Tiger Set Free

"You're talking about someone who can tell the difference between a D1 and D2 swing weight," Faxon said. "You take a world-class athlete like Tiger, who is superattuned to everything that's going on with his body, it's going to feel different." Knowing what your body will do under the extreme pressure of a U.S. Open is a guessing game during the best of times. Now add a new knee to the mix.

Eventually, Faxon said, Tiger will figure out exactly what the knee can do. But it will take time. That's Faxon's point. The U.S. Open is golf at its most extreme. Tiger's recovery—even with his two wins this year, a career for most golfers—is still in its infancy, and U.S. Open rough awaits him.

Rees Jones, the architect who oversaw the extensive renovations of Bethpage Black for the '02 Open, and who tweaked it for next week's championship, thinks the course will suit Woods now more than ever. His pick to win is Tiger, just as it was the last time the Open went to the A.W. Tillinghast course. Jones is a believer in horses for courses, and now, he said, the course suits Woods even more than it did before.

Bethpage Black this year is more than 200 yards longer than last time, and Jones predicts that Woods will be one of the few players to reach the par-5 13th, likely to play at more than 600 yards, in two shots. Under new USGA guidelines that were not in place in 2002, the length of the rough is now graduated, going from 1½ inches to 2½ inches to four inches, getting progressively longer the farther you stray from the fairway. Woods, with his immense upper-body strength, should be able to play more shots out of the first cut of rough and even the second cut than most of the rest of the field—if he trusts his knee.

Jones notes one other thing. Woods likes public courses, and he likes courses on which he has won before. He has multiple wins at St. Andrews, Torrey Pines and Pebble Beach, all public courses. He won a U.S. Open on his first trip to Bethpage Black, a public course. And now he's going back, with the divots from his win at Jack's tournament still healing.

How fitting, the whole Jack connection. Tiger's goal, since childhood, has been to break Nicklaus's record of 18 professional majors. Tiger needs four to tie, five to win. Big Jack fully expects Tiger to get to 19 (and he welcomes it). "I think the pace he's on, and the quality player he is, that even if he doesn't play well, he'll still probably break my record," Nicklaus said. "But he still has to do it. I mean, it's not a gimme. He has to win another five majors. You start out anybody's career at age 33 and say you're going to win five majors, the answer for most people is probably going to be no. But in Tiger's case, it's probably yes. He is such a focused young man, and his work ethic is so good, he'll probably do it in the next three years."

Even Jack never had a year like Tiger did in 2000, when Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15, the British Open at St. Andrews by eight and the PGA Championship in a playoff, plus six other Tour events. In a press conference before the start of the Memorial last week Woods was asked how his golf in 2000 compares with his golf today.

"I'm a far better player now than I was in 2000, no doubt," he said. "I certainly have more shots. I understand how to play the game of golf infinitely better now than I did then." On that basis, you might expect him to win at Bethpage by 16.

Four days later, his Memorial trophy in hand, Woods said, "It's nice to play this well going into the U.S. Open. This is how you have to hit it to win U.S. Opens. Especially at Bethpage. That golf course is as big as they come."

He also said Haney's job was secure and praised him as a teacher and a friend. And that Nicklaus is the greatest of all time. He talked about his goal of getting to 19.