Friday, August 18, 2000
PGA already belongs to Tiger
By Joe Posnanski
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - We can now project that
Tiger Woods will win the 2000 PGA Championship. It will be his
third major championship this year. He will become the first male
golfer since Ben Hogan to win three in one year.
Second place, as of press time, was still
wide open.
This is the first time in golf history that
a man has won a major championship on the first day, but then,
we're used to Tiger Woods making history. He was the youngest
Masters champion ever. He won the U.S. Open by 15 shots. He was
the first man to ever hit 20-under par in a major championship
when he did the deed at this year's British Open - at hallowed
St. Andrews, no less.
Now, he has won the PGA Championship on
the first day. On Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club, Woods shot a
66, 6-under par, and that was that. His name vaulted to the top
of the leaderboard. And all the other golfers groaned. Nobody
here doubts that Woods will win, now. Nobody's even taking any
bets. The only question left is by how much Tiger Woods will win
the PGA Championship.
And, also, who will finish second.
Scott Dunlap might finish second. That would
be nice for him. Poor Scott Dunlap. He also shot a 66 on Thursday,
and it should have been like a dream. The man has spent all his
life clawing through the golf world. He can't hit the ball very
far, and he's not really a great putter, but he has just kept
grinding and scratching and playing golf. He has played the South
African Tour, the South American Tour, the Canadian Tour, the
European Tour, the guy has played more tours than Springsteen.
He's never won a PGA tournament.
Now, he's tied for the lead at the PGA Championship.
And he has absolutely no chance to win.
"Hey, you never know when your first
win is going to happen," Dunlap said. "Jeff Sluman's
first win was at the PGA Championship, so why not mine?"
Well, because, Sluman won his PGA Championship
when Woods was getting ready to start the eighth grade. That's
why. Those were different days. Everybody won a major championship
sooner or later back then. Heck, all you had to do was wait around,
and eventually Greg Norman would hand you one.
Back then, Scott Simpson and Steve Jones
and Ian Baker-Finch and Bob Tway and Wayne Grady and Mark Calcavecchia
and Larry Mize, they all won majors. Not exactly the Hall-of-Fame
gallery there. Everybody won majors. You just waited your turn.
Winning a major championship then was like being the ninth caller
to a radio station.
Now, the rules have changed. This guy, Woods,
he doesn't want to share. He wants all the major championships
for himself. This will be his fifth major championship. He will
be the first player to win back-to-back PGA Championships in more
than 60 years.
If you want to look even further ahead,
the guy's just 24 years old. He could, if this keeps up, pass
Jack Nicklaus' 18 major championships before he turns 30. OK,
maybe that's looking too far ahead.
"If he's going to do it, he's going
to do it," Dunlap said plainly. "There's no stopping
him."
No, there's no stopping him. Not this week.
No way. The only hope anyone has of beating Tiger Woods is hoping
that he will play a lousy first round and won't have quite enough
juice to catch up at the end. That's what happened at Augusta
this year. Woods shot 75 on Thursday at the Masters, and then,
when he made his move over the weekend, it wasn't quite enough.
But when he plays well on the first day,
he's almost invincible. Nine times in the last year he has been
within 2 shots of the lead after the first round. Eight times
he won the tournament.
The one time he lost was at The Players
Championship, when Hal Sutton stared him down on Sunday. Sutton
was tough as nails that week - his performance was one of the
great sports achievements of the year. When asked how he did it,
Sutton explained that you can't be intimidated by Woods.
At the next two major championships, Sutton
finished a combined 43 shots behind Woods.
Now, nobody's intimidated. Nobody's scared.
Everyone just accepts that when Woods plays well, he will win,
and he will win by a lot.
Well, Tiger's playing well. He shot 66 on
Thursday, but he might have shot 60 if a few more putts had rolled
right. Don't believe me?
"He could have shot 60," said
Nicklaus, the greatest, who was paired with Woods. "He is
unlucky to shoot 66."
Actually, Dunlap is unlucky to shoot 66.
It's the wrong time and the wrong place. We can definitely project
that Woods will win The PGA Championship, probably by 10 shots
or more. You can start, Mr. Engraver, to etch the name of Tiger
Woods on the Wannamaker Trophy.
But, hey, the tournament is not over. Dunlap,
like Davis Love, Darren Clarke and all the others on the leaderboard,
should keep on grinding. Hey, this is a major championship. As
the saying goes, the battle for second begins on the back nine
on Sunday.
(c) 2000, The Kansas City Star.
Visit The Star Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.kcstar.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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