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Tiger on the prowl

When Tiger roars, all the other golfers run for cover, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed writes from Princeton
Tiger on the prowl
TIGER Woods, the 24-year old phenom, roared on the fabled Pebble Beach Goll course staging the United States Open the week before last, and pretty much cleared the field of all competitors. After four days of brutal golf, only Tiger Woods remained standing: he had mauled the competition so badly that even-one else was licking their wounds. By lapping the field and beating the runners-up by 15 strokes. Tiger broke golfs oldest record — the margin of victory in a Major championship — that had stood since 1862. In 1862, golf had not yet been Introduced in America; America was sliding into the Civil War and President Lincoln was still alive.
There are four Major Championships that constitute Golfs Grand Slam — The Masters held In April. The United States Open held in June, the British Open in July and the Professional Golf Associations (PGA) Championship in August. The venue for the first three is the United States. Only the Masters is held on the same course every year, at Augusta National. Georgia. The US Open is the most punitive. With narrow fairways, deep rough, and greens not much bigger than a post card, the US Open is considered golfs final examination If even par score is considered pass grade, then as everyone else flunked. Tiger Woods, the automatic valedictorian, passed with record marks!
The above may seem excessive praise. It is not. Americans are not easily impressed. They were with Woods's astonishing performance For several days after the tournament concluded on June 18. America remained abuzz with Tiger talk The talk shows, evening news and the sports fans could not talk enough about Tiger s masterful performance. Anyone knowledgeable in golfs history' — and one has to go way back in his-tory — will appreciate the magnitude of Tiger s achievement. Here are some of the records he broke- Old Tom Morris's 1862 British Open margin of victory (13 strokes); largest margin of US Open victory (15) beating Willie Smith s 1899 record ol 11; largest 54-hole lead (10) beating James Barnes's 1921 tally of 7; largest 36-hole lead (61 beating Willie Smith s 1903 total of 5; lowest under oar score (121 beating 8 under by Lee Janzen (1993). Hale Irwin (1990), Jack Nicklaus (1980) and Ben Hogan (1948).
Tiger's 54-hole lead of 10-under par tied Henry Cotton s 1934 British Open lead for the largest such margin at any Major. Tiger lsq tiP^’MS^0/ Vl score in a U* Open (2/2) previously held by Lee Janzen (1993) and Jack Nicklaus (1980): at 70 par. Janzen and Nicklaus's courses were slightly easier than Woods's 71 par Tiger also tied the 36-hole score record at US open (134) with Jack Nicklaus (1980). T C. Chen (1985) and Lee Janzen (1993). The final record that Tiger tied was the lowest score at any point (12-under) in the US Open with Gil Morgan (third round. 1992). While Tiger maintained that score. Gil Morgan's golf collapsed in the fourth round: incredibly he finished over par! No sooner had Tiger finished his final round, he took a congratulatory phone call from the nation's number one golf en -thusiast. the First Golfer
President Clinton
The picturesque Pebble Beach Golf course is located around the Carmel Bay. about 100 miles south of San Fransisco. and 50 miles south of San Jose. Locals call the place heaven on earth. The writer has been fortunate enough to visit Carmel twice, once while actor Clint Eastwood was Its mayor (1986-88) (At this year s US Open. Clint Eastwood and his Hispanic wife were the official hosts) The locals are right The view of Carmel Bay is breath-takingly spectacular The reflection of the blue skies gives the bay's clear water a deep blue hue. With fresh breeze from the pacific refreshing one's body and spirit, tranquility prevails all around. As the golfing legend Jack Nicklaus said, If ne were allowed to play just one round of golf, he would want it to be at Pebble Beach.
J V Ibid AJeit 11 Mil tranquility lies treachery. As the sun shines approvingly on the golf course. Pacific winds can pick up. howling at 50 miles per hour. That s what makes the course so difficult. That's what makes Tiger Wood's accom -plishments so special.
