Woods sees 2006 as his worst year
Eight more PGA Tour wins (up to 54). Two more majors (up to 12). Another six-event winning streak (his second). Another money title (his seventh). Another player-of-the-year season (his eighth).
Tiger Woods continues to make the remarkable seem routine as he returns to Augusta National Golf Club seeking a third consecutive major win and a fifth green jacket. But considering the emotional backdrop of last season, 2006 was anything but standard fare.
"If you take into account what happened off the golf course, it's my worst year," Woods said. "I consider it as a loss. In the grand scheme of things, golf ... it doesn't even compare to losing a parent."
If there were a mission to Woods' season, it was to honor his father one last time. Earl Woods had lived long enough to see his son achieve the greatness in the game that he so brazenly predicted, but his opportunities to see Tiger win more majors were dwindling as his cancer grew. Tiger Woods started the year in California, spending time with and tending to his ailing father.
"I didn't even know it was Christmas Day, you know, it was one of those kind of things," Woods said of the last holiday he spent with the man he called Pop. "All the days just blended together because Dad was really struggling at the time. I don't remember, I didn't do anything for my birthday (Dec. 30). I didn't even know it was my birthday. I was up three, four, five days in a row just nonstop trying to be with Dad. I just didn't do anything, just hung around him as much as I possibly could, so everything kind of blended together."
When he got around to golf, Woods wanted desperately to win another Masters Tournament. Early-season victories at Torrey Pines and Doral seemed to set the stage for an emotional triumph at Augusta. But his normally reliable putter betrayed him on Sunday, leaving him in third place.
Less than a month later, Earl Woods died. Tiger stayed away from the game for nine weeks after the Masters. When he returned for the U.S. Open a little rusty, Winged Foot proved unsympathetic and he missed his first cut in a major as a professional.
"It was certainly the most difficult year I've ever had," Woods said. "Because you think you're prepared for it, you think you've gone down this road, you think you can handle it. And all of a sudden it happens and you find out that it affects you a lot deeper than you actually thought previously."
His U.S. Open performance wasn't indicative of the future. Woods finished second to Trevor Immelman in his next start at the Western Open.
"I knew I had to go through, like anyone, the grieving process, and I had never done anything like that before," Woods said. "Everyone is different how long it takes you to come out of it."
In the British Open at Hoylake, Woods repeated as champion and used his driver only once. When the Claret Jug was clinched, Woods broke down in his caddie's arms and wept on the 18th green.
"At that moment it just came pouring out and of all the things that my father has meant to me and the game of golf, and I just wish he could have seen it one more time," Woods said that day. "I was pretty bummed out after not winning the Masters, because I knew that was the last major he was ever going to see. So that one hurt a little bit. And finally to get this one, and it's just unfortunate that he wasn't here to see it."
A month later, Woods won again in somewhat unconventional style, employing judicious use of a 5-wood to win the PGA Championship at Medinah. He broke from a 54-hole tie with Luke Donald for a five-shot victory.
"I just felt like if I got the ball anywhere on the green, I could make it," Woods said of his final-round 68. "It's not too often you get days like that, and I happened to have it on the final round of a major championship."
A season that was so difficult had turned into one that drew parallels to Woods' finest - 2000. That year is held up as the benchmark, with nine PGA Tour titles that include the first three wins of his unprecedented major slam.
The year 2000 also marked the end of his first six-win streak on the PGA Tour, a feat he surpassed in February when he reached seven consecutive PGA Tour wins at Torrey Pines before his run was snapped in the WGC-Match Play.
For all of his success, it's easy to point out what kept 2006 barely below his 2000 standard.
"How about all 36 holes at the U.S. Open? They were pretty dreadful," Woods said. "What did I finish, 50-over par or something? It wasn't very good there.
"And I wish I could have putted better at the Masters. I didn't putt well the entire week and especially didn't putt well on Sunday." Woods hopes to redeem himself at Augusta to come within reach of another continuous slam in the majors. He easily handled that challenge in 2001 to complete his Tiger Slam.
What helps him this time around is the belief that he's a better golfer at age 31.
"With the experience of six, seven years added to that and understanding how to get myself around a golf course and how to control things and all the different shots I've learned since then, yeah, I feel like things are pretty darn good right now," Woods said earlier this year.
Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.
