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5:15PM

Tiger: Usual words, usual score

By Art Spander

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — It’s a strange game, golf, a bizarre game, and at the same time an enthralling game, different from the rest. Get a touchdown ahead in football or two runs in front in baseball, and the other team needs to match that for a tie.

But not in golf.

In golf, you can go from a three-stroke deficit into the lead before you get to the first tee.

In golf, they have these evil things called bogies — or worse, double-bogies — that destroy all that a player has worked for without anybody else in the field taking a single swipe at a ball.

So when Tiger Woods after round one of the 95th PGA Championship on Monday said, “I’m only six back,” when he finished early, the comment was both wishful thinking and perhaps less absurd than it appeared.

Not that Woods was thrilled after double-bogeying his final hole, the ninth, and coming in with a 1-over-par 71 at Oak Hill Country Club.

Not that falling behind more than a third of the field has to make us believe — even if he believes — Tiger this weekend has a chance to get that 15th major.

Every swing in golf swing can be an adventure. Or a disaster. On the fourth tee, Phil Mickelson hit one over the fence, which was more than the San Francisco Giants had been able to accomplish in two weeks at AT&T Park until Brandon Belt homered Thursday.

Phil was stuck with a double-bogey seven on the hole. Take two steps backwards. Then he made some birdies. Move on up.

Mickelson at least won the British Open a couple of weeks back. Tiger hasn’t won a major in five years. His start doesn’t make it appear that streak will end this week.

The rains hit the Rochester area Thursday afternoon, suspending play for a while. After resumption, Mickelson, with another double, on 18, would end at 71, the same as Tiger.

Adam Scott, the Masters champ and playing with Phil, came in at 5-under 65, to tie Jim Furyk, meaning Woods trailed not only one man by those six strokes but two.

“I’m still right there,” said Woods, repeating what he told us at the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. Alas, when each tournament concluded, he wasn’t there. At least where he wanted to be, in first place.

“We have a long way to go,” was one of his observations Thursday. So does Tiger Woods.

That last hole, the ninth since he started at the 10th, represented all that’s been wrong for Tiger in the majors. A two-shot differential, in a negative direction.

A par would have brought him in at 1-under. However, his second shot was into the rough, his third into a bunker, his fourth onto the green. Two putts, and he had a six.

“I was completely blocked out and tried to shape one over there,” said Woods, “and I drew no lie at all from my third shot. I was just trying to play 20 feet long and putt back and try to just get bogey. I didn’t even get over the bunker. Hit a beautiful putt. Just lipped out.”

Just lipped out. A week ago, at the Bridgestone, Woods shot 61 in the second round, then went on to win the tournament. He was ready. Or so he said. Or so we thought. Now, we don’t know what to think, except at age 37, Tiger may have lost the battle to time.

Tiger always has been private. It’s his right. He’s never been one to say more than required, and sometimes not even that much. But it would be gratifying to hear him expand on what’s really deep in his heart.

Woods will concede he’s lost yards off the tee. He won’t concede he’s not the golfer of 2000 or 2008. We know he isn’t.

What he needed on Day One of the last major of 2013 was an impressive round, say 4-under-par, a jolt to the others, a warning that Woods can still bring it, if not quite in the manner of a few years ago. He needed to show us that he can play in a major as he did last week in a tournament that, while important, is not a major.

“I played really well today,” said Woods. “As I said, just a couple — you know , one loose 9-iron in there . . .”

If-a, could-a, might-a, often that’s a golfer’s mantra when reviewing a round that he wanted to be better. This one, in actuality, could have been worse. Woods one-putted seven of the first nine holes, one of those a 10-footer for a par at the 10th, his first hole.

“This round realistically could have been under par easily.”

But realistically it wasn’t.

7:04PM

Tiger ‘just hasn’t won’ that 15th major

By Art Spander

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — This is about as far from the A-Rod situation, geographically and emotionally, as is possible without leaving New York State and the New York state of mind.
   
This is a town on the shores of Lake Ontario, a suburb of Rochester, the summer training site of the Buffalo Bills and the newest proving ground for Tiger Woods.
   
This is a place where after someone asks Woods if he finally can win that 15th major — the 95th PGA Championship starts Thursday at difficult Oak Hill Country Club — someone else asks if the local fans are supportive.
   
“It’s a great golfing town,” offers Woods, ever diplomatic. “Well, I don’t think you have to yell every time the ball gets airborne.”
    
