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 Thoughts on the big four
Posted: Sunday June 20, 1999 03:48 PM By Alan Shipnuck, Sports Illustrated PINEHURST, N.C. -- Weird day Saturday. Nobody seemed like they wanted to win the tournament. David Duval couldn't hit a green, Tiger Woods couldn't make a putt, etc. There's three guys who seem to be on their games right now -- Steve Stricker, Tim Herron and Vijay Singh. In other words, this is a golf writer's worst nightmare. All three are fine players, and Stricker and Herron are good guys, but c'mon, it's not exactly the holy trinity -- Woods, Duval, Phil Mickelson -- we were all pulling for. Still, I consider Singh a serious threat. His long game is so strong, and he has been rolling it well this week. Overall, I'm wary of hazarding a guess about Sunday's outcome. There are simply too many guys in contention. I figure the winning score is going to be even or +1. That means even Paul Freaking Goydos and the others at five over are still in contention, if one of them can go out early and post a 66 or something. Stranger things have happened. Presently (midnight Saturday) it is misting rather heavily, and it has been doing so for a while. This oughta soften up the course just a little, making a low number a slightly more realistic possibility. Now, a few general impressions. I spent the day splitting my time between the final two groups -- Woods/Mickelson and Duval/ Payne Stewart. I was shocked at how little control Duval seemed to have over his golf ball on the front nine. His game is usually grounded in discretion and patience, but he came out looking like he wanted to grab the tournament by the throat with some early birdies. He kept putting himself in places you simply can't if you want to have any chance of winning the National Open. His opening 67 was almost too easy, but he's been sputtering ever since, and I haven't seen anything over the last two days to convince me that he can string together 18 good holes. If Duval tries to force it again tomorrow he'll shoot an 80. Tiger was considerably more impressive. After his stunning double bogey-bogey start he made the course look fairly mild. Among the leaders he seems the loosest ("I hit a lot of greens," he said after his round. "The ball just didn't stay on them."), and even though he's two back I consider this his tournament to lose. Mickelson had a schizo day. He played brilliantly in spurts but late in his round looked like he was going to crack. That birdie at the last was huge. We all know Mickelson has struggled in majors, but throughout his career he has, overall, proved to be a rutheless closer. There's a classic story about Mickelson going back to his college days at Arizona State, which I was reminded of Saturday. In the U.S. Amateur he was locked in a duel with Arizona's Manny Zerman, who at the time was considered quite the stud and a major rival. Early in the match Mickelson hit into a wet spot on the fairway and told Zerman he was taking relief from the casual water. Zerman, in a major miscalculation, snippily told Mickelson that he didn't consider said wet spot to be casual water. Fine, Mickelson said curtly, and then he stepped up and holed his seven-iron. Later in the match Mickelson conceded Zerman a six-footer before it had even stopped rolling, and then canned a 30-footer of his own to take the hole. I expect Mickelson to put up a good fight Sunday. Finally, there is Stewart, who, like a bad rash, simply won't go away. The stat that really pops out at me is that Stewart has hit nearly 80% of the fairways through three rounds, far more than any of the top contenders. Obviously this is a much easier course from the short grass. As much as I hate to say it, Stewball will be around Sunday when things are decided. Alan Shipnuck is a Sports Illustrated staff writer. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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