Tiger Is Down, but Never Out

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 11, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LA JOLLA —

Tiger Woods is tired. Tiger Woods is not comfortable with his swing. Tiger Woods is tied for 43rd after one round of the Buick Invitational. Tiger Woods is out of it?

Uh, not in the minds of those who have been paying close attention to the last six PGA Tour events Woods has played, basically because he has won them all. And not even after Woods opened with a one-under 71 Thursday at the Torrey Pines North Course, leaving him six shots behind leader Davis Love III.

Six shots? Bad or what?

“That’s fine,” Woods said. “There’s a lot of holes to be played. I proved that last year.”

There are 54 hole left, to be exact. And what Woods proved here a year ago is that he is capable of barely making the cut, then playing the two rounds over the weekend in 62-65 and winning the tournament by two shots.

If he is going to do it again, Woods must try to fix a couple of problem areas in his game, namely his swing and his putting. Good thing there is nothing wrong with the way Woods sticks his tee in the ground or he could just about hang it up.

“I didn’t hit it well, I didn’t putt very well, it was one of those days I just didn’t have it,” Woods said.

Woods missed six greens and seven of 14 fairways. His speed was off in his putting, Woods said, but not the line he was reading. As for his swing, well. . . .

“I know what I’m doing wrong with my putting,” Woods said. “My swing, I don’t know.”

He has little time to figure it out. Right now, Woods and everyone else is chasing Love, whose seven-under 65 leads Phil Mickelson by one shot and J.L. Lewis, Scott Verplank and J.P. Hayes by two.

Mickelson won twice in 1998, but was shut out in 1999 for the first time since his first year on the PGA Tour in 1992. The San Diego native turned in a six-birdie round with no bogeys and put himself in contention in the tournament that he won in 1993.

It is becoming commonplace for players to keep track of what Woods is doing, no matter how great or small, perhaps because they have become conditioned to it by now. You can’t blame them, either, if you go by recent results. Mickelson is no exception.

“Obviously Tiger’s play is forcing everybody to play at a whole other level if we expect to compete with him,” Mickelson said. “With him winning the last six tournaments, nobody has really done it yet. So this week, I think that guys like Fred Couples, Davis Love, myself, are really trying to play at a different level and hopefully have a different winner.”

And how do you play at a different level?

“Shoot a lower score,” Mickelson said.

Oh, yeah, that. There were 66 players who shot par or better on a mostly gray, semi-chilly day on the Torrey Pines North and South courses, with the South Course judged somewhat tougher because it’s a little longer at 7,055 yards.

If the South is more difficult, it didn’t seem to bother Love, even though he bogeyed two of the first three holes. But Love pulled himself together and was three under at the turn, feeling a lot more comfortable with the swing changes he made recently.

Love said his play has been sort of erratic, some of it due to problems with his back, but also because of a lack of confidence in his swing.

“I’d hit a lot of good shots and then throw a goofy one in there,” he said.

Love, also winless in 1999 despite earning $2.4 million, also made a change in his equipment, switching the shafts of his irons from graphite to steel to enable him to spin the ball differently.

He also would like to make a change in who is winning tournaments these days and do something about that Woods character.

“I don’t think he is going to win every one of them the rest of his career,” Love said. “I’m fairly confident that he won’t.

“I think he is improving now. Confidence is the X factor. His swing is not going away, and his putting stroke is great. But confidence is what wins. And if he is not confident, you know, he is not any better than David Duval or anyone else.

“So if we can beat him a couple of times, the confidence goes away. He is the guy to beat as long as he doesn’t hurt himself . . . or lose interest.”

The way he felt after he signed his scorecard, Woods appeared to be someone who wanted to get lost, and in a hurry. He looked fatigued and said he felt like it.

Woods said he has been grinding hard lately, a circumstance complicated this week when he missed his usual day off. Woods had to play a rain-delayed final round on Monday at Pebble Beach, which amounted to victory No. 6 in his streak. After his round, Woods said he needed a little rest and didn’t even go to the range to hit balls.

Butch Harmon, Woods’ coach, said he spoke Thursday morning with Woods and that there were some concerns expressed.

“He said he wasn’t comfortable with his putting,” Harmon said. “It comes and it goes.”

Meanwhile, the best player in the world sounded sort of confused that he is having any problems at all.

“You would have thought as well as I’ve been playing I would have felt more comfortable,” Woods said.

You would have thought, all right. Check back later to see where the comfort level goes next.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

LEADERS

Par 72

Davis Love III 33-32--65 -7

Phil Mickelson 32-34--66 -6

J.L. Lewis 32-35--67 -5

Scott Verplank 36-31--67 -5