Tiger Woods is ready for grad school in golf
but doesn't want to give up undergraduate life

by Jaime Diaz

Tiger Woods might seem to be momentarily parked between a storied past and a golden future, but as he prepares for the 1996 Masters, a glance at his life reveals a young man evolving so quickly, he could qualify as a walking study in time-lapse photography.

During the college-am portion of the recent Southwestern Intercollegiate at the North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village, Calif., the 20-year-old Stanford sophomore showed himself to be a work in progress who has grown in three dimensions since his memorable first appearance at the Masters 12 months ago.

First, he is bigger. Since winning the U.S. Amateur last August at the Newport (R.I.) Country Club, Woods has gained 15 pounds, as hormones, training-table cuisine and a weightlifting program have combined to build up his heretofore wispy 6'2" frame to 155 pounds. His shoulders are wider and his forearms thicker.

Woods is also becoming a polished ambassador of the game. Far from the reticent and self-contained stripling who was taken aback by the rush of media that met his debut at Augusta National, Woods now handles himself in public with aplomb. His amateur partners at North Ranch, a boisterous threesome of middle-aged men from the home club who each donated a few hundred dollars to college golf for the privilege of playing with the game's leading prince, loved hitting their popgun drives and immediately blurting things like, "I hope you learned something from that one, Tiger!" Woods played the amiable straight man, all the while responding to the gallery's autograph and photo requests with a pleasant "No problem." It was a performance straight from the book of his famous dinner companion Arnold Palmer.

Finally, he is a better golfer. Woods is quickly transforming himself from an untamed young gun to a mature shotmaker. While his increased strength allows him to hit his tee shots even farther than he could as the statistically longest hitter over four rounds at the '95 Masters (in the last six months he has caved in or otherwise broken five driver heads through the sheer force he imparts at impact), there is now an educated restraint to his driving that makes his mishits much more playable. The gearing down is even more noticeable in his iron play. Whereas Woods used to favor high-flying approaches that were majestic but hard to control, he has developed a shot that flies lower, curves less and carries less spin. He is also hitting his clubs shorter distances with shallower divots, all in the interest of accuracy, consistency and control.

The impetus for the shotmaking changes was his performance at Augusta, where he squandered his impressive driving with rough-hewn iron play. Except on the four par-5s, which he hit with regularity in two using as little as a nine-iron, Woods had few makable birdie putts, the primary reason he could fare no better than a respectable 72-72-77-72-293 to tie for 41st.

Four months later Woods won the Amateur on a bone-dry, links-style Newport course where distance control and an innate feel for the bounce of the ball were at a premium. Woods used a new technique with his irons in which his action was compact and his hands passive. His 140-yard eight-iron punched to within two feet on the final hole of the championship match was a perfect closer.

The point is, the Tiger Woods who will attack Augusta National this week is much more than a young amateur who will be happy just to play on the weekend. A few hours after finishing his final round last year, as he sat in the Crow's Nest and watched Ben Crenshaw win, a reflective Woods realized he had been capable of more. "You know, this place is perfect for me," he said quietly. "I've just got to refine some things." A year later few doubt that Woods has the game, the course knowledge and the poise to play his way into contention.

"I'm getting myself ready," he said after finessing a seven-iron from 155 yards to within 10 feet of the pin during his practice round at North Ranch. "That's the kind of shot I need at Augusta." Two days later Woods won the 54-hole event by three strokes with a 213 total, his third victory in eight collegiate events this season (he also has three seconds). "I hit it terrible, but I got it around," he said. "I've got a lot of work to do. But I'm getting closer. If I'm lucky, everything will peak at the right time."

If Woods does do well at Augusta, it will fuel speculation that he is on the verge of reneging on his vow to postpone his professional career until he gets a degree. In addition to the level of his game and the millions in endorsements he should receive the moment he turns pro, there are plenty of reasons to believe Woods is not long for college golf. For one, unlike last year's Stanford team, which lost the NCAA title to Oklahoma State in a sudden-death playoff, this year's Cardinal is no powerhouse. Woods admits he gets no particular thrill out of week-in, week-out college competition. "I keep myself interested by working on my own game," he says.

