Tiger takes on historic Merion

By Art Spander

ARDMORE, Pa. — The site is a work of art in miniature. "Merion the Small," it could be named, a course trapped by geographical restrictions in a leafy suburb of Philadelphia. Yet through the years, it has been large in the history of American golf.
   
It was at Merion, the 1930 U.S. Amateur, where Bobby Jones completed the fourth and final leg of the Grand Slam. It was at Merion where Ben Hogan, a year removed from his awful auto accident, hit that splendid 1 iron to get into a playoff for the 1950 Open. It was at Merion where Lee Trevino tossed a rubber snake before a playoff in the 1971 Open, in which he would beat Jack Nicklaus.
  
That’s how we think of Merion. That’s how we think of golf. Who did what and when. And so the question to Tiger Woods on Tuesday, two days before the 2013 Open is to begin at Merion, was more logical than it seemed in a crowded press tent.
   
When Woods shows up at a special tournament, an Open, a Masters, a British Open, does he feel a responsibility to respond to the situation, to play as we expected him to play in a major, stepping forward into the figurative spotlight if not into the literal lead?
   
Those who have watched Tiger, who have listened to Tiger, could have predicted the response. If Woods is not always consistent in his golf — who is? — he is in his answers. They remain unchanging.
  
“I think,” he reminded, “I just enter events to win, and that’s it, whether there’s a lot of people following or nobody out there. It’s still the same. It’s still about winning the event . . . just to try to kick everyone’s butt.”
   
It’s Tiger’s derriere which has been kicked in major championships of late. Not since the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines has Woods been first in a major. Some good finishes, but not the finishes Woods, “all about winning,” has sought.
   
A shade under 7,000 yards in this era of 7,500-yard courses, Merion has been judged the perfect place for Woods to get that win — he rarely has to use the driver, the worst club in his bag — but also, because it negates his length, the most difficult course for Woods to get that win.
  
“I don’t have an exact feel for it yet,” said Woods, “what we’re going to have to do and what we’re doing to have to shoot.” His practice rounds have been played on a Merion soaked by relentless rain, a Merion whose fast greens have been slowed.
 
“We haven’t dealt with teeing it up in a tournament yet with it raining and drying out and mud balls appearing.”
  
He has dealt with the Sergio Garcia Affair, and the media forces him to continue doing so. Garcia was angry with Woods when they were paired together last month at The Players. A few days later, at function in London, Garcia attempted to crack wise about Tiger, saying he was inviting him to dinner and would serve fried chicken – a comment that could be considered racist.
  
Garcia apologized, and Monday, Garcia and Woods shook hands. Queried, Tiger explained, “We didn’t discuss anything. Just came up and said, ‘Hi,’ and that was that . . . He’s already (given an apology). We’ve already gone through it all. It’s time for the U.S. Open, and we tee it up in two days.”
  
When he spoke, a couple hours after Woods, Garcia confirmed an Associated Press story that he had left a handwritten note for Tiger.
  
“And hopefully,” Garcia said, “he can take a look at it. And it’s a big week, and I understand that it’s difficult to meet up and stuff. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it. If not, at least he has read the note, and he’s happy with that.”
  
What Tiger was unhappy with 10 days ago was his play at the Memorial, a tournament that Woods had won five times but this year ended up in a tie for 65th, making some wonder if that was proper preparation for the Open.
  
“I didn’t play well,” Woods conceded about the Memorial. “I didn’t putt well. I didn’t really do much that I was pleased about. But it was one of those weeks. It happens, and you move on from there.”
   
Move on to America’s national championship. Move on to Merion, where the bunkers are large and the crowd will be boisterous. After all, this is Philly, where during a holiday pageant at halftime of an Eagles game the fans began to boo the poor chap dressed as Santa Claus.
  
“This is our U.S. Open,” said Tiger, "and obviously there won’t be as many people as there were at Bethpage, I think it will be just as loud and just as electric. I’m sure we’ll hear them.”
  
They will. He will. Merion and its history are special. Tiger Woods and his history are special. The game is on.

