He Tries to Fill In a Blank

If he was in another profession, say, teaching, it would be called a gap in his resume. It’s a hole in his pocket, a bridge he hasn’t crossed, or you may simply have to say that Riviera Country Club is Tiger Woods’ missing links, for what else can the Nissan Open be called when he has played it more often than any other tournament without winning it a single time?

Granted, the number of tournaments Woods has played more than once without winning is a limited field. But the Nissan Open, where Tiger is 0 for 7, is alone at the top. He’s also 0 for 3 at the Phoenix Open, the Match Play, the Buick Classic, Doral and The International.

Of course, he has won virtually everything else, 35 tournaments in all, including last week when he dragged his surgically repaired left knee around Torrey Pines, shot 16 under par in his first tournament of the year and won by four shots.

According to the statistics, Tiger is batting an even .000 in this tournament in what is basically his hometown.

How does this make Tiger feel? Well, don’t expect him to go overboard on the reaction side because he always feels as if he should win, no matter the venue.

“I think it’s always a goal to win a tournament you haven’t won before,” he said.

How’s that for steamy rhetoric? It must be pointed out that Woods was an amateur his first two trips to Riviera and, besides that, he was 16 in his debut in 1992, so it’s not entirely fair.

But if golf was supposed to be fair, there would be no rough, the holes would be bigger and instead of hiding golf balls, bunkers would spit them onto the green.

When the Nissan Open begins today at Riviera, Woods has a chance to make an excellent mid-course correction in his memorable journey to the Hall of Fame. He can win Riviera.

Not that he hasn’t been thinking about it.

“You know, it’s something I have always wanted to do,” he said. “I have been coming here ever since I was a little kid and watching the tournament and now I get a chance to participate in playing it.

“I have come close to winning this tournament a couple times, but, hopefully, I can get it done this week.

“You know, it’s just about getting the right break at the right time and playing good. That helps.”

Woods was 16 when he received a sponsor’s invitation to play his first pro tournament at Riviera. In the 1992 Nissan L.A. Open, Fred Couples beat Davis Love III in a playoff and teen Tiger missed the cut.

It has been more of the same since, although Woods came close twice. In 1998, when the tournament was shifted to Valencia Country Club because the U.S. Senior Open was to be held at Riviera that year, Woods shot a 66 on the last day to catch Billy Mayfair, then lost on the first playoff hole.

A year later and back at Riviera, Woods tied with Ted Tryba and Love for second place, two shots behind Ernie Els.

Woods was one under in the last round and Els was three under. Woods’ only mistake was a bogey at the par-four 13th -- his only bogey on the back nine all week.

To be sure, tournament sponsor Nissan wouldn’t mind a different scenario this time. John Gill, head of Nissan’s special events, played a round of golf with 16-year-old Tiger and Tiger’s father, Earl, at Pelican Hill and offered the invitation to play.

“He wants his name on the trophy,” Gill said. “ We’d love him to have it there. That’s good for golf.”

Certainly it would be good for Nissan. Meanwhile, the rest of the 144-player field isn’t going to back off. It is one of the tournament’s strongest fields and includes 41 of the top 50 ranked players and 11 of the top 15, missing only Els, Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen and Padraig Harrington.

Vijay Singh, Mike Weir and Love, each of them tournament winners in the early going, will try to make it two this week. A strong field of international players, on hand for next week’s Match Play Championship at La Costa, will place themselves in Woods’ path as well.

For Woods, this week may prove an equal test of how his knee responds to a second consecutive week of tournament competition and whether it’s sound reasoning to play four weeks in succession. That’s the plan now, with La Costa and then a European Tour event at Dubai to follow.

Woods says his commitment to the Dubai tournament is still up in the air because of the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. and Iraq.

Only two facts remain certain. One, Woods won’t play at Doral even if he doesn’t fly to Dubai, and, two, he’s showing up at Riviera to win. He worked on his game at Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday and said he’s comfortable with his swing as well as his putting stroke.

Now, about that resume ...