Tiger Not His Tame Old Self

You won’t see this side of Tiger Woods in any Nike commercials, that’s for sure.

Woods’ signature fist-pumping celebration of U.S. Amateurs past was replaced by the wrapping of a six-iron around a tree in Sunday’s final round of the Quad City Classic.

Instead of thrusting his putter victoriously into the air, Woods slammed it to the ground in frustration. And even Nike’s marketing masterminds would have a hard time selling pond scum, which is where two consecutive shots by Woods landed on the disastrous fourth hole.

Throw in a four-putt for double-bogey at No. 7 and it all added up to a disappointing fifth-place finish in Woods’ third professional tournament, which golf’s 20-year-old prodigy led by one shot going into Sunday’s final round.

Ed Fiori, a portly, injury-prone 43-year-old who considered giving up golf to become captain of a chartered fishing boat only two weeks ago, shot a steady 67 Sunday, finishing two strokes ahead of Andrew Magee and pocketing $216,000 for his first tournament victory since 1982. Chris Perry and reigning U.S. Open champ Steve Jones finished tied for third.

Woods, who began the day at 10 under, shot a two-over-par 72, finishing eight under and winning $42,150, which pushed his 1996 earnings to $82,194 and placed him 166th on the PGA Tour money list. Ted Tryba is No. 125 with $142,445. Steve Jurgensen is No. 150 with $103,404. With five tournaments to play, Woods can automatically earn his 1997 PGA Tour card by finishing in the top 125. If he finishes in the top 150, he is eligible for unlimited sponsors’ exemptions in 1997.

But his progress toward achieving those goals was of little consolation Sunday.

“I’m ticked off,” said Woods, who brooded through much of the afternoon, his million-dollar smile hiding like the sun behind a cloud. “I had a three-shot lead and let it all slip away in a heartbeat. I putted horribly today. I didn’t make anything. It was just one of those days with the putter.”

You could tell what kind of afternoon Woods was having by the comments from the humongous galleries following him. “Welcome to the big leagues, Tiger” outnumbered “You da man!” by at least two to one.

The fourth and seventh holes simply left the heavy pro-Woods galleries speechless.

Woods started strongly, going par-birdie-par on the first three holes, but hooked his tee shot on No. 4 into a murky, moss-covered pond, in the middle of a tree-filled gully below the fairway.

After a penalty-stroke drop, Woods thought he had a “doorway-sized” opening through the trees to the green on the par-four, 460-yard hole, which drew the fewest birdies (19) and most bogeys (143) of the tournament. But that shot caromed off a tree and into the pond for penalty stroke No. 2.

Woods’ next shot extracted him from danger but landed in high grass about 70 yards from the hole. A frustrated Woods made like a lumberjack, hacking at a tree with his iron, and a chip shot and two putts later, he was left with an ugly, quadruple-bogey eight.

That dropped him from 11 under to seven under, a three-shot lead turning into a one-shot deficit.

“I had a big opening and the lie was fine, I just didn’t execute the shot,” Woods said of his first attempt out of the gully. “I pushed it right, it went back into the water, and then the adventure began.”

Woods recovered with a par on No. 5 and a birdie on No. 6 to pull even with Fiori at eight under, but his putter deserted him on No. 7.

He chipped his second shot on the par-four, 342-yard hole to within eight feet of the pin but pushed his first putt four feet past the cup. He then went back and forth, missing two three-footers before tapping in for a double-bogey six.

“I played a little hockey there,” Woods said. “If I would have putted halfway decent, I would have been in contention.”

That was the difference between Woods and Fiori on Sunday. Woods consistently outdrove Fiori, sometimes by as much as 100 yards, but he made 34 putts--his highest of the four rounds--compared to Fiori’s 29.

The 6-foot-2, 155-pound Woods wowed the crowd--and Fiori--with his strength, a prodigious, 340-yard blast off the ninth tee and a 350-yarder off the first tee among his highlights. But Fiori was a picture of consistency, measuring the greens so well he three-putted only once.

The Sugarland, Texas, resident had five birdies, 11 pars and only two bogeys in his final round to edge Magee, who was in the clubhouse at 10 under after a tournament-low 62 as Fiori and Woods made the turn to the back nine.

“He hits longer than John Daly--he’s amazing,” said Fiori, who sat out 15 weeks of the 1995 season because of rotator-cuff surgery and had a cortisone shot in his sore left elbow last week. “He hits a wedge to every par-four. How do you beat a man like that?”

By keeping your eyes off him.

“I had to play my game,” said Fiori, 5-7, 200 pounds. “I never watched Tiger hit a shot. I just watched where it landed. But playing with Tiger raised my intensity and brought my game up a bit.”