Belated Fathers’ Day

24 July 2006



Tiger Woods Wins British Open by Two Shots

Tiger Woods won his eleventh major championship with his two-stroke victory in the British Open over the week-end. This puts paid to the “Tiger’s past it” nonsense once and for all. Only Jack Nicklaus won more majors with 18, and with a couple of decades more golf in him, Mr. Woods is almost guaranteed to pass the Golden Bear. Missing from the Hoylake course was Earl Woods, father and mentor, who passed away three months ago. Yesterday, outside Liverpool, it was a belated Fathers’ Day.

Earl Woods ran the risk of being the links’ equivalent of a Stage Mother, pushing his son into a game because dad wanted a taste of it. However, Tiger Woods was never the reluctant golfer, the kid who’d rather be doing something else. He can hit the ball with the best, and he has an inner calm that separates the golfers who merely make the cut from those who tee-off last on Sunday. This week-end was a prime example of his ability to ratchet up both his thinking and his physical execution.

Royal Liverpool hadn’t hosted a British Open in 39 years, which means very few of the players on the tour had ever seen the course. In addition, it hadn’t rained there for over a week, making any previous experience of the course irrelevant, as the greens hardened and quickened. For Mr. Woods, this meant using his driver just once on 144 holes. He explained that the trajectory of his drive has flattened recently, meaning he could hit the ball 350 to 400 yards but without any control. British courses have a way of making control matter.

The opposition, however, didn’t let Mr. Woods off lightly. Sergio Garcia, the 26-year-old Spaniard, played a tremendous third round to trail by just one shot, but he started off on the fourth with a pair of bogeys on the second and third holes. He scrambled to make par on 5 while Mr. Woods eagled the hole. Meanwhile, Ernie Els tied Mr. Woods on the par-5 fifth with a birdie, but that eagle made it a short-lived draw.

The real challenge on the last day came from Chris DiMarco, whose mother died just a couple of weeks ago, making a sad parallel with the Woods family. Mr. DiMarco kept things interesting all through the last 9, but Mr. Woods never made the necessary mistake to let the challenger make a move – shooting 16 under par wasn’t enough. A reporter asked, “Why do you like going up against him?” Mr. DiMarco laughed, “I don’t want to go up against him. But if you can’t get up playing against the best player in the world in a major, I don’t know what else there is.” Mr. Woods proved once again that when he brings out the best golf in himself, he brings out the best in others as well. That is why he matters so much to the game, just like Messrs. Hogan, Jones, Palmer and Nicklaus.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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