One Slip, And Tiger Has You

By George White

His game has changed, there is no question about it. So has the glitz factor – he doesn’t win by just bombing the daylights out of the field anymore.
 
But the results are just like the Woods of old – time after time after time, just like a monotonous alarm clock that keeps pestering you when you try to sleep, he is the only one left standing when it comes time to pass out the hardware.
 

He doesn’t just obliterate fields like he used to, a la 1999-2001. Tiger Woods has learned something much more important – how to win when you don’t play at your maximum. For the sixth time this year, he won on Sunday. And for the fourth time this year, he may not have been the best player on the course.
 
But – he was the best thinker on the course. And, for sure, he was the most patient.
 
Tiger just hangs around and hangs around, always managing to get himself in position should anyone fail on Sunday. You think this doesn’t make him a great player? What does six wins in one season make him, six wins when he probably should have won only at Doral and at the British Open? Once again at the AmEx, he was waiting, patiently, for somebody to fumble the ball. And when John Daly missed the two-footer, sure enough, Woods was standing there, ready to fair-catch the tournament victory.
 
Remember his first win at San Diego this year, when he started his 31-hole trek on Sunday with three straight bogeys? Remember how hit the 2-iron at 18 so poorly that it squirted out to the right, but onto a narrow peninsula in front of the green? And remember the 18-foot putt that slammed the door on the deal, sending Charles Howell, Tom Lehman and Luke Donald away losers?
 
"I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," Howell said. "Obviously, it's a crazy game."
 
"He whipped the field playing lousy," Lehman said. "I give him a lot of credit."
 
And Tiger didn’t deny anything. “I didn't play it my best - there's no doubt about that,” he said. “I felt good enough where my mechanics were sound enough now that I could place my misses. That's the difference, is I can place my misses.”
 
He hooked up with Phil Mickelson at Doral and just flat out-played him. Ditto the British Open, where he wasn’t in any danger of losing the lead once he gained it. But the Masters was very tense with Tiger making bogeys at the 71st and 72nd holes, then hitting two perfect shots and sinking a clutch putt at the 18th to win in a playoff. He played well at the WCG-NEC, but he never could nail down the win until he made a 17-foot birdie putt at No. 16 to subdue a stubborn Chris DiMarco.