froM;the;u.s.;open
real;progress;for;tiger’s;‘process’
to paraphrase an old saying about the man whose
record he is pursuing, tiger
woods knows that we
know that he knows.
had him tied for second,
three strokes behind
surprise leader michael
thompson, was fine at face
value. but it was how he
constructed the score, with
such controlled, smart golf,
that was the bigger headline.
with the other marquee
golfers in his grouping playing poorly—phil mickelson
a 76, bubba watson a 78—
woods seldom wavered.
been hitting the golf ball
this way,” woods said, “and
i was able to put it together
in a major championship.”
beautiful to watch. every
shot, he shaped it the way
he wanted to shape it.”
regardless of how solid
his victories were in or-
lando and ohio this season,
woods’ expectations are
such that his return to form
won’t be complete until he
wins his 15th major on the
road toward Jack nicklaus’
mark of 18. everything else,
no matter how tasty, is just
an appetizer.
if woods ultimately bends
this u.s. open his way, it
would tie him with willie
anderson, bobby Jones, ben
hogan and nicklaus with
four championships. more
meaningfully for woods, a
victory would be his first in
a major since the 2008 u.s.
open at torrey pines.
to that end—especially after
a poor masters (t-40)—
thursday at wickedly tough
olympic club was an important day for woods, and he
seized it. whatever happens
the rest of the way in the
112th u.s. open on a lake
course that treats the careless as if it were an angry sea,
woods started the process,
to use one of his pet words,
exactly how he needed to.
hitting driver on only three
holes (nos. 9, 10 and 16),
woods hit 10 of 14 fairways,
11 of 18 greens and had 29
putts. he played the vexing
stretch of nos. 1 through 6,
which was eating up plenty
of players, one under. he
missed one short putt, a four-footer for birdie at the third.
he even had a bit of good
karma, largely missing the
last couple of years, when a
40-foot birdie putt that might
have raced off the green,
dived into the cup at the fifth.
he did it on a course playing
firm and fast, which made
judgment paramount, whether off the tee or into the green.
the rigors engaged woods,
whose mental grit defined
his peak years. “i’ve always
preferred the conditions to
be difficult,” he said. “it brings
in shotmaking. you can’t sit
there and say we’ve got 150
yards to the hole and fly it.
this is different. it brings our
mind into play.”
mickelson and watson, who
spent much of the morning
in the rough and the trees,
could only admire what they
watched between bogeys.
with his swing and mind
calm, the twin musts in his
game at age 36, woods
took a sure and steady
step toward breaking that
drought thursday. he now
must deliver on the favorable weekend forecast.
“he had really solid control
of his flight, trajectory,”
mickelson said. “the way it
occurred, it was impressive.”
bill;fields
senior;editor
his one-under 69, which
“i know i can hit the ball
this way, and i know i have
“that was the old tiger,”
watson said. “that was
J.d. cuban
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