Foes Join Ranks of Tiger Fans

The Tiger Woods bandwagon rolled into town, if you can call it that, on a typically hot summer afternoon Tuesday. But this time, there was a noticeable difference in who was on board.

They weren’t ticket-buying fans, adoring media or fawning giants of commerce hoping for his signature on the endorsement line.

No, two days before the start of the 82nd PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, the Tiger Woods bandwagon was virtually loaded to the brim with, yes, players!

For instance, there is Jose Maria Olazabal: “I think he is fantastic.”

And there is Darren Clarke: “He is probably going to win two of the four majors every year.”

And Jean Van de Velde: “It is fantastic.”

And so on. In fact, the way it’s going, it doesn’t appear that there is any more room on the bandwagon. Besides that, once Woods actually steps on the golf course, his influence actually grows.

There is no way of telling what kind of clout Woods has when the players he has to beat have to interrupt their coronation of Woods this week in order to swing their clubs.

It’s hardly a secret that Woods is the best player in the game by a very wide margin, that he has won the last two majors by a combined 23 shots, that he has won six times this year and that he is trying to join Ben Hogan as the only players to win three majors in one year.

And it’s also no secret that the players trying to beat him sound as though they are beginning to abdicate that responsibility.

Clarke beat Woods in the 36-hole final of the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship in February. They even share the same teacher, Butch Harmon. But Clarke doesn’t sound as if he expects it to happen again this week.

“With Tiger’s record in the majors and the fact that he has played so well, basically, he is going to be the player to beat for the foreseeable future,” Clarke said.

“The fact that Tiger is going to play so well gives maybe less opportunity for the rest of us to win some.”

At the U.S. Open, which Woods won by 15 shots, and the British Open, which he won by eight, nobody else really had much of a chance.

“Just seems to be a fact that Tiger has played a different tournament than anybody else,” Clarke said.

Woods played hooky from golf for two weeks after his victory at St. Andrews and spent a few days in the Bahamas and a few more at his home near Orlando, Fla., getting used to the heat he knew he would find this week. Last week at the Buick Open, Woods tied for 11th and didn’t intimidate anyone. But that was last week.

Woods was in a joking mood when asked about how he played at the Buick.

“I am playing all right,” he said. “I broke 80 four straight days last week, which was good for me.”

Just about everything is good for Woods, including his cash flow. He has won $5.79 million in only 14 PGA Tour events. He is close to signing a contract extension with Nike that is expected to be worth more than $80 million.

And if that sounds good, consider the level of play that got him there. His scoring average is 68.67. He is 161 under par in 52 rounds.

Lee Westwood is one of the hottest players on the European Tour with four victories so far, including last week in the Volvo. But Westwood expressed his amazement at the way Woods is able to focus every week, given all the attention he receives.

“I’d be very surprised if he actually knew there was a big gallery, to be honest,” Westwood said. “I think mentally he is that strong. I don’t think he sees anything but the ball and the hole, or the ball and the flag. I don’t think he’d know if there were five or 5,000 people watching him.”

Olazabal has an edge on Woods, leading him in Masters victories, 2-1. Other than that, Olazabal can’t say there is much more that Woods doesn’t have.

“He has the whole game,” Olazabal said. “He is long and he is straight and that is a huge advantage on any golf course. . . . I think if he makes a few putts, he will have a very good chance to win this week again.”

Again? There have been 21 PGA Tour victories for Woods and six more worldwide. Since he turned pro in August 1996, Woods has won $19,980,874 worldwide, including $17,050,710 on the PGA Tour.

Woods says he is prepared for another run in another major and another chance at history. What he isn’t prepared to do is predict a blowout, no matter the intimidation/bandwagon whammy he’s got going.

“Would I have said that I could blow out the field [at the U.S. Open and British Open]?” Woods said. “I probably would have said no. We will see what happens. If I play well and things go my way, you never know.”

That’s a relief. The way people are talking around here, it sounded as if they already knew.

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Thursday-Sunday

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DUVAL WITHDRAWS

A sore back forces David Duval out of the PGA Championship. Page 10

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