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Impossible encore Following up 2000 season too much for Woods
Updated: Tuesday November 06, 2001 7:33 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- This was one challenge too steep even for Tiger Woods. Ten months ago in Maui, Woods shaved his dyed-blond hair and embarked on an impossible encore. Could a guy who played every tournament under par, who won nine times and three straight majors, improve on what many consider the greatest season in golf? "That's the beauty of the game," Woods said that afternoon while hitting pitch shots to the 18th green at Kapalua. "We don't know." We do now. At least this year. The season ended unceremoniously Sunday at the Tour Championship, where Woods finished his year with back-to-back bogeys to fall into a tie for 13th, a result that had become par for the course over the final five months. This is what happens when Woods plays like a mortal: -- He wins only five times on the PGA Tour. Never mind that only one other player, Nick Price in 1994, has done that over the past 20 years. -- He wins only $5.68 million. That's the third-highest amount in PGA Tour history, behind Woods in 2000 and Woods in 1999. -- The PGA of America doesn't have to find an alternate for the Grand Slam of Golf because four players win the four major championship. Woods only managed to take home one trophy, although his Masters title was so historic that even Jack Nicklaus sat in front of his television. -- New challengers emerge. Exactly who they are remains unclear. One of the questions that will follow Woods into the next season is how much the chasm between him and the rest of the PGA Tour has narrowed.
Chris DiMarco is among those who believe the gap is no longer so wide. "I think that intimidation factor is gone a little bit," DiMarco said. "I think people know that he can be beat and know that he is human ... and that if you're playing better that week, you can beat him." This from a man who played with Woods in the third round of the Masters, watched a two-stroke lead turn into a two-stroke deficit and wound up eight strokes behind when the green jacket was slipped over Woods' shoulders. Phil Mickelson didn't close the gap, not with only two victories and no majors. David Duval won the British Open, but nothing else. Ernie Els and Vijay Singh didn't win at all. If anyone moved closer to Woods it was David Toms, who had three victories, including the PGA Championship. Toms doesn't think he's in the same league, and doubts anyone else is, for that matter. "I still don't think we're playing at his level of golf, even the top players," Toms said, ticking off names like Mickelson and Duval. "They're not as good as Tiger, and I'm not as good as Tiger. He's gifted. I think he would be gifted no matter what he was doing." Woods is playing golf, and still playing it well. "If you compared what he did this year to all-time golf, it's way up there," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Tuesday. Instead, Woods was compared to last year, a standard so ridiculously high that anything he accomplished was bound to fall short of expectations. And it didn't take long for him to find out. No victories in his first five events on the 2001 PGA Tour suddenly constituted a slump. Questions about his game hounded him until Woods won Bay Hill, The Players Championship and the Masters in successive starts. True, he was down in every major statistical category this year, particularly putting -- 102nd on tour, down from No. 2 last year. He also lagged in the one area that brings him the most satisfaction -- being in contention. In 20 tournaments last year, Woods won nine times, was runner-up four times and was top 10 in all but three events. This year, he had no second-place finishes and only nine top 10s. Still, he led the tour in the only statistics that matter -- victories, scoring average and majors. He gets extra credit for the Players and a World Golf Championship. "When he's on his game, he's still going to be tough to beat," Ernie Els said. "If you put everything in perspective, I think he's had a brilliant year." The gap between Woods and the rest of the tour is misleading. It was exaggerated last year because Woods won three tournaments by at least eight shots, two of them majors. It is perceived to be narrower now because he has only one victory since June. The gap will only close when Woods allows that to happen. A new season starts in Maui in two months, and maybe there will be a new standard to measure Woods. "That 12-month stretch when he won all the majors, he may never come near that again," Finchem said. "And he might do it again next year. Nothing would surprise me."
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