Woods Needs Streak of Good Fortune

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 7, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PEBBLE BEACH —

The streak is looking a little shaky right now. We’re talking about the five-tournament winning streak of Tiger Woods, who shot a four-under 68 Sunday in the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, signed his scorecard, changed into a sweater and took off faster than a screaming low hook.

Whatever Woods was thinking, he must have decided the best idea was to keep it to himself since he split without sharing his thoughts with the media.

Maybe he is figuring out how to keep his golf ball from acting like a jumping bean on the lumpy greens, or how to come from five shots back today, leap past the seven players in front of him, win No. 6 in a row and show up for this week’s tournament in San Diego saying he had it all the way.

Woods stopped by to work at the putting green about an hour later and said he isn’t counting himself out quite yet.

“If I win the pro-am, do I win six in a row?” Woods joked. “Byron [Nelson] won the [Miami] four-ball and they counted that.”

Of course, Woods is still six short of Nelson’s record of 11 consecutive tournament victories and if he’s going to get any closer, he has his work cut out for him.

With 18 holes left in the rain-delayed tournament, the 54-hole leaders are Matt Gogel, who has never won a PGA Tour event, and Mark Brooks, who hasn’t won a tournament since 1996.

Can it happen to Gogel?

“I don’t think anybody ever knows when it’s their time or turn to win,” Gogel said.

As for Brooks, his last turn to win was the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla. Since then, he’s had four top-10 finishes, but maybe all that means is that he has been saving up for something good.

Gogel turned in a steady five-under 67 on a sunny day at Pebble Beach and Brooks had a 66 at Poppy Hills, which put them at 12-under 204. Vijay Singh produced a 72 at foggy Spyglass and is one shot back of the co-leaders. Notah Begay is two shots off the lead after his 72 at Spyglass.

In keeping with the quirky motif of this tournament, there was a fog delay at all three courses even though the only one with fog was Spyglass. The reasoning was that play must be concurrent at each of the courses.

The sun was shining brightly at Pebble, where Woods was in the midst of constructing his usual Sunday charge . . . even if this one was a third-round charge instead of a closing charge.

If there is going to be a last-day charge for Woods, it must come today at Pebble Beach--weather permitting, as usual.

Woods is going to have to come up with something extra. In his five-tournament winning streak, the most he was behind after 54 holes was one shot. And the last time he trailed by as many as seven shots after 54 holes in any tournament was the British Open at Carnoustie.

Woods said cutting his deficit from eight shots to five shots Sunday was impressive.

“That’s a huge jump,” he said.

Since no one has been able to accurately forecast the weather around here this week, it is unclear what will happen today, although showers are forecast. Woods seemed to be close to rooting for them.

Does he have a chance?

“I feel as if I have,” Woods said. “But it all depends on the conditions. If it’s ugly, then I’m in great shape. If it’s calm, it’ll be tough trying to make enough birdies to catch them.”

If nothing else, Gogel seems to be getting closer to breaking through. He challenged at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and wound up tied for seventh. His round Sunday featured six birdies and one bogey. His performance kept him in the hunt, as he was at the Hope.

Gogel just doesn’t want to feel the same way.

“I just got passed by,” he said. “It was like being at the Indy 500 watching cars go by you.”

Begay waited out the fog delay at Spyglass by watching the gray stuff roll in. He had heard four sirens, which call for the players to stay in position.

“I didn’t know what the heck to do,” Begay said. “I’m used to hearing three and two and one. And I heard four and I actually thought someone’s car alarm went off.”

Meanwhile, there was an alarm going off in Woods’ head after he nearly lost his ball in the rough by the edge of the cliff at the eighth hole. Woods could only hack the ball out about 20 yards and wound up with a bogey. It was better than falling about 50 feet off the rocky cliffs into the bay.

As for big falls, David Duval probably led the way. The first-round co-leader after a six-under 66, Duval played his next two rounds in 76-75 and missed the cut by one shot. Casey Martin also missed the cut for the second time in three starts.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SCORES

LEADERS

Through 54 holes

Matt Gogel-12

69-68-67--204

Mark Brooks-12

71-67-66--204

Vijay Singh-11

66-67-72--205

Notah Begay III-10

66-68-72--206