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Tiger on the mind Field still thinks Woods can continue streak
Posted: Saturday February 12, 2000 08:20 PM
LA JOLLA (AP) -- For once, Tiger Woods was not ready for prime time. Fortunately the CBS camera wasn't, either. "Everything I'm going to say," Woods laughed, "is going to be deleted." When the red light finally came on, Woods handled the interview pretty much the same way he handled Torrey Pines on Saturday, which is to say he made it to the end without inflicting too much damage on himself or anyone else. Especially the names at the top of the leaderboard. Woods shot a 5-under 67 that could very easily have been a 64. On a day when rain-softened greens made putting tough on everyone, he missed three birdie putts inside eight feet on the final three holes. But the real difference between Woods and everybody else standing between him and a seventh straight PGA Tour win didn't become apparent until the third round was in the books. He was six strokes back, but still first and foremost in everybody's mind. One by one, the leaders came off the course trying to pump themselves up. Woods, meanwhile, was blowing off steam. "I'm telling you, I felt confident," he said. "I hit the ball right where I wanted to, nice pace and all, and they just didn't go in. That's just the way it is sometimes." Phil Mickelson, who was footnote No. 1 in Tiger's current streak, also shot 67. But his round left him parked atop the leaderboard at 16-under in a tournament he's won before on a course he used to play three times a week as a high school star. "If I play a solid round," Mickelson said, "I'll be in a position to force him to shoot a ridiculously low round." Davis Love III, footnote No. 3 in The Streak, shot 69 to stake out third place for himself. "Tiger thinks he can win from 10-under," he said, "so I know I can win from 11(-under)." Shigeki Maruyama shot 69 to lock up second. Asked Friday whether he might end Woods' run, he replied through an interpreter, "No chance." When the question came up again Saturday, Maruyama's nod spoke volumes. "He still thinks," the interpreter said for the record, "that he has no chance." Who does? Serious sports nuts can come up with the name of the man who ended Joe DiMaggio's streak, Cleveland third baseman Ken Keltner. Serious golf nuts can name Fred Haas as the man who stopped Byron Nelson cold after his run of 11 straight PGA events. But ask yourself: Who among the eight other golfers lumped in with Woods within six strokes of the lead will be able to withstand another Tiger attack? For all the success he'd had at Torrey Pines, Mickelson's final-day scoring average last season was 72.5. That tied him for 134th on the Tour. Maruyama didn't play enough PGA events last year to be ranked. Fred Couples and Jeff Sluman, both at 10-under and paired with Woods on Sunday, were 41st and 49th. Of the three others at 10-under, Steve Flesh was No. 51, Kirk Triplett was No. 73 and Shaun Micheel, like Maruyama, didn't post enough final rounds. Woods, meanwhile, averaged 71.2 last year, good for 39th. During this run, he's racheted that number down to 68.83. Only Love was better last year -- his 70.4 ranked him at No. 7 -- and he didn't sound all that convincing about his chances of staying ahead of Woods yet once more. "I'm going to do my best," he said, "and see what happens." Rolling the dice is what Woods has done better during The Streak than any golfer in more than a half-century. He's won with help from a crumbling front-runner and without, from ahead and from behind -- just about every way but playing left-handed. And for all the brave talk, he will be the only one chasing the Buick Invitational title Sunday with a good night's rest under his belt and without hearing footsteps at every turn. "You play for 31/2 days to give yourself a chance in the back nine on Sunday with everything on the line. If I go out there tomorrow without the determination or the fire and I lost, I'd be disappointed.
"But that," he said, "is not the way I play."
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