Eldrlck Tiger Woods was horn in Cypress. California on December 20. 1975. (Earl Woods named his son "Tiger,' appropriately. after a Vietnamese friend of his.) As a youngster, Tiger played many rounds of golf at Pebble. He won three Junior US Opens, and as a student of nearby Stanford University, three I'S Amateur Championships (1994-96) He had become so good that in 1996 The New York Times chided
him for not turning professional. He did. in August. 1996. leaving Stanford one year early. Experts predicted that it would take Tiger Woods three years to win his first professional tournament. It took him two months!
Seven months into professional career, in April 1997. Tiger Woods stunned the golfing world by winning the Masters by a record 12 strokes. Like the US open in June, he took care of most of the important records at the Masters in 1997. The critics were not convinced. “Tiger Woods can only hit the ball long. He does not have a short game or good putting game. He will never win the US Open." they said. For a while it appeared as though the critics were right. Although Tiger won four times in 1997. he won only once in 1998 at a minor tournament. It was then that Tiger started working on improving 4Ms Aln^rfbA liiKjtioif Iron game with his coach Butch Harmon.
By early 1999, David Duval replaced Tiger Woods as the world s number one golf player. Around this time last year. Tiger Woods perfected his new swing and his short iron game. And then he went on a tear, winning six tournaments in a row. including last year's PGA Championship. Tiger Woods has already won 20 times on the PGA tour. 23 times worldwide. Great golfers are happy to win 10 per cent of the tournaments they enter: over the last year, Woods is winning over 50 per riii of the tournaments he is entering. At this rate Tiger is primed to break all of gons remaining records. At the British
Open at St Andrews, golf's birthplace, next month, liger Woods is a prohibitive favourite to complete his career Grand Slam In golf, two years ahead of Jack Nicklaus's pace. Other goiters are beginning to avoid tournaments In which Woods is
entered, and enter tournaments In which he is not entered. Earl Woods. Tiger's father, laughs
When Tiger was young,' says Earl Woons, parents would call me to Ibid out Tiger s tournament schedule so that they could avoid those."
It was Earl Woods. Tiger s African-American father and a green beret, who instilled discipline and iron will into his son It is Kultida, Tiger's Thal mother, whom Tiger credits ior his inner tranquility Every yeai Kultida takes liger to a Buddhist temple to spend hours there. Tiger Woods has been playing golf since he was six months old. Al the age of two. in 1978. he was on national television. playing golf against, and beating comedian Bob Hope in a putting contest. Earl Woods has Been severely criticized for bringing Tiger up so publicly and so spartanly. Such crlti ■ clsm is futile. Extremely attached to his parents. Tiger says. “I love my dad to death.'
What can derail Tiger Woods's victory march? Perhaps marriage and children! American men are in love with Tiger Woods's golf; young American women are In love with him. Woods does have a white girl friend. But the two arc seldom seen or photographed together. It is not good for Tigers commercial endorsements, which in the af-termath of his stupendous US Open victory, are expected to surpass retired basketball su-Rerstar Michael Jordan's, inety years ago. Jack Johnson became the first black Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the world; his dalliance with a white woman, however, destroyed his career. As boxing immortal Joe Louis was ascend-
ing In fame, he was under strict orders from his handlers never to be seen with a white woman alone. Has anyone ever seen Muhammad AH with a white woman? America has come a long way in race relations, yet prudence dictates that races marry within their own ranks.
Earlier this year three top golfers. America's Davis Love III. Scotland's Colin Montgomerie and South Africa's Ernie Els were mercilessly blasted by critics for saying. in effect, that Tiger Woods is unbeatable. "With such loser's attitude, how can these guys compete against Tiger Woods?" they asked. Well, now everybody else. Including the critics, has come-around. Woods rX-HvecHtlfr^ fifpi At^accofades-^ from his peers: “He can win 10-15 tournaments a year;" “he is every bit as good as Jack Nicklaus, and he is only 24;" "it Is such a relief that they pay those who finish second and lower:" "1 am going to enter tournaments Tiger is not in:" "as long as Tiger is upright, he Is going to win;" "it's not that we are bad. It's Just that Tiger is so much better;" "If you really believe you can beat Tiger. 1 suggest you try another sport!" Tiger Woods is so dominant In golf that other players can sue -cessfully argue that like Mk rosoft he is a monopoly. Their best hope is to find a judge. preferably named Jackson, who will order that Woods be split in two!