TESTING TIME FOR TIGER
By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent, Chicago
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First there was his worst score as a professional in the Masters. Then on
Saturday his worst score as a professional in the United States Open.
But do not expect to hear Tiger Woods using the word "slump" in the build-up
to next month's Open championship at Royal St George's in Kent.
Woods had plenty to ponder at Olympia Fields near Chicago after a third round
75 left him 11 strokes behind leader Jim Furyk.
It was surely premature, though, to talk about this being a crisis in his
career, even if a failure to defend his crown left him without a major title for
the first time in four years.
"I've won three tournaments out of seven I've played this year (on the US
Tour) and you're trying to tell me I'm in a slump?" said the world number one
when questioned about his form.
He had not even giving up all hope of victory when he teed off in the final
round, but he did admit: "I obviously need to shoot a great round and get some
help from the leaders too."
Considering all his eight major wins so far have come with him in the lead,
either outright or tied, with 18 holes to play the portents were not good.
And Woods, who in the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic in Asia turned an
eight-stroke deficit into a play-off victory over Ernie Els no less, could
certainly do without a repeat of the incident on the first hole of his third
round.
Handily placed only three shots off top spot Woods was hitting his second shot
to the par five when a spectator whistled.
"Yeah, right on my downswing," he said. "If it was my backswing I would
have stopped it, but on the downswing I couldn't. It was a frustrating way to
start a round."
As the club came out of his hands and he turned to stare long and hard into
the crowd the ball flew into a bunker 110 yards short of the flag. He saved par,
but as it was one of only two par fives on the course it was a chance gone.
Thereafter, Woods struggled with the pace of the greens. They looked quicker,
but he found them slower and he had 35 putts. Anything over 30 is rated a bad
day now.
The 75 - one lower than the damaging opening round in the Masters at Augusta -
left him in joint 24th place and it was as much the number of players between
him and Furyk as the number of shots that was the problem.
Justin Rose and Darren Clarke were on the same mark and while Rose had
struggled for accuracy tee-to-green on his debut in the championship Clarke was
another bemoaning his lack of success on the green - not for the first time this
year.
"I think I will close my eyes and hit it," said the Ulsterman forlornly. "I
had my opportunities to be right in the thick of things. I ought to be an awful
lot better than I am, but once again I've haven't taken the chances I've
made."
Two strokes further back was Padraig Harrington and he told the same story.
"It's just one of those weeks. I was putting great a month ago and terrible
this week."
Europe's last winner of the trophy was Tony Jacklin in 1970. After three days
Swede Fredrik Jacobson was best-placed at joint 15th, nine behind Furyk.
It did not look good for them, but it looked great for Furyk in his search for
a first major. He was three clear of Australian Stephen Leaney and five clear of
third-placed duo Nick Price and Vijay Singh.
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