'Woods is also disappointed by some of the rules he must adhere to as a college golfer. Because of NCAA regulations, the clinics that he did as a junior golfer in urban areas to help introduce more minorities to golf have had to stop; also, the threat of sanctions against Tiger has forced his father, Earl, to put on hold a national program with major sponsors designed to give inner-city youth access to the game. Tiger was understandably annoyed after the NCAA declared him ineligible for a few hours while it investigated whether he had broken a rule by allowing Palmer to buy him dinner one night last October. After Woods was persuaded to mail Palmer a $25 check to cover the meal, there was further unpleasantness when at a charity dinner last December, a group of Palo Alto businessmen held an impromptu auction for the canceled check without first asking the family if they could do so. It fetched a price of $2,500. When Stanford coach Wally Goodman asked Earl to send the check, he heatedly refused. "That check is a piece of golf history that marks the meeting of two great players," says Earl. "It never belonged to the school. It belonged to Tiger."

Indeed, Earl and Kultida Woods have softened their original imperative that their son graduate before turning pro. Kultida worries that the academic and athletic demands on Tiger are becoming too stressful. "I will support whatever he decides," she says. "I give him my advice that money is not the issue and to be careful not to sacrifice his youth. But my boy is a man now, and I trust his judgment."

As the most acclaimed college golfer ever, Woods is under pressure. Recently ESPN decided to telecast the Far Western Tournament at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif. The telecast was scheduled with Woods's star power in mind. However, because the Far Western ends on the day that he planned to travel to Augusta, Woods wanted to skip it. Yet he felt compelled to play. "I would have liked to have had the extra day," he says, "but I kind of owe it to college golf to play."

Meanwhile, several PGA Tour players believe Woods should be competing for a living against the best in the world. "He might be spinning his wheels if he stays in school all four years," says Curtis Strange, who played with Woods in the second round at Augusta last year. "If his game is ready, and there is no doubt in my mind that it is, I would advise him to come out."

Still, Woods is holding firm to his intention to stay in school through his scheduled graduation in 1998. The reason is simple: He loves college. Woods comes from a background that stresses academics, which was the primary reason he chose Stanford. He is an economics major who takes his classes seriously.

"Definitely I could be playing better golf at another school," he says. "Because of the workload, I'm always tired, and my mind is never clear. A lot of times on the course I'll be preoccupied with how much studying I have to do. I'm no brainiac. I have to work hard to get by. But I'm here to get an education and live the total college experience."

Perhaps what Woods enjoys most about Stanford is that within its enclosed environment he can escape the scrutiny that has increasingly followed him as he has racked up three straight U.S. Junior championships and two consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. At Stanford, Woods is among other high achievers who do not treat him as anyone special.

"Stanford is like utopia," he says. "It's not the real world, which I guess is why I want to spend more time here. Maybe my game is ready, but the question is, am I ready mentally and emotionally to live the life of a pro? I know for sure I will be here next year."

Said with conviction, but upcoming performances could justifiably alter Woods's perspective. Besides the Masters, he is pointing to two other events: the NCAA Championship, May 29-June 1 at the Honors Course near Chattanooga, and the U.S. Amateur at Pumpkin Ridge in Cornelius, Ore. Winning the NCAA individual title would prove that Woods is a dominant college golfer-he tied for fifth as a freshman-and an unprecedented third straight Amateur championship would establish him as the most dominant amateur since Bobby Jones.

Of course, getting in the hunt on Sunday at the Masters would even further convince Woods that he has simply become too good a golfer to stay in college. Ironically, by preparing hard for the week, Woods is doing everything in his power to end his self-described utopia.

With a relative lull in his academic schedule, Woods has been studying tapes of Masters telecasts dating back to 1988, all with an eye toward better understanding how to play the course. He has filed away the advice of Fred Couples, Greg Norman and others, and he has practice rounds lined up with Palmer on Monday, Norman on Tuesday and Couples on Wednesday. Finally, rather than employ an Augusta National caddie, as he did last year, Woods is bringing Jay Brunza, his sports psychologist, who has carried the bag in all five of his USGA titles. "He's got as good a chance as anybody, as long as he hits it," says Norman. "He has all the other elements, too."

Woods is just eager to see how far he has come in the last 12 months. "That's what I'm looking forward to the most," he says. "Augusta is going to tell me where I am."