Could Be a Mall Classic

Tiger Woods laughed this week when someone asked if he planned to visit the nearby Mall of America, as though he was the kind of tourist who would double-park the Winnebago and run inside to Visitor’s Information to pick up brochures.

Any historical landmarks I should be aware of along Interstate 494?

Woods’ itinerary for every tournament is not very complicated.

“House, course, course, house,” Woods explained.

Woods is a shop-aholic only when it comes to collecting major golf championships, and it’s not a reach to think he will win his third major of the season this week at the 84th PGA Championship, which begins today at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Taking the field against Woods has been a losing proposition of late. He has won seven of the last 12 majors and, though only 26, he is already a two-time PGA champion, two more than Arnold Palmer won.

Woods’ quest for the Grand Slam ended in a downpour defeat at last month’s British Open, yet the march toward posterity continues.

The good news for the rest of the 156-player field is that Woods’ third-round British Open bobble--The Shots (81) Heard Round The World--means aspiring champions can believe that, in certain catastrophic conditions, an occasional major title might be wrested from Tiger’s clutch-hold.

Hazeltine National is another major-monster test at 7,360 yards, the kind of place likely to eliminate from contention anyone who can’t whack a tee shot 280 yards with a three-wood.

The par-five No. 3 hole stretches 636 yards--you might call it the “Hall of America”--and is a patch of prairie not even Woods can reach in two shots.

During a Tuesday practice round, dare we say it took Woods three shots (driver, three-iron, nine-iron) to find the green.

“I can’t get there, unless it’s downwind,” he said.

The hole that might decide the championship is the par-four, 402-yard 16th.

Players must carry the ball 220 yards over Hazeltine Lake to reach the fairway, and most will not dare use a driver because of the inherent risk.

“That’s a signature hole here at Hazeltine,” Woods said, “and I think it’s going to be the one that everyone is going to probably remember.”

Hazeltine National has come a long way since it hosted the 1970 U.S. Open. The course, only eight years old at the time, was roundly savaged by players as being ill-conceived and brutally difficult, golfer Dave Hill grumbling it had so many doglegs it “looked like it was laid out in a kennel.”

Hazeltine took it on the chin, bounced back to better reviews at the 1991 U.S. Open, and has generally been praised during practice rounds this week.

As the last man to trip up Tiger in a major, British Open champion Ernie Els has understandably been pushed, maybe like a man from a bunker into battle, to the fore in the never-ending search for a golfer who will consistently stand up to Woods.

Els isn’t so sure he wants to be the Da-man.

“I’m No. 3 in the World Rankings, so I guess Phil Mickelson [No. 2] is it at the moment,” Els joked. “Let’s see in a couple of years. I don’t even want to think about that. I just want to play as good as I can. If he’s there and I’m playing with him, good. If not, that’s also good. Even better.”

If Els is not the guy, then who is?

The PGA has, historically, been the major most likely to produce a breakthrough winner, a tournament where wannabes have taken home Wanamakers.

The late Payne Stewart won his first major at Kemper Lakes in 1989. Davis Love III broke the ice in 1997 at Winged Foot, Paul Azinger won his first major at Inverness in 1993, Vijay Singh his first in 1998 at Sahalee, and David Toms won the first major of his career last year at the Atlanta Athletic Club.

The John Daly legend, of course, was born at Crooked Stick in 1991, when he won the PGA as the ninth alternate.

If Woods doesn’t bring his “A” game this week, several Hungry Players Without Majors are ready to pounce:

* Mickelson. The world is waiting, Phil.

“I do feel as though my game is ready,” Mickelson said. “I feel as though I’m ready to come out on top, finally, in one of these tournaments.”

Mickelson is 0 for 41 in majors but has finished in the top three of three of the last four played. Mickelson was second to Toms at last year’s PGA, third at this year’s Masters and second behind Woods at the U.S. Open. Mickelson tied for 66th at the British Open, but links courses have never suited his high-loft game.

As for getting everyone to quit asking the “when” question, Mickelson says, “Well, there’s a very simple resolution of it. If I get tired of it, I know how to fix it, and I’m trying to resolve it.”

* Sergio Garcia. Garcia reminds everyone that he is four years younger than Woods and that his day will come. Won’t it?

Garcia, at 19, gave Woods a run up the fairway at the 1999 PGA at Medinah before losing by a stroke and seems to have conquered the “re-grip” problem that plagued him at this year’s U.S. Open. Garcia trimmed Woods’ lead to two shots on the final day at Bethpage but withered all the way to a fourth-place finish.

He was eighth at this year’s Masters and tied for eighth at the British.

* Padraig Harrington. The 30-year-old Irishman tied for fifth at the Masters, tied for eighth at the U.S. Open, tied for fifth at the British and is No. 8 in the World Golf Rankings.

“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Harrington joked this week.

Harrington understands that he has been slow to mature, and is glad he took up golf as a kid instead of gymnastics.

“Thankfully,” Harrington said of golf, “it’s a sport that you can still develop at 30 years of age.”

* Thomas Bjorn. The 31-year-old from Denmark tied for 18th at the Masters and was in the final-day hunt at this year’s British Open before finishing eighth.

“When I was going away from there, I really felt that I had let one slip away,” he said.

* Colin Montgomerie. Time is running out for the 39-year Scot, but Monty has played well at PGAs past, losing in a 1995 playoff to Steve Elkington at Riviera and tying for sixth only three years ago.