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TIMES ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Charles Anderson stood on his toes, craned his neck and got a perfect view of the back of the head of the guy standing in front of him.

Anderson was wedged among thousands of others along the 13th hole at Torrey Pines on Sunday, all of them trying to get a glimpse of history. He was standing about four rows behind the ropes as Tiger Woods marched toward his tee shot in the middle of the fairway.

Woods was making a charge at leader Phil Mickelson in the Buick Invitational; he would birdie that par-five hole to pull into a tie with the third-round leader, having overcome a seven-shot deficit. Woods appeared on his way to another miraculous comeback victory, as he had done the previous week at Pebble Beach, and his seventh consecutive victory.

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This was just what Anderson, a physician from Buffalo, N.Y., had traveled to California to see. Only now, he was seeing a lot more of the fans in front and to the side of him than of the 24-year-old who has become the best golfer in the world and the PGA Tour’s all-time leading money winner.

Had he stayed home, Anderson could have watched more of Woods in one 15-minute segment on CBS than he was going to see in a full day here. But that missed the point. For Anderson, and thousands like him, catching even a glance of Tiger Woods in person is better than a weekend of coverage on TV. Even if it means a 3,000-mile trip.

“Oh, yes,” Anderson said. “Just an occasional glimpse; it’s definitely worth it.”

The scene on the 13th hole at Torrey Pines is repeated on almost every hole each time Tiger Woods tees it up these days. He has become not only golf’s leading attraction, but probably sport’s No. 1 icon. Michael Jordan is gone and it seems that Woods, who will try to begin a new streak this week at the Nissan Open at Riviera Country Club, is assuming that role.

“Every time Tiger plays, TV ratings are higher, on-site attendance is higher,” said Bob Combs, vice president with the PGA Tour.

Ratings for this year’s Mercedes Championships final, for example, Woods’ fifth consecutive victory, were 43% higher than those of a year ago and set a record for golf programming on ESPN.

“Tiger is making golf a cool sport,” Combs said. “We’re getting young athletes now who are playing golf, not just basketball or football. He’s improving the reach of the game and bringing in new players and new fans.”

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At Torrey Pines, attendance for the week was up from a year ago by about 10,000, to 160,000. Organizers at Riviera this week, though specific numbers aren’t available yet, also expect an increase from last year’s weekly attendance of about 150,000.

“By the volume of calls about tickets, I can definitely tell you he gives us a boost,” said Matt Stepnes, marketing director of the Nissan Open.

According to the National Golf Foundation, there are 26.4 million golfers in the U.S., more than at any time. And 2.4 million of those are minorities--882,000 African American, a 30% increase from when Woods turned professional in 1996. Although the percentage has tailed off, junior golfers increased by 34% in 1997 alone.

His following is virtually as multidimensional as society. He draws golfers who understand the difficulty of what he is doing and new fans who don’t know a sand wedge from a sand crab; young men with pierced ears and baggy cargo pants alongside financial analysts who iron their boxer shorts, followers who celebrate his ethnicity and those who don’t even consider it.

By the time Woods began play Sunday morning at Torrey Pines, the first hole had been encircled from tee to green. It was like a movable stadium of 75% obstructed-view seats filled to capacity. A teeming amoeba that swallowed Woods from the start of the round to the finish, growing hole by hole. Some viewers staked out their spots on that hole and elsewhere not long after dawn.

“We’ve been here more than two hours,” said Karen Bishop of Escondido, standing with her husband, Cal, along the second fairway. Neither plays golf; neither had previously been to a golf tournament, but they planted themselves in rain-soaked rough for a chance to see him.

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“To me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, like seeing Jordan,” Cal Bishop said. “I can always say I saw Tiger Woods play.”

The Buick Invitational drew an estimated 45,000 fans Sunday, and Woods’ gallery was the largest, even though Mickelson, a San Diego native, was leading after the third round. Woods’ influence was everywhere, from the two young boys sitting behind the first tee with orange dye in their hair and black tiger stripes on their faces, to the heart-adorned Tiger banner hanging from one of the balconies adjacent to the course, to the fan who followed Woods from deep in the crowd using a periscope with a stuffed tiger on top.

Woods’ following is eclectic, youthful and exuberant. It even surprises him occasionally.

“The loudness is the biggest thing,” he said Sunday of the changes in his gallery since the beginning of his streak. “They’re very loud.”

And loyal.

“I was surprised [for a practice round] at 6:42 Wednesday morning, there were a few hundred people out here following me. I know I wouldn’t get up that early to watch me play.”

Jordan and Woods. The names of the two friends crop up together more and more these days. Jordan packed the United Center and virtually every arena he played in, because people wanted to be able to say they saw Michael Jordan play . . . even though from the $15 seats they could barely distinguish Jordan from Manute Bol. But it wasn’t really seeing Jordan that was important; it was feeling him.

The same is true with Woods. Those who scampered around Torrey Pines for a few Tiger sightings on Sunday will hold on to that as much as the shots they saw on CBS of his victory the week before at Pebble Beach. Being there gives the fan a chance, in some small way, to be a part of history.

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“I want to witness greatness,” said Rudolph Willis, a physician from Irvington, N.J., who had come to Torrey Pines with his friend, Anderson. “I want to experience the phenomenon. It’s something I can’t really explain right now, but I know it’s important, it’s exciting.”

Like Willis, Anderson is African American and considers Woods’ mixed heritage--including Asian, African American and Native American--a vital part of his attraction.

“He lifts our spirits,” Anderson said. “He is showing you can accomplish whatever you will. He’s inspiring. For us, his ethnicity is very important. For some others, it’s his golf.”

The golf is what brought out Terry Anderson, a 27-year-old African American from Greenville, N.C.

“I enjoy dominance,” said Anderson, no relation to the Buffalo physician. “Being from North Carolina, I’m accustomed to it, with Jordan, Duke basketball.

“Maybe a year and a half ago, I didn’t really know anything about golf, but Tiger has changed the level of the game. He has dominated, and I respect that.

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“His ethnicity is important; it’s a sense of pride, but I can tell you that if John Daly dominated the way Tiger does, I’d be a big John Daly fan.”

Most agree that no individual since Arnold Palmer has given golf the boost Woods has.

In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Palmer’s slashing, teetering-on-the-edge-of-disaster style had mass appeal.

“Arnold wore his feelings out there for everyone to see,” said the PGA Tour’s Combs. “There was an emotional attachment. You could relate to his ups and downs on the course. . . .

“Like Arnold, Tiger is opening the game up to new fans and new participants. And he continues to get more comfortable with himself and the promise of his game. He’s handling demands on his time unlike you or I will ever realize.”

That was evident on the 14th hole Sunday. Woods, who had pulled even with Mickelson on 13, three-putted and fell behind again. He responded not by flinging down his putter or cursing, as he might have earlier in his career, but by walking off the green smiling and shaking his head. It’s that kind of behavior that is not only bringing out fans to see the phenomenon, but to see the man as well.

“I don’t even play golf, but I know who Tiger Woods is,” said Mary Hernandez of Chula Vista, at Torrey Pines only because Woods was there. “He’s become so personable, so enjoyable to watch. I feel like I know him.”

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NISSAN OPEN

WHEN: Thursday-Sunday

WHERE: Pacific Palisades

COURSE: Riviera Country Club,

Par 71, 6,987 yards

PURSE: $3.1 million

TV: Thursday-Friday

USA, 1-3 p.m.

Saturday

Ch. 2, 1-3 p.m.

Sunday

Ch. 2, 1-3:30 p.m.

TICKETS: (213) 480-3232

(800) 752-OPEN

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