This Tiger Taking Big Bite Out of the Junior Circuit : Golf: Eldrick Woods began competing at age 4. Now at 14, he may be the most dominant player in his division ever in Southern California.

By itself, the name would be notable only for the nice way it sounds: Tiger Woods.

But when linked with golf, the game Eldrick (Tiger) Woods of Cypress plays so well, visions of marketing dance through heads. The nickname was given to him by his father, Earl Woods, who says it wasn’t intended to be a marketing ploy.

“That wasn’t the basic motivation, although it is apropos,” said Earl Woods. “It will probably stick with him the rest of his life because he will use that and probably branch out in to all kinds of logos and all kinds of things, (such as) ‘The Tiger is coming.’ ”

Next year, Woods, 14, will attempt to become the youngest player to qualify for a PGA Tour event when he tries to earn a starting spot in the Los Angeles Open.

For now, the PGA Tour is safe. The exploits likely will come later for Tiger, who many say is the most dominant Southern California junior golfer ever.

He has won his age division of the Junior World Championships four times, once more than any other boy; and last summer, he finished second at the National Insurance Youth Golf Classic in Texarkana, Texas. At that tournament, which is for players 17-and-under, Woods was the youngest entrant. He finished seven strokes ahead of David Duval, the 18-year-old Florida amateur who made the cut in last week’s U.S. Open.

“In my opinion he doesn’t even have to get better,” said Rudy Duran, the director of golf at Chalk Mountain Golf Course in Atascadero who coached Woods until Tiger was 10. “He’s going to shoot lower because he’ll continue to hit farther until he is completely physically developed.”

Woods first picked up a golf club when he was 11 months old. He started competing at age 4, becoming somewhat of a legend in Southern California junior golf.

At age 2, Woods putted against Bob Hope on the “Mike Douglas Show.” At age 5, he was featured on “That’s Incredible!”

“The unique thing about Tiger is he was really such a fine golfer when he was so young,” said Duran. “He was a polished golfer at 5 and 6. It was amazing to watch.”

But golf observers say what’s truly amazing is that he has maintained that polish in the years that have followed although he has doubled in size.

“He could be the next Jack Nicklaus or better than Nicklaus, that remains to be seen,” Duran said. “But it wouldn’t surprise me one bit.

“On his good days and their bad days, he could easily beat some of the best players in the world.”

Such talk doesn’t faze Woods, who ended his segment on “That’s Incredible!” by saying, “When I get big, I’m going to beat Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson.”

The years that have come between have made him less precocious and boastful, but he is still certain that, barring injury, he will become a top player on the PGA Tour.

Why does he think he’ll be a successful professional? “My competitive intensity,” Woods said. “The way I can focus down. My father and my friends call it zoning.

“In golf you have to concentrate, just like this,” he said, snapping his fingers. “If you miss-hit a shot, hit it OB, put it in the water, you have to get your focus back. You’ve got to start thinking ahead. Don’t look behind.”

Tiger’s ambition isn’t discouraged by his father, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who introduced Tiger to the game when his son was an infant.

Earl Woods was the first black baseball player to play in the Big Seven Conference, now the Big Eight, when he played for Kansas State from 1949 to 1953. Tiger’s mother, Kultida, is a native of Thailand.

“In the United States, Tiger is black,” Earl Woods said. “But in Thailand, he’s Thai, so he’ll have marketing value in the Far East as well.

“He’s going to be very big in Asia. You can imagine a golfer of (Greg) Norman’s and Nicklaus’ stature being from Bangkok.”

In the United States, Tiger’s stature already has attracted the interest of the International Management Group, a company that represents such golfers as Norman, Arnold Palmer, Curtis Strange and Nancy Lopez. Hughes Norton, an IMG vice president, said he was impressed when he met Tiger at a junior tournament last year.

“He said Tiger is the youngest golfer they have ever approached,” Earl Woods said, “But Tiger is eons ahead. I said, ‘Well, the first black superstar on the tour is going to make himself and somebody else a whole lot of money.’ And he said, ‘That’s why we’re here, Mr. Woods.’ ”

Norton doesn’t doubt that Tiger has the potential to be great but he warns about expectations becoming too high. Comparisons with golf greats invariably fall short, he said.

“It never happens, because there’s only one Jack Nicklaus,” Norton said. “He should just be the best Tiger Woods that he can be.”

But Woods handles such comparisons with aplomb, saying he feels “privileged” to be mentioned in the same breath as Nicklaus. “I don’t really think about that (beating Nicklaus),” he said. “I think about the guys of today, the Normans, the (Mark) Calcavecchias.”

If Tiger is eager to get on with his golf career, Earl Woods says he is trying to apply the brakes. Although he believes Tiger, who has a plus-two handicap, already could be competitive with some professionals, Woods wants his son to be mentally ready for the pressure of playing major tournaments.

“My primary objective is for him to be an meaningful, articulate citizen,” Woods said. “It is not for him to be a professional golfer.”

Education is stressed in the Woods home; Tiger has a 3.7 grade-point average and will be taking honors classes when he starts at Western High School in the fall.

But before high school, Tiger will have a summer full of golf. Except for seven days in the month of July, the Woods’ golf calendar is filled with tournament dates. Next week, he will leave for Paris as part of a junior team from Southern California that will play a match against French juniors. Soon after he returns, he will attempt for the first time to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur.

Earl Woods said he isn’t putting pressure on his son to play golf.

“If he is a responsible, drug-free citizen, that’s fine with me,” Woods said. “If tomorrow he said, ‘Pop, I’m tired of golf.’ I’d say, ‘OK, fine. You make your own decisions. You have the freedom to make your own decisions.’

“But that does not take away from the fact that the ability is there. And it’s like having an artist who is capable of painting with the verve and ability of Rembrandt and is content to do caricatures. What a waste. What a flat waste.”

It doesn’t seem likely that Tiger will give up the game. He said golf will be his sport at Western High despite his fondness for playing cornerback in football.

“I really love to play and I love to practice more than I play. A couple of weeks ago friends asked me, ‘Do you want to go out and play?’ I said no, I’d rather practice. I’d rather be out here all day hitting balls and putting, chipping, working on my game.

“It’s just the way I’ve been brought up, I guess. Because my dad always practiced in the garage and I’ve been watching him practice and practice and practice, but never play. So I must have that in me.”

As told by Earl Woods, the story of Tiger’s introduction to the game sounds as if it came straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. A son strapped into a highchair watching intently as his father hits balls into a net in a cluttered garage.

Woods, who has a three handicap, picked up the game after retiring from the Army and moving to California from New York. He said his young son was so enthralled watching him practice that Tiger would throw a fit when his mother tried to take him into the house to feed him.

“So she would have to come into the garage and feed him between shots,” he said.

When Tiger was 11 months old, his father took him out of the chair and he stepped up to the practice area holding a putter that had been chopped down to size.

“He set up and he looked at the target,” Woods said, “and he waggled and he looked back at the target and then he waggled again and them he pulled the trigger and swung.

“I almost fell out of the chair and I ran and got my wife and by the time we returned he had picked up another ball and he was repeating the drill just like I had.

“He had assimilated my swing through visualization.”