe-tag him. This is a man who has shot course records to make comeback charges to win. And he already has a win this season where he rallied from seven shots back with seven holes to play. Surely by now, we've come to believe Tiger's capable of accomplishing just about anything.
So it does baffle the mind when you hear Tiger tell his story for Saturday motivation.
``I didn't appreciate it very much, that's for sure,'' he said. ``Because it's a major championship, you have to understand that if you're 10 shots back going into the weekend, if you go out there and play some great golf on the weekend, you can really win.''
Tiger's adjusted his mind-set to understand that golf is played over 72 holes, not 18, 36 or 54, so there's no reason to create undo commotion when he's not leading.
Tiger knows he can still win because he has golf's best two-minute drill.
It could have been seen as a lousy Tiger omen for his Masters chances early in the back nine on Saturday. He had just reached level par with his fourth consecutive birdie at No. 10. The horns blew and halted his round's momentum with a two-hour delay.
But after a sandwich and some storytelling with the old men in the Champions Locker Room, Woods regained his rhythm by birdieing both back-nine par-5s, reminding us of how much comeback lore can be found within the cathedral. Woods knows about Gary Player in 1977 (seven back) about Jack Burke Jr. in 1956 (tournament-record eight behind).
So after posting his red score early Saturday, it was thought Woods might have to become Edwin Moses today, hurdling foes from long distances to achieve the Masters glory he's been peaking toward all year.
But after watching an afternoon of Saturday golf evolve into a session in the NASA wind tunnel, Woods' name, as well as Davis Love III's and Mike Weir's, kept a slow climb upward.
Woods started the day tied for 41st. When play was called at 7:45 p.m., he had jumped to tie for sixth.
With a little more wind today, Woods could prove the chorus of doubters are blowing nothing but smoke.