Lincecum finally finds Momen-TIM

By Art Spander
 
SAN FRANCISCO — The sign is small but poignant, pasted on the door of the small cabinet where Tim Lincecum keeps items above his locker. It’s in two different colors for obvious emphasis, but here we’ll depict it in lower case and capitals, “momenTIM.”
  
That’s what he’s been searching for, trying to regain the style and domination that won two Cy Young Awards, that helped the Giants win two World Series — even if he was a reliever in the second one, 2012.
   
That’s what his ball club was hoping for, waiting for.
  
And on a Tuesday night at AT&T Park that may have been a breakthrough but at the least was the sort of performance he has produced in his best of times — the best of Tims, if you will — Lincecum woke up more than a few echoes as well as the 196th straight sellout crowd, 41,981.
  
After giving up a first-inning home run to dead center by Edwin Encarnacion that surely brought thoughts of “Here we go again,” Lincecum gave up only one more hit and no more runs, San Francisco defeating the Toronto Blue Jays, 2-1.
   
Lincecum had lost his last three starts, had, in order, been responsible for allowing six earned runs against the Rockies, then four earned runs against the Rockies, then last week five earned runs against the Athletics.
 
More than a hint had been offered about Lincecum taking his unpredictability — well, he was predictable for his failings — and his $20 million salary to the bullpen as, yikes, a middle-inning reliever.
  
He wasn’t thinking that way. Neither was Giants manager Bruce Bochy, publicly, although Bochy refused to confirm or deny that Lincecum would make what would be his next regular start, Sunday at Arizona. The way balls fly out of Chase Field in Phoenix, well, San Francisco probably would be better using Chad Gaudin.
   
Desperate times — and the Giants had dropped five of their previous seven — demand desperate measures. But after Tuesday night, with Lincecum retiring 14 in a row at one stretch, striking out six and walking only one, there is considerably less desperation around Willie Mays Plaza.
 
“We needed that,” Bochy said of Lincecum’s pitching. Did they ever. A team with a collective earned run average of 4.15 (after Tuesday night) and not much of an offense had to find something in which to believe. They think they’ve found it.
 
“That’s the Timmy we know,” contended Bochy. Well, the Timmy we knew back yonder, the Timmy who didn’t get crushed by a three- or four-running inning, the Timmy who got the ball over the plate.
 
“His pitches were crisper,” said Bochy, who as he addressed the media appeared more relaxed than before the game. “He had great stuff. This is something he can build. Even when he had bad games, he had good stuff. Last year he was out of rhythm. That hasn’t been the problem this year.”
  
Whatever the problem was or is, Lincecum, after the fine way he pitched, still had only a 4-5 record with a somewhat astronomical 4.75 ERA.  Of course, it was 5.12 before his brilliance against the Blue Jays.
  
“This should do a lot for his confidence,” said the manager. “This game, that’s more our style, good pitching and good defense. We got it done.”
  
Indeed. For a second straight game, the Giants — who, with more than 40 errors for the season, have been mishandling grounders and throws like the Bad News Bears — didn’t make a single error. Physical or mental.
   
Lincecum was pleased but not much more. One game doesn’t atone for what had preceded it, although as Bochy reminded this is the direction the pitcher and the ball club want to head.
 
“It feels good,” confided Lincecum, “but I’m not jumping up and down. (Wednesday) is another day for work.”
  
Since his last start, seven days earlier, Lincecum said he worked and worked, attempting to make certain his fastball, the key to his repertoire, found the edges of the plate, strikes that were virtually unhittable and not pitches that either were down the middle or wide.
  
“I worked my fastball to both sides of the plate,” said Lincecum. “That was the big thing. That opened things for my other pitches. I was hitting my spots more often, more consistently.”
  
What Andres Torres, the Giants left fielder, hit was a two-run home in the second that turned out to be all the runs San Francisco would score and would need. Torres also made a couple of excellent catches off deep balls in the fourth, one against the fence in the corner.
  
“Not easy plays to make,” said Lincecum. But plays that are made when good pitches are made and all the pieces fit together almost perfectly. “The rhythm was there, and I was mechanically sound. That makes just throwing the pitches the only factor.”
   
If the factor that matters most.