7 birdies, gotta be Tiger:
Well, gotta guess again
SAN FRANCISCO - This newfound Tiger Woods-Steve Stricker pairing may be one for the golf ages. It's the Hope diamond, with or without the setting. It's Muhammad Ali to everyone else's Joe Tomatocan. You want an idea of how truly sweet it is, consider this: One of them made seven birdies, six of them in the first 10 holes in another Presidents Cup cakewalk Saturday afternoon. Smart money says it had to be Woods, of course. But you already know the kicker to this one.“Man, I helped out on two holes pretty much - well, three holes all day - 17 and 18 in the morning, and then here,” Woods was saying. “Otherwise, I was cheerleading all day.”
But first, it was Woods to the rescue in the morning alternate-shot. Just when everyone was settling back to watch another whipping, the Internationals' short-hitters, Canada's Mike Weir and South Africa's Tim Clark - who volunteered to take Woods and Stricker on - took them to the wire. Woods and Stricker had won so comfortably, 6 and 4 and 5 and 3, that against a pair of bunters, they figured to commit golfer abuse. But they won the first hole and then trailed almost all the rest of the way, and didn't lead again till the last hole. When, of course, it really counted.
This time, it was Woods at his best. Nice and comfy as he and Strickler are as a team, this time he was playing alone. This was alternate shot. At the 17th, he studied that 18-footer, and when it rolled lazily home, he erupted in a celebration generally reserved for, say, a U.S. Open. Stricker then left him an excellent tee shot at the 18th, and Woods fired it to about 5 feet. The Internationals were bunkered, came out much too short, and missed about a 40-footer for par, and so conceded the American birdie and the match, a 1-up win.
In the afternoon better-ball (each playing his own ball), Stricker birdied No. 3, four straight from No. 5, then the 10th, and finally the 12th. In all, he had 10 3s on his card. Woods closed out the 4 and 2 win dropping about a 5-footer for a birdie at the 16th, making them the first partners to go 4-0-0 in the Presidents Cup. But their work here is done. It's on to the 12 singles matches Sunday, with the U.S. going in with a 12.5 - 9.5 lead.
“The putter was my friend this afternoon,” Stricker said. “What Tiger did this morning's round really made me want to do something and step up a little bit. And fortunately, I was rolling really well and giving myself lots of opportunities. We were looking at the putts and reading them, and I was starting them on my line.”
Someone cracked that Stricker was carrying Woods. Stricker couldn't take a joke.
“No, I didn't carry him,” Stricker said. “As I said, it's easy to play with the guy because we all know what a great player he is, and he putts it great, he gets it up-and-down great, and it takes a lot of pressure off me, I'll tell you that.”
ON THE OTHER HAND - Anthony Kim said Jim Furyk had to carry him. But both were limping where accuracy is concerned. They hit three fairways in their afternoon match. Kim didn't get a birdie until the 15th, but he dropped the 9-footer, matching Angel Cabrera and Adam Scott to keep him and Furyk at 2-up. They won by that score. In the morning, with Kim sitting out, Furyk teamed with Justin Leonard for a 4 and 2 win over Ernie Els and Adam Scott.
ROOKIE CAMP - Anthony Kim leads the U.S. rookies (two of them) with a 2-1-0 record, and Sean O'Hair is 1-2-1. For the Internationals: Korea's Y.E. Yang is 2-1-1, Japan's Ryo Ishikawa 2-2-0 and Colombia's Camilo Villegas 0-3-0.
HIS MASTERS VOICE -- Woods, on being asked to compare Ishikawa, 18, to himself when he was 18: “I hit it longer, but I never could hit the shots that he can now. I've never seen an 18-year-old at his level.”
TOUCH RETURNING - Geoff Ogilvy, former U.S. Open champ, on finally winning his first point, partnering fellow-Aussie Robert Allenby in a 2 and 1 better-ball win over Stewart Cink and Lucas Glover: “I drove the ball in the fairway, which was nice, and I wasn't trying to hole chip shots. Yesterday, I hardly hit a green at all, and it's tough to make birdie when you're trying to chip the ball in.
STILL WANDERING IN THE DESERT - Australia's Adam Scott, after that encouraging victory with Ernie Els in the opening alternate-shot match on Thursday, has returned to the form that has him languishing on the PGA Tour. He's now 1-3-0.
THE RECORD BOOK - Two players who won two of the game's most prestigious championships this year are faltering. British Open champion Stewart Cink is 0-3-1 and U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover is 0-3-0. Internationals pointless: Masters champ Angel Cabrera and Camilo Villegas, both 0-3-0.
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