An Amazing Tale

The black Mercedes sedan sped down the road, veered to the left and pulled up next to the scorer’s trailer, where Tiger Woods was busy signing his name to a final-round scorecard of 64 that snatched the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am championship Monday.

Out of the car stepped Clint Eastwood.

That’s when the comparison became clear.

Tiger Woods is Clint Eastwood.

He’s Dirty Harry. He’s The Man With No Name in “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” Just cue the music every time he steps to the tee. Ooo-woo-ooo-woo-ooo, wah wah wah.

He’s the baddest, coldest, meanest son of a gun in the West.

On a typical hole, his club selection goes like this: driver, nine-iron, six-shooter.

Monday, Tiger walked into the saloon, took out everyone but the bartender and left with the gold. It was devastating, like the climactic scene in “Unforgiven.” Those who were still standing were too scared to shoot straight.

Woods came from seven strokes behind to ambush the field.

There was no V for Vijay Singh, not a chance for Notah Begay III, and Matt Gogel became Matt Gag-el.

Gogel was the guy who coughed up the lead, with four bogeys on the back nine. Ordinarily, his colossal choke would be top news. Everyone loves a disaster. Honestly now, whose name is easier to recall--the guy who blew the British Open so spectacularly last year (Jean Van de Velde) or the guy who won it (Paul Lawrie)?

But in this case, the story of the day was Tiger. It’s always Tiger. Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.

Because it almost doesn’t matter what the other guys do. Ernie Els hit some phenomenal shots at the Mercedes Championships in Hawaii. Woods beat him. Monday, when Gogel opened up the door, Woods strolled on through, spurs a-jinglin’.

It wouldn’t have happened if Gogel hadn’t choked, you say? When Gogel dropped to 17 under par, the championship was his to lose. Once he gave it back, that meant it was anyone else’s to win. Why is it only Woods took advantage of it?

Singh and Begay, Mark Brooks and even Jimmy Green were in better position than Woods and they couldn’t get it done.

So here’s the quick summary of Woods’ year to date: two weeks of work, two winner’s checks worth more than $1.2 million.

Can anyone beat this guy?

You half expect him to walk into the locker room at the start of the week and repeat Larry Bird’s famous line before the 1988 three-point shootout: “Which one of y’all’s playing for second?”

A commonly used statistic about Woods is that he has won his last 14 events worldwide whenever he held or shared the lead after 54 holes. But don’t count him out even when he appears to be out of it. You should know that by now. Gogel sure does.

“I was amazed,” Gogel said. “I will not ever be amazed anymore.”

After Sunday’s round, Woods was strangely relaxed for a man who hadn’t played that well and was five strokes off the lead. He’d missed a lot of mid-range putts Sunday, the eight to 15 footers.

And yet he thought he could still walk away with the trophy Monday. Right attitude. It turned out the only thing he got wrong was the method.

Woods thought he needed a quick start to jump back into the chase and put pressure on the leaders. Gogel was the one with the quick start. He birdied his first three holes and five of the first seven. It took Woods 12 holes to get four birdies.

He needed to make up seven shots on the final seven holes and he still wasn’t fazed.

“He’s tremendously confident in his own ability,” said Butch Harmon, Woods’ swing coach. “He knows he’s playing the best he’s ever played in his life, and that if he got a few breaks and he could put a little pressure on Gogel, then he might have a chance.

“He’s just a remarkable player. He never quits, he never gives up. He knows at any point in time he can go on a run of birdies, and he believes it.”

Woods said, “At the 12th tee, I was standing at 11 under and I figured if I could somehow get to 14 or 15 [under], I might give myself a chance.”

Then he came up with an eagle on 15, dropping a wedge shot onto the green from 97 yards out and watching it roll into the cup. He birdied 16, just missed chipping in for a birdie on 17 and came to 18 with a chance to take the lead with a birdie.

It’s not just the competitive fire burning in Woods that makes him great, it’s the ability to encase it all in ice. There are stories of Joe Montana’s coolness in the huddle during game-winning drives that sound a lot like Tiger’s composure on the back nine when it’s winning time.

After hitting his tee shot about 300 yards on the 543-yard, par-five final hole, he stood and gazed at the Pacific Ocean lapping at the left side of picturesque hole while waiting to take his second shot. Just watching the bay, like Otis Redding.

“You look around and you enjoy the beauty of it,” Woods said.

Anyone can do that. Not everybody can then take a two-iron and whack the ball to within 10 feet of the green, dropping it into a little strip of grass the width of a driveway between two bunkers. Some layup.

From there it was an easy little pitch to within three feet of the hole for the go-ahead birdie.

Then he went to the interview room to watch Gogel on TV. Gogel had a chance to force a playoff after positioning himself with a makable birdie putt. But he missed it.

He was then so rattled that he missed his next putt too. That was no small mistake. Instead of sole possession of second place and a check worth $432,000, he tied Singh and made $352,000.

Woods zipped back down to the 18th hole to get his winner’s check for $720,000.

If you like sports, money couldn’t buy the feeling generated by this latest example of a superstar playing at his best.

After some of the distracting, round-slowing antics of the celebrities during the weekend, it was good to get back to real competition. Not a yo-yo in sight.

There were a field, a golf course and Tiger Woods. That’s all the entertainment you need.

Just call it “A Fistful of Birdies.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com