Monday, May 14, 2001
Woods cruises into contention
on final day
By GIL LeBRETON
c.2001 Fort Worth Star-Telegram
IRVING, Texas — His territory marked,
his thunder sounded, Tiger Woods logged off at 2:24 Sunday afternoon.
He had a Learjet and a million-dollar trip
to Germany waiting. His scorecard read a neon “63.”
He had a canyon of autograph-seekers and you-da-man-shouters to
make his way through.
Unlike some of his other weekends, Eldrick
“Tiger” Woods didn't change the game of golf here Sunday
at the Verizon Byron Nelson Classic. But he sure knows how to
mess with it.
He knows how to tickle a leader board and
make it sizzle. He knows how to get inside the heads of the men
he's playing against. He knows how to draw a crowd.
At the Nelson, Woods was returning after
taking a month off. He was still searching for the old groove,
he said. After being away from the tour for four weeks, Woods
said that he felt rusty and “uncomfortable.”
Right. So he went out and shot a 63.
And while, yes, that was a nice finish,
with local boy Scott Verplank losing a playoff to Robert Damron,
the 85,000 at the TPC at Las Colinas mostly filed away sighing
that, gee, that Tiger Woods sure knows how to play a golf tournament.
As Verplank shadow-boxed his way around
the back nine, he said he didn't see anything about anyone named
Woods shooting a 63.
“I didn't really care what he was doing,”
Verplank sniffed. Or maybe it was just his allergies.
“I figured if I played good, he wouldn't
be a factor.”
Meow. Right.
Woods started the day six strokes behind
the co-leaders, Damron and Verplank. And by the 12th hole, he
had caught them.
First-time winner Damron said he didn't
even want to look at the leader board.
“No, I put my head in my feet,”
he said. “I made sure I didn't look.”
Woods finally ran out of holes, stalled
at 14 under. Nick Price bogeyed after going minus 15. And David
Duval joined them in what eventually became third place at minus
14.
The board, therefore, shimmered with the
headline names of Woods, Price and Duval. Right behind, almost
quietly, were Justin Leonard and Sergio Garcia.
And we're supposed to believe that Damron
and Verplank didn't even peek to see who was hovering near them?
“Actually, I did notice on No. 4 that
Tiger had already gotten to — what was it? — 12 or 14,”
Damron confessed. “I just remember thinking, `Wow, I'm glad
he doesn't have many more holes to go. He can't birdie holes that
he doesn't have left to play.'”
The veteran Price observed of Woods, “The
guy's amazing. He takes a month off, and he comes back and plays
like that.”
The day before, Price had talked about the
way that Tiger has wormed his way into his competitors' heads
at the major tournaments. The majors now seem to consume Woods'
focus.
“He's on cruise control till June,
believe me,” said the tour's No. 4 all-time money-winner.
“I don't want to belittle any golf tournament on the tour,
but he is on cruise control until the majors.”
And so, motoring on “cruise control,”
Woods went out Sunday and shot a 63.
It wasn't the most engrossing round of young
Eldrick's career. He didn't lap the field, nor did he carom any
off the Byron Nelson statue to hole out at No. 18. Nothing like
that.
Instead, he went out and carded eight birdies.
The crowd surged to follow him, leaving the Prices, Leonards and
Verplanks of the field behind.
When Woods finally coasted back to highway
speed at 14 under, the sigh was noticeable. The Tiger Woods Hour,
entertaining as it was, wasn't going to be enough.
Thanks to Lord Byron himself, the tournament
namesake, the four days at Las Colinas again drew an impressive
field. But as long as Woods keeps honoring Nelson with his presence,
that seems to be enough. The crowds and the visiting media come.
At 4:48 p.m., Damron's putt on the 71st
green sealed Woods' fate, relegating him to a third-place tie
and the $234,000 check that went with it. After his two-hour-plus
wait, Woods finally was free to jet to the Deutsche Bank/SAP Open,
where he goes when he doesn't want to play in the Colonial.
Not that the Fort Worth tournament needs
Tiger Woods, of course.
He's on cruise control, remember?
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