The Week June 1-7
The Two Sides of Tiger
There's a reason Tiger Woods is twice as exciting as any other
Tour player. There are two of him. Good Tiger blasts a two-iron
275 yards. Bad Tiger's two-irons land two counties over. Good
Tiger shot a 64 at the '97 British Open. Bad Tiger sandwiched it
with 74s. Which Woods will show up at Pinehurst? Let his right
arm be your guide. Punching holes in the air: good. Letting go of
the club on his follow-through: bad. Tiger is bipolar pasture
pool personified.
LPGA Kelli Kuehne, who finished third at the U.S. Open in West
Point, Miss., seven strokes behind winner Juli Inkster, has made
$230,727 in the last two weeks. That's almost six times what she
earned in all of '98.... Players went through 14,000 pounds of
ice and 12,000 gallons of water at the Open.... Stefania Croce of
Italy was the only player to wear long pants for the first two
days.
PGA Woods and Vijay Singh, who finished one-two at the Memorial
in Dublin, Ohio, were also first (Singh) and second (Woods) in
driving distance. The difference: Woods was 10th in putts per
round (27.25), while Singh was 47th (29.00).... According to the
World Ranking, the Memorial had the fifth-strongest field of any
tournament played this year.... Greg Norman, back from a
six-week vacation, finished 69th, a shot ahead of Jack
Nicklaus.... In his last 10 starts, Singh has finished no worse
than 24th, and his smallest check has been for $28,333.34, at
the MCI Classic.... Sergio Garcia, who came in 11th at the
Memorial, has earned $202,650 in his two Tour starts as a pro,
which puts him 103rd on the money list and on pace to earn his
card for next season.... This week's FedEx St. Jude Classic has
attracted only one of the top 10 ranked players: '98 champ Nick
Price.
SENIOR Allen Doyle won for the third time in 20 starts when he
beat Joe Inman with a par on the fourth playoff hole at the
Cadillac NFL Classic in Clifton, N.J.... Doyle and Bruce
Fleisher, whose 27th-place finish matched his worst result this
year, are the only Seniors to win three times in '99.... Q
school grads have won 11 of the 17 tournaments this year.
ALSO For winning the British Amateur, England's Graeme Storm,
21, gets exemptions into the July 15-18 British Open and the
2000 Masters.... Darren Clarke beat John Bickerton by two
strokes in the English Open. Colin Montgomerie, who had won two
of his last three starts, was seven back.... Five players born
outside the U.S. placed among the top 10 in the NCAA finals.
UP and Down
Tiger vs. El Nino Tiger vs. Duval
Paul Azinger John Daly
Grace Park Jenny Chuasiriporn
Pinehurst No. 2 Old Waverly
Chip shots Lob shots
COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAD GRAVERSON/THE DAILY BREEZE/AP Ground under repair Ocean Trails, a new public course in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., was set to open 43 days from last Thursday when a mudslide carried the 18th hole into the Pacific.