Weather Hot, So Is Woods

With four matches down and two to go for Tiger Woods at the U.S. Amateur Championship golf tournament, it’s beginning to look as though there are only two questions that need to be answered.

If it gets any hotter, will the trees start to melt?

Can anybody here beat him?

Another challenger took his best shot and missed Friday in the searing heat at Pumpkin Ridge, where even the ducks kept quiet for the first time all week. They probably lost their voices in temperatures that closed in on 100 degrees.

Meanwhile, the one cool customer was Woods. Searching for a record third consecutive U.S. Amateur title, he birdied three of the first six holes and went on to defeat D.A. Points of Pekin, Ill., 3 and 2 in the quarterfinals.

Points, 19 and a sophomore at Louisiana State, was around just long enough to form an impression of Woods.

“He hits it a long way,” Points said.

He does that, all right. Woods even reached another milestone.

He is 18-2 in match play now and his victory was his 16th consecutive in match play in the Amateur.

That ties Woods with Lawson Little for second most, behind Harvie Ward’s record of 17 consecutive victories in 1955, 1956 and 1958.

The way things are going right now, Woods saw no reason to be down about anything.

“I feel I played very well,” he said. “But the most important thing was that I thought my way around the golf course.”

He certainly did it at the proper times, such as when he knocked his tee shot into the trees on the seventh hole, couldn’t find the ball and wound up losing the hole.

Who could have seen that one coming? That little slip-up occurred right after Woods had spun an 18-foot putt into the hole for a birdie on No. 6 and a 2-up lead.

Woods said it’s pretty obvious what happened.

“Funky hole,” he said.

Of course. And on the par-four ninth, Woods drove into the left rough with 128 yards to the front of the green, but he pulled out a wedge and delivered the ball six feet from the flagstick, then made his birdie putt.

Woods went 3-up at the par-three 12th. The pin was cut left near the water and tucked behind a bunker, but Woods hit a nine-iron from the tee and watched the ball drop between the hole and the water.

He simply rolled in a six-foot birdie putt, waited for Points to run out of holes and it was over.

Woods credited, well, himself. If anyone was waiting for Woods to do a slow burn after he had lost his ball on No. 7, it simply wasn’t going to happen.

“I came out of it,” said Woods, adding that he is playing better now than he did in either of his two previous U.S. Amateur victories.

“Every Amateur so far I’ve gotten better and it’s nice that the hard work that Butch [Harmon] and I have done is finally starting to pay off,” he said.

There’s still a pretty tough stretch of hard work left for Woods, suddenly the oldest semifinalist. If his opponent today looks familiar, it’s because Joel Kribel is his teammate at Stanford.

Kribel went 19 holes to score a victory over Duke Delcher. The 19-year-old sophomore won the Western Amateur three weeks ago, where Woods wound up losing in the first round of match play.

In any event, Kribel has spent enough time around Woods to know it’s best not to be intimidated by how far Woods hits.

“I’m starting to get used to it, the way he cranks it by you,” Kribel said.

Two University of Florida players will meet in the other semifinal. Robert Floyd, 20, whose dad is Raymond Floyd, plays Steve Scott, 19.

Floyd beat Brian Novoa, 2-up, and Scott won the last two holes to defeat Buddy Marucci, 1-up.

Floyd said he has spoken with his father every night this week on the telephone.

“He doesn’t tell me what I should do or shouldn’t do,” Floyd said. “Obviously I’ve played golf long enough and he’s not critiquing me. He gives me advice, mentally, obviously. And obviously I take it. But he’s not sitting with a video camera and a videotape.”

As for playing Woods, maybe the best advice is to try it the same way Points did. Points seemed to be having a good time and smiled easily throughout the match.

There was just one thing that bothered him.

“It’s kind of hard with 2,400 people rooting for Tiger and about 30 rooting for you,” Points said. “That’s to be expected, I guess.”

With two more matches to go, Woods is getting close to his Amateur record. If he gets it, that’s to be expected.

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Tale of the Tiger

FRIDAY’S MATCH

* Quarterfinal

Woods def. D.A. Points, 3 and 2

TODAY’S MATCHES

* Semifinals (1 p.m., Channel 4)

Tiger Woods vs. Joel Kribel

Robert Floyd vs. Steve Scott

SUNDAY’S MATCH

* 36-hole final (1 p.m., Channel 4)

Semifinal winners