Remember All That Tiger ‘Slump’ Talk? Never Mind

What’s wrong with Tiger Woods?

Nothing, apparently, except having to make sure he hires enough people to count his money. Woods, who has an answer for everything, doesn’t have to answer again why he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since last July--not after his victory Sunday in the BellSouth Classic at Duluth, Ga.

There’s something about what people expect of you when you win six of your first 21 tournaments, which is what Woods did. Right then, expectations for Woods were higher than those billboards about the size of Godzilla’s head.

Woods said he can relate to the way he’s looked at, mainly because he has been taught by his buddy, Michael Jordan.

“I guess you can kind of put in comparisons with Michael, with MJ,” Woods said. “MJ goes out and scores 20 points, [and the comments are] ‘What’s wrong with him?’ Scoring 20 points is pretty good. And even though I hadn’t won, I was finishing in the top 10.

“So I think a lot has to do with the way I played and the media hype on top of that and then the expectation level from the press and the people. And it just snowballed. Everyone got caught up in it.”

Woods always was caught up in playing well--his four top-three finishes and 69.58 stroke average lead the tour--but not winning. Even when he closed with a 72 at the BellSouth, he still won, which meant something to Woods because he got some breaks.

“That’s what you need,” Woods said. “You can’t always play good and win.”

One of those breaks came on the par-three 11th when he missed the green long, his ball landing behind a rock in tall grass and mud on a ledge six or eight feet above the green. The pin was at the back of the green, which sloped from back to front.

Woods hit a flop shot as though he were coming out of a bunker, stopped the muddy ball six feet below the hole, then rolled in the putt to save par.

“He won the tournament there, I think,” said Hughes Norton, Woods’ agent at IMG.

So now that Woods is officially back, even though he has never been away, what does his freshly painted winning presence mean for the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco on June 18-21?

Woods’ own expectations are great.

“I’m playing better than I was at this time last year. I’m really looking forward to playing on Olympic. It’s like a home course to me.”

MORE TIGER

He proved once again that if you adjust the horizontal hold on your television set, you’ll see Tiger stripes. Judging from the national ratings, you would have to say that Woods’ presence at the BellSouth had a semi-huge impact.

The 3.1 rating for Saturday’s third round was up 35% over last year, while Sunday’s fourth-round rating of 4.2 was up 68%. Woods didn’t play the tournament last year.

AND MORE TIGER

Woods is expected to announce today at the GTE Byron Nelson Classic at Irving, Texas, that he isn’t playing next week’s MasterCard Colonial at Fort Worth. That isn’t so surprising because Woods is already committed to playing the Memorial at Dublin, Ohio, in two weeks, which would have meant a stretch of four tournaments in four weeks if he played the Colonial.

But what’s really going to be interesting is whether Woods will defend his title at the 1999 BellSouth, which is being moved on the PGA Tour schedule to the week before the Masters.

And that’s the problem. Woods probably will play the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando, Fla., then the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., with the BellSouth and the Masters the next two weeks. That’s four weeks in a row, if the BellSouth is on Woods’ schedule.

“I’d be very surprised if he played, defending champion or not,” Norton said. “I hate to say that, for Atlanta’s sake.

“Augusta is just too important to him. He never wants to play the week before that.”

LONG AND SHORT OF IT

With sincerest apologies to Randy Newman and grammarians, short courses got no reason to live . . . at least according to Laura Davies.

The problem, says Davies, is that more and more courses are shorter and shorter this year on the LPGA Tour. Michelle McGann, who doesn’t hit it nearly as long as Davies, has said the same thing, that the LPGA has been downsizing the courses on tour--besides the obvious occasions called for when weather conditions have forced tees to be moved up.

Davies, who is playing in this week’s McDonald’s LPGA Championship at the rain-saturated Du Pont Country Club in Wilmington, Del., said the winner of the year’s second major probably will be a big hitter.

“If they don’t shorten the course up,” Davies said. “We tend to be playing shorter and shorter courses.”

Davies said many times she has hit as little as a four-iron off the tee and still had a wedge to the green, basically taking long irons out of the game and often turning the events into putting contests. Of course, this doesn’t particularly suit Davies, who is No. 1 in driving distance, but ranks 143rd out of 160 in putting.

There are some who believe the LPGA has routinely and quietly shortened its courses, some of them to less than 6,000 yards, but the LPGA says that’s simply not true.

“Nope,” LPGA Deputy Commissioner Jim Webb said. “As far as shortening the courses, nope, it’s simply not happening.”

O’MEARAGATE?

