A Walk in the Clouds

They met in a narrow stairwell just outside the media room at Torrey Pines. Buick Invitational Tournament publicist Rick Schloss made the introduction.

“Tiger, this is Ron Won. He’s a freshman at Stanford.”

Woods, who had also played at Stanford, sized up the nervous 19-year-old with a head-to-toe glance.

“So,” Woods deadpanned. “I heard you broke my record.”

News really does travel. Last spring, Won, then a senior at University High, shot 66 in the CIF-SCGA high school championships to break the record of 67 set by Woods in 1991.

“I didn’t really know what to say,” Won said. “I was like, ‘Yeah,’ and I just kind of grinned, I guess.”

Woods smiled, too, and invited Won to join him for lunch. They ate chicken and talked about golf with golfer Mark O’Meara and Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent.

Won, The Times’ Orange County high school golfer of the year in 1999, has long dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour. He just didn’t expect the dream to start by meeting the best player in the world.

Nor did he expect it to come true so fast.

He qualified for and played in the Buick Invitational last week at Torrey Pines.

As he made his practice swings on the first tee Thursday morning, it became clear this wasn’t junior golf anymore.

“My heart was pumping pretty fast,” Won said. “I just didn’t want to top it.”

He didn’t. He pulled it into the left rough, advanced it barely 50 yards on his next shot, then failed to get up and down.

One PGA Tour hole played, one over par.

His parents were in his gallery. Yoon Won, his mother, kept score, tracked the fairways and greens and counted the putts as she always has when watching Ron play.

His private instructor, Mike Cotton, carried his bag. Cotton frequents Won’s tournaments, so from that standpoint, everything was normal.

Inside the ropes, however, things unfolded a little differently.

Won began to notice the little nuances that separate a PGA Tour event from everything else he had played. The rough was a little thicker. The tees were a little farther back. There were so many people watching.

“It surprised me because I’ve played this course so many times, but I could never imagine the rough being this long or the greens being in this good of shape or the fairways being this narrow,” Won said. “It was such a big huge difference. It was really nothing like I’ve played.”

Not surprisingly, Won struggled with his nerves. He missed fairways, missed greens, missed putts--and missed the cut. He shot 76-77.

“He only hit five fairways,” said Yoon Won, looking at her scorecard and shaking her head after the first round. “Usually he only misses five. He is usually such a good ball striker. It must be pressure.”

Considering the circumstances, it was a respectable debut. Won played a handful of brilliant shots, drawing rousing applause for sinking a 55-foot birdie putt in the first round.

He kept his score over par in single digits (+9) and he did not finish last.

Three-time PGA Tour winner Gary Hallberg finished behind Won, as did another pro, Phil Tataurangi, and amateur Russ Bloom.

“I couldn’t really expect too much out of it because it’s a pro tournament,” Won said. “It’s not like I was playing with my peers.”

Struggling when making the jump to the next level is nothing new for Won, who started playing at 10. He did not find immediate success when making the move from recreational golf to local competition.

After a few years, he became a top local player and moved to the national level. He missed his share of cuts in American Junior Golf Assn. tournaments before becoming a fixture on that circuit.

After a slow start in college, Won is just now beginning to find his groove and is ranked No. 82 in the nation by Golfweek.

Wisely, Won entered the Buick with no expectations. He simply wanted to take in the atmosphere, and learn.

Both of his playing partners, Buy.com Tour graduates Ryan Howison and Shaun Micheel, helped him along. They also played some pretty good golf, both making the cut.

“It was just a great experience,” Won said. “The guys I was playing with were very easy to get along with and they played great, so I got to watch some great golf as well.”

Micheel, who was tied for fourth after three rounds before fading to 41st with a final-round 79, said he and Howison made a point to help Won feel comfortable.

“Heck, everybody was wanting him to do well,” Micheel said. “I mean I’m walking in between the crowd and hearing, ‘Hey that’s that 18-year-old kid, let’s go follow him.’ So everybody, including myself, wanted him to do well.

“I remember when I was that age and played a tour event. The worst thing is to get playing with a couple of guys that don’t really want you there.”

Even when he was spraying tee shots all over the place, or hitting a four-iron so far right that he called it “the worst shot of my life,” Won kept his cool.

He started to put his game together on his first nine Friday. He bombed drives down the middle on his third, fourth and fifth holes. His string of par-birdie-par was his best three-hole stretch of the tournament, but his demeanor stayed calm.

Good thing, because on his eighth hole, he reached the green in regulation, sent his first putt past the hole and into the fringe, left his chip short and then two-putted for a double bogey.

“He handled himself very professionally,” Micheel said. “He had the opportunity where he could have gotten mad and frustrated a couple of times, but he did very well.”

Won said he felt pressure to play well at first, but when it became clear that he wouldn’t make the cut, he decided to try and savor the experience.

“There wasn’t a point where I was giving up, really,” Won said. “It was just a point where I decided I was trying too hard to bring it back, trying to get birdies too hard and it was just not working. I wasn’t swinging it and I wasn’t stroking it, so I just decided to enjoy the last moment that I have here.”

That last moment just so happened to draw a rousing ovation. Moments after Micheel got the crowd going by chipping in for eagle on the last hole, Won elicited a roar by draining a 20-foot putt for birdie.

And the dream to play full-time on the PGA Tour remained intact, though it’s unlikely to materialize any time soon.

“This taught me that I have a lot more practicing to do and a lot more experience to get,” Won said. “[Turning pro] is something I know that if it ever happens it’s going to happen way, way in the future.”