Despite battling a glitch in his swing during the final rounds, Tiger Woods won because -- as usual -- his foes wilted over the weekend

Courtesy of CBS

By Mitchell Spearman
One of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers

Everybody thinks it takes superhuman golf to beat Tiger Woods, but that's rubbish. Dozens of Tour regulars could beat Woods if they'd simply play their own games instead of getting psyched out and trying to play with needless heroism. Last week Woods led by four strokes after opening 67-63, but he shot a mortal three-under 141 over the weekend while fighting a swing flaw in which his arms trail too far behind his body in the downswing. (Woods worked on the problem after slicing his drive into the trees at 13 on Sunday, above.) But nobody took advantage of his struggles, and Woods became the first Tour player since Scott McCarron at the 2001 BellSouth Classic to win without breaking 70 on the weekend.

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FIGHTING BACK Despite a series of final-round errors, runner-up Esteban Toledo won't be another Woods casualty like Bob May, a man who seems to have never recovered from losing a tête-à-tête with the world's best player at the 2000 PGA. Toledo, a 39-year-old native of Mexicali, Mexico, is winless in five Tour seasons and was 118th on this year's money list entering the Buick, so he had nothing to lose as he headed into his Sunday pairing with Woods trailing by two shots. The former professional boxer certainly didn't sound like a beaten man afterward. "I gave him a good fight," said Toledo. "I am a very strong person, and I will win. No doubt in my mind."

HOT AIR The Buick was only Lanny Wadkins's third week as CBS's lead analyst, but I've already started to mute the volume while watching. Wadkins has no presence in the booth and has yet to provide a glimmer of insight. If I were Lance Barrow, CBS's coordinating producer for golf, I'd try this novel idea to fill the lead analyst spot: Hire 10 Tour caddies who loop for top players and have them work on a rotating basis. Nobody knows more about the pros and the courses than the caddies, and glib chatter is a specialty of their profession.

A CHANGE OF SCENERY It's a shame that the Tour lets business considerations and the shackles of history overrule common sense when it comes to selecting venues, especially for the week before a major. Sure, Buick is based in Pontiac, Mich., only 25 miles south of Warwick Hills, and the club has hosted the Buick Open for 38 of the tournament's 44 years, but Warwick Hills is boring and wide open. The world's greatest golfers, and the spectators, deserve tracks such as Cog Hill and Westchester every week, and there are dozens of glorious courses that would kill to host a Tour event.

Mitchell Spearman is the director of instruction at Manhattan Woods Golf Club in Nyack, N.Y., and one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 teachers.

Issue date: August 19, 2002