It sounds sort of silly now, but Masters champion Mark O’Meara has been accused of replacing his ball about half an inch closer to the hole on the 15th green of the last day of the Lancombe Trophy in Paris last September, a European tour event that O’Meara won.

Sweden’s Jarmo Sandelin, who finished second, said O’Meara ought to return the trophy. A videotape appeared to show O’Meara replacing his ball closer to the hole on a 2 1/2-foot putt. There is no penalty for any infraction discovered after the field has completed its round.

Peter O’Malley of Australia kept O’Meara’s scorecard and told the Australian Associated Press this week that Sandelin’s suggestion for O’Meara to return the trophy is “ridiculous.”

O’Meara talked about Sandelin’s accusation on the Golf Channel’s “Golf Talk Live.”

“I want everyone to know that I would never break the rules of the game of golf, and it was an unfortunate incident,” O’Meara said. “But the issue is over and I just wanted to state that so everybody knows how I feel.”

AIMLESS

There are many ways to miss a cut, and here’s an interesting one: Brian Watts, an American who has been playing the Japan tour the last few years, was fined $1,500 and barred from next year’s Japan Open for purposely hitting two balls toward the ocean on two holes in a deliberate effort to miss the cut at the Fujisankei Classic last week.

According to the Kyodo News service, the executive director of the Japan PGA decided not to suspend Watts after Watts apologized.

GREAT ONE’S FOURSOME

Wayne Gretzky’s dream foursome? Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson and Gordie Howe, according to the latest issue of Golf Digest.

COURT CART NEWS

The lawyer representing Ford Olinger is expected to file a motion for a temporary injunction today in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, Ind., to allow the Warsaw, Ind., golfer to ride a cart in an 18-hole local U.S. Open qualifying round Monday at South Bend Country Club.

Olinger, 31, has a condition in both hips similar to what ended Bo Jackson’s career. Olinger and his lawyer asked the USGA--which is permitting Casey Martin to use a cart in Open sectional qualifying June 8--for a similar accommodation, but they were turned down.

TWO FOR THE MONEY

Is this dominating or monotonous? Of the 27 Senior PGA Tour events since January 1997 in which both Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan have competed, one or the other has won 18 times.

OR WITH A BED

She’s only a third-year LPGA pro, but Emilee Klein is a veteran traveler. Last year, Klein flew more than 100,000 miles, including four trips to Asia.

Klein, who writes a regular column for GolfWeb, said she has developed a theory about accommodations when she travels.

Her definition of a good hotel?

“Anything clean.”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

According to the National Golf Foundation, golf had its first significant increase in participation in seven years in 1997. Statistics showed that the number of golfers increased 7% to 26.5 million. Beginning golfers increased 51% and junior golfers (age 12-17) increased 34%.

Jose Maria Olazabal, who signed a five-year endorsement deal with MacGregor in late February after going without an equipment contract for nearly four years, has played seven events in 71 under par, won at Dubai and was second at the Spanish Open and the Italian Open.

Kellee Booth of Coto de Caza, who plays at Arizona State, is ranked No. 3 in the MasterCard collegiate golf rankings. Teammate Grace Park is No. 1. Arizona is the top-ranked women’s team, Arizona State is No. 2 and UCLA is No. 20.

The fifth St. Francis of Assisi tournament will be played June 29 at Vista Valley Country Club in Vista. The event benefits the youth programs of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Vista. Details: (760) 940-0961.

The Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Dept. board of commissioners approved a $1 rate increase for weekday rates to $20 and a $2 increase for weekends to $25. The board will schedule a public forum on the rates next month.

The Southern California PGA Section is accepting registration applications for the Maxfli/Southern California PGA Junior Championship that will be held July 27-28 at Lakeside Country Club in Toluca Lake. Details: (714) 776-4653.

Volunteer applications are being accepted for the U.S. Senior Open, which will be played July 23-26 at Riviera Country Club. Details: (888) 794-6498.

Bob Toledo, Gene Mauch, Mitch Gaylord, Dr. Sammy Lee, Dick Bass, Kermit Alexander and Ivory Sully are some of the athletes scheduled to play in the Victor Awards celebrity event June 12 at Industry Hills. The event benefits the City of Hope. Details: (213) 626-4611.

The Eagles’ Don Henley, Don Felder and Timothy Schmit will join bandmates Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh in Tiger Jam I, June 8 at the Universal Amphitheatre. Hootie & the Blowfish and Babyface also will perform. Woods and Frey will host the event, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. Details: (310) 201-5033 for VIP packages and (213) 252-8497 for tickets.