Noise bombards Woods, but he refuses to hear it
History looked to be on tiger Woods’ side at Pebble Beach. A pity his putter wasn’t.
All the signs were that Woods could contend here over the next two days.
When he scores low early at a Us open, the outcome is often positive. yet what are we to make of the opportunities lost yesterday, the times Woods got in a position to charge only to misread a green, or misplace a putt?
Not all of them had the odds in his favour, true. some were tough, 30 feet or so. yet many would have been drained relentlessly by Woods in his prime.
He knew what was being lost, what was being surrendered. Despite shooting two creditable rounds to start, Woods gave two shots back on the final two holes and ended nearer to the cut than the overnight leader. He hasn’t lost touch completely, but there are a lot of bodies between him and the prize.
Woods shot sub-par in his opening round on thursday. only once has he done that at a Us open and finished outside the top three.
His early scoring yesterday gave hope for a second sub-par round, too, and on both occasions he has played the first 36 at a Us open like that, he has won: in 2000 and 2002.
yet he gave one back at the eighth — played as his 17th, due to a back nine start — and then another at the ninth, meaning he finished level par for the tournament, one over for the day. Look, it’s no disaster given what he has endured to get here, but it could have been huge. on 13 holes, Woods had a birdie opportunity. He made one.
Could he win here, despite this? it is not beyond the realms of possibility. saturday is traditionally his best day and his greatest major win was here, 19 years ago. He knows the course. He plays it smart. But that putter has to warm up.
on the 12th, one more roll would have done it, from distance. His face suggested anguish. Not the pain that comes from physical injury, but of knowing what might have been.
tighter on the green, he could have been breathing down the neck of playing partner Justin rose, perhaps intimidating him as he did the field at the Masters.
yet, good day or bad, it makes no difference to the gallery — 15 deep and 526 yards long by the time he came to the last. Everywhere he went, as he tried to get that magic momentum going, his name echoed around the Pacific coastline: tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger…
How many times in a round of golf do you think Woods hears his name? A thousand, two thousand, ten thousand maybe. Perhaps he doesn’t hear it at all.
Perhaps Woods is so deep in that famous zone by now, that it is all just white noise to him. His is one of the greatest feats of concentration on the planet. We think of Formula 1 drivers, or opening batsmen in test cricket. We marvel at the way the best penalty takers can dial out the noise around them.
yet there is nothing like Woods. to walk a course parallel to him is to be bombarded with calls, screams, pleas, declarations of love, lame attempts at humour, meaningless implorations, a symphony of idiot noise that would torture an individual without a coping mechanism.
Woods somehow stays blank. He does not engage, never acknowledges. When he pumps a fist, it is for him alone — not that there was much celebration yesterday as putts failed to drop.
And still some find him aloof. they don’t get it. He has to be distant, for his sanity. if he was aware of the clamour around him, if he opened his ears, he couldn’t function. No one could. Woods has to pretend he is alone on the course.
ten thousand times in a round? Could be. if he’s in contention, or it’s at that part of the day when the beer has been flowing and everyone’s a comedian. it happens hundreds of times on each hole. Come on tiger, or Big Cat, or on rare occasions Mr Woods, if it’s a little kid shouting and his dad has told him to be respectful. And it’s harmless.
No one gives him a hard time about the past. A few might mention gambling their life savings on his prowess, but no one believes that and tiger can’t be responsible for individual foolishness. one man on thursday attempted to engage Woods on his tax arrangements since moving to Florida.
seriously. Lewis Hamilton doesn’t have to put up with that, moving at 200 mph. Woods is a walker. He’s about longer. that’s why folk think he has time to interact. Pebble Beach was relatively quiet when Woods was concluding late thursday, and opening up again early Friday, but there is no peace around tiger. rory Mcilroy was first to play with him after his most recent comeback. What was it like he was asked. ‘i need Advil,’ he replied.
yet it hasn’t affected rose these last two days and the record books show, it doesn’t affect Woods either. He has perfected a way of walking the course, oblivious. Championship golf gives the observer better access to the protagonists than any other sport.
you can’t stand next to the penalty taker, get in the cockpit with Hamilton, or see what the batsman sees — but you could reach out and touch tiger, if to do so wouldn’t result in a ban from every course on the planet.
Woods has a way of being present, and absent, at the same time. At being totally focussed on the golf, but oblivious to the periphery.
tiger, tiger, tiger — and yet the man remains fixated on points in the distance, no eye contact, no acknowledgement, beyond the smile to greet a good shot. it’s as if he doesn’t recognise this character they’re all talking about.
it’s not what his contemporaries call him, either. it was a very cordial threesome, with rose and Jordan spieth, who was heard addressing Woods as ‘t’. A benign little soubriquet for a player who, when he gets going, really is a tiger.
on a different day, he would be up there by now, around the top of the leaderboard, if not at its summit. He had birdie chances on 10, 11 — the only one he made — 12, 13, 15, 17, 18, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
this is a course that is made for Woods. it is not hugely long, so responds to his stinger irons from the tee, and his old head when managing its quirks and tests.
When he made a hash of the par five 14th and played an awkward chipped fourth perfectly to save, it was noticeable that spieth made bogey from the same position.
When rose and spieth found sand on the par three 12th, Woods played the smartest of tee shots to ensure he stayed on the green’s good side. on the second, his lovely approach showed rose the way in and the Englishman took full advantage, even getting the benefit of a nice bounce to leave an excellent birdie chance. it must be like having a sherpa, playing with Woods around this course — particularly as rose’s putting these last two days has been awesome.
By late morning, the locals were warming up, but Woods’ putter was not. He missed a six-footer on the last, undermining a great third, perhaps his best shot of the day. For once, there was silence.