Woods Stays Home on Range

The best pro golfers in the world are playing a transition game, beginning this weekend.

Just follow the itinerary ... from Chicago to Sandwich, from Olympia Fields to Royal St. George’s, from soft and narrow fairways leading into soft greens to hard and narrow fairways leading into firm greens, from the U.S. Open to the British Open.

Everyone has his own way to prepare for the rigors of the Open Championship and it’s usually the same method each year. Mark O’Meara is playing in Ireland. So is Jim Furyk. John Daly, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson are playing the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.

It’s a dramatic change for Mickelson, who hasn’t played at Loch Lomond in three years, but he believes the best way to get ready for a links course such as Royal St. George’s is to play a U.S.-style course, designed by Tom Weiskopf, that features wide fairways and comfy greens.

Whatever. When you’re 0 for 39 in majors as a pro as Mickelson is, maybe a different spin is entirely in order.

Meanwhile, leave it to Tiger Woods to take his own, slightly altered approach.

Woods is normally along with O’Meara, practicing golf and perfecting fishing for a week in Ireland. The idea always has been to try for a low-key entry into the quirky nuances of the British Open, where it’s cool to be unpredictable.

It’s different this year for Woods. Instead of hanging out with O’Meara in Ireland, Woods is staying at home in Florida, where he is knocking golf balls to the wire fence of the driving range at Isleworth at his home near Orlando.

Woods has never seen Royal St. George’s (which last played host to the British Open in 1993) and Royal St. George’s has never seen him. One course that has seen enough of Woods is Cog Hill, where last week he won the Western Open for the third time.

You have to admit it was a nice tournament for Woods. He was 21 under par and tied the tournament record. He made his 108th consecutive cut, passing Jack Nicklaus, and leaving only Byron Nelson in front at 113.

He became the first player to win four or more times five years in a row. He averaged 303 yards off the tee.

Here’s another way to look at it. Even though he’s absorbed a Tiger’s share of flak for not winning enough, he’s only slightly behind his mind-bending 2000 season when he won nine times, three of them majors.

It’s true, Woods is without a major title this year, and hasn’t won a major since the 2002 U.S. Open, 13 months ago. But Woods does have four victories in 10 tournaments as he enters the British Open, only one short of his 2000 pace when he had won five of 13 tournaments by the same time of the year.

When a golf magazine runs the headline “Tiger Woods: Comeback Player of the Year,” it’s actually pretty funny. There is no longer any need to talk about a Tiger slump, as if there ever was.

In fact, at this time, Tiger is talking as though he’s right where he wants to be with his game.

When things don’t go well for Woods, you nearly always can dial in the first two comments he makes afterward. He didn’t hit it all that badly and he just couldn’t get any putts to drop. So when he torched Cog Hill, Woods laughed when asked if his putting saved him.

He said don’t forget, he hit it pretty good too.

“It’s not like I slapped it around out there,” he said.

Few have slapped it around as successfully as Woods. He doesn’t turn 28 until Dec. 30, but he has 38 PGA Tour victories, one behind Tom Watson and Gene Sarazen, tied for ninth on the all-time list.

And with the British Open straight ahead, he is again the favorite in a major championship. That’s fine with Woods, who has known no other position since he won his first major at the 1997 Masters.

Even the slump talk seems to roll off his back now, which is a healthy thing. At Cog Hill, Woods admitted he realizes the slump/no slump issue is something he is going to have to deal with his entire career. He says he has learned not to get trapped by someone else’s expectations or sign up for the regular roller-coaster ride chauffeured by the media.

Woods says his confidence level is up, at just the right time. That doesn’t mean he’s going to win at Royal St. George’s, but he figures to be a factor. Usually, that’s enough. The thinking is, if everyone has an equal chance, Woods’ is somehow greater than anyone else’s.

We’ll find out soon enough. Maybe it has been a pleasant week at home in Florida and he didn’t miss the fishing in Ireland all that much.

Anyway, Tiger has a chance to make up for anything he might have missed next week at Royal St. George’s, where once again he can reel in another big one.