Woods Emerges From Them

The Masters golf tournament has become one of my favorites, in large part because Kelly was born on Monday the week of the 1997 Masters, which was Tiger's debut as a major champion. I was home that week and was able to see nearly every televised minute. He demolished the field by 12 strokes, and it was utterly compelling to watch. After three U.S. Junior and three U.S. Amateur titles, everyone knew he was going to be a champion someday, but the way he seized control was thrilling, and a harbinger of great things to come.

This year's tournament was equally exciting, but for different reasons. Tiger's 66-65 charge in the middle two rounds felt like the old days of 2000, when all one had to do is wait patiently until he would make what became a customary and decisive charge up the leaderboard. This year, however, was the first time one of his vanquished foes chased him down Chris DeMarco has been hanging around the top of big tournaments for several years now, competing well on Ryder Cup and President's Cup teams, coming in second (albeit a distant second) in this year's Accenture Match Play tournament, and he was in the final group of last year's Masters. He tends to be timid off the tee, but his iron play was at times far better than Woods'. He showed great confidence, pumping his fist to the patrons as he left the 10th green. He saved par, but Woods had just bogeyed his lead down to two strokes. DeMarco showed he believed he was on the charge, and so he was. He birdied 11, while Tiger carelessly settled for par. DeMarco kept the hammer down, competing well through the remainder of the round. Only mediocre putting, failing to sink several birdie putts inside 10 feet in the final round, kept him from winning the tournament.

Woods, on the other hand, is not nearly the automoton he is made out to be. He is easily as susceptible to the pressure of leading as anyone else on Tour. After the emotionally-charged miracle chip on 16 (which is the only thing that could have stopped DeMarco's momentum after a great birdie at 15), Tiger did not bother to regroup for 17. Cold-blooded prudence would have dictated a three-wood or iron off the tee, play to the middle of everything, and collect that fourth green jacket without further incident. Instead, with a two-shot lead to protect over the last two holes, neither of which is considered a birdie hole, Tiger pulled out the driver, put his best spiner-twister swing on it, and blew his tee shot well right, through the pines into the adjoining fairway. A vertical wedge shot over the trees left him twenty yards short of the green, and an inexcusably indifferent chip rolled back off the green, forcing him to get up and in just to save bogey. Same story on 18: pulled driver, poor second shot into the greenside bunker, average sand shot, poor putt, bogey. Tie. Tiger finally played smart and well on the playoff hole, hitting to the middle of the fairway and the correct part of the green, then sinking a longish putt that resembled Mickelson's winner of a year ago.

Tiger still has more ability to make more kinds of shots more often than anyone else, but that is not to say he is immune to pressure. He gets keyed up and makes mistakes, sometimes big ones. He is gifted enough to recover from them most of the time, as he was on Sunday.

Incidentally, that ball hanging on the edge of the hole on 16, displaying the Nike swoosh in real-time slow motion, is a ready-made marketing campaign waiting to happen waiting to happen.