He’d Be OK if He Hadn’t Eaten That Last Course

Bulletin: Tiger Woods is human after all.

That may come as a surprise to those who see him methodically devour golf courses and opponents, appearing impervious to the pressure of not only competing against the best around today, but also the best who ever swung a club.

But Woods told Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times, you should have seen him after winning the Masters last year, his fourth straight victory in a major.

“I wore myself out that week,” Woods said. “I got really sick and I was in bed for three days after the tournament and had a 104 temperature. I put so much into that event, trying to block everything out, that it finally caught up to me. My body broke down.”

Said his coach, Butch Harmon: “The winning of four majors in a row, the leading up to it, the preparing for it, what you saw the rest of the year was a kind of emotional letdown.”

He wouldn’t drive drunk: “What was it?” wrote Nick Canepa in the San Diego Union Tribune about this year’s Masters. “The immense presence of Woods being tied for the lead after the third round? The pressure of trying to catch him? The pimento cheese sandwiches they favor here? What?

“All I know is that the back nine of Augusta National [Sunday] was like a drunk tank. Tiger was the only one sober. The designated driver.”

Trivia time: Woods once shot a 48 for nine holes. What was so great about that?

A sure thing: Texas Ranger outfielder Juan Gonzalez, out because of a torn muscle in his right hand, was put on the disabled list April 11--for the eighth time in his career. “Damn,” wrote Tim Keown of ESPN.com, “I had April 16 in the office pool.”

Shaky start: Making his Masters debut at 22 wasn’t easy for Charles Howell III.

In describing his first day in the tournament to the Boston Globe, Howell said, “I was really nervous. My calves were shaking, and how in the heck you get calves to shake is beyond me.”

Trivia answer: Woods was 3 years old at the time.

Czech it out: This time of year in the NHL, motivation is a given.

But with Roman Cechmanek being named starting goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers as they open the playoffs against the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday, his fellow Flyers have come up with a unique carrot to dangle in front of Cechmanek’s masked face.

“We just keep telling him he could be the first Czech goalie to win a [Stanley] Cup,” forward Mark Recchi said. “They can say whatever they want, that’s the one thing that [Dominik] Hasek doesn’t have yet.”

Cechmanek was Hasek’s backup on the Czech Republic’s 1998 gold medal-winning Olympic team.

And finally: The New York Daily News reports, “The New York Mets, whose team payroll is more than $100 million a year, are firing two dozen ladies’ room attendants [at Shea Stadium] who earn $12.50 an hour.”

Said attendant Karen Susech: “I love that job. I have customers I get Christmas cards from.”

Fellow worker Adrienne Atkinson pointed out some of the conveniences fans will be missing.

“We keep up the bathroom--make sure that there’s no floods,” she said. “And we make sure no men go in there.”