Woods, in effect, is the one who’s airborne. He comes in after a smashing win, his fifth of the year, in the Bridgestone, which ended Sunday.
   
He also comes in with the same nagging question: What’s wrong with his play in the last round or two in the majors?
  
Tiger and Phil Mickelson, delightfully, are first and second in the World Golf Rankings, and how many years have we waited for that? Dodgers against the Giants, Bears vs. the Packers. Rivalries.   
  
True, it isn’t really Tiger against Phil, but their positions will do. Now, we find out what Tiger and Phil can do.
   
Mickelson, of course, two and a half weeks ago won a British Open, something both he and the critics doubted ever would be the case.
  
Now the doubts are about Woods, who although finishing first in 14 major championships hasn’t finished better than second in any of the last 17 he’s entered — and none since the 2008 U.S. Open.
  
Woods, Mickelson, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, the Dallas Cowboys, and others of their continued success, inevitably confront a problem of their own creation: Nothing matters except the biggest ones, the majors, the Grand Slams, the Super Bowl.
    
They know it. We know it.
    
A win at Doral? At the Italian Open? In the NFL division playoffs?  Eminently forgettable.
   
Tiger once was asked about his mediocre Ryder Cup record. “What’s Nicklaus’ record?” was his answer. When no one knew, he went on, “What’s Nicklaus’ record in the majors?”
   
A chorus of voices all but shouted “18 wins.” Woods gleefully added, “See what I mean.”
  
We do, we do. We’ve also seen Woods go five years plus without that meaningful victory.
   
“I think that having Tiger win last week is great,” Mickelson said slyly, “because I can’t remember the last time somebody won the week before a major and then went on and won.”
   
It was way back in July, when Phil took the Scottish Open and followed eight days later taking the Open Championship. But you knew that. So did Phil. So did Tiger.
  
“Obviously I feel pretty good about winning by seven (at Bridgestone) and coming here,” said Woods. “I feel like my game’s pretty good. That’s how I played at the British Open. The only difference is I made more putts last week.”
   
Mickelson made the putts in the Open. Winners always putt well. And invariably drive well. If you can’t get off the tee and can’t get the ball in the cup, you can’t compete.
  
“He’s playing solid,” Mickelson said about Woods, “and he played great last week. I think it’s great for the game to have him playing so well.”
   
The word “great” was used to a maximum, but would it apply to Woods’ year if he did not win a major, meaning this PGA since it’s the last major until the 2014 Masters?
  
“I think winning one major automatically means you had a great year,” insisted Tiger. “Even if you miss the cut in every tournament you play in. You win one, you’re part of history. This year for me, I think, has been a great year, winning five times.”
   
But in the Masters he couldn’t recover from that ricochet into a pond the second round. In the U.S. Open, he finished with his highest cumulative 72-hole score in a major. In the Open Championship, he closed with a 74 to drop from second to a tie for sixth.
   
“The frustrating part,” said Tiger, “is I’ve been right there and didn’t win two of the tournaments when I was there . . .  The Masters I didn’t get it done. Same thing at the (British) Open.”
   
So this 15th major, this elusive 15th, is proving tougher than any?
    
“It kind of seems that way,” Woods conceded. “It’s been probably the longest spell that I’ve had since I hadn’t won a major. I’ve had my opportunities there on the back nine. And I just haven’t won it.”

4:08PM

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods upbeat as British Open looms

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

GULLANE, Scotland — On a morning of sunshine, Tiger Woods spoke of gloom, about the last British Open at Muirfield when rain lashed, the thermometer plummeted and he shot his single worst round as a professional, a 10-over-par 81.

The Open Championship again is at Muirfield. So is Woods, who on Tuesday was besieged by questions about that tough third day in 2002 and about the five-year gap since his last victory in a major.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

6:43AM

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods ties for 32nd with his worst Open score

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ARDMORE, Pa. — Tom Watson said that for most golfers, the opportunity to win a major championship doesn't last very long.

"With exceptions such as Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player,'' Watson said, "the window is a small one — five, six, seven years.''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.

8:45AM

Newsday (N.Y.): Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy both have third-round meltdowns

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

ARDMORE, Pa. — The players first and second in the world golf rankings went at each other at Merion Golf Club Saturday in the third round of the U.S. Open. Is it too strong to say both lost? Certainly neither felt like a winner.

Rory McIlroy, No. 2 in the world, shot 5-over-par 75. The man ahead of him in the rankings, if not the Open standings, did even worse. World No. 1 Tiger Woods finished with a 76.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved.