Witness: Grant Waite Runner-up

EVENT: Canadian Open, Glen Abbey Golf Club, Oakville, Ont.
DATE: Sept. 10

"I was trailing by a shot on the 18th tee. I drove it in the
fairway on that par-5, hit a five-iron to 25 feet and said to my
caddie, 'We've done our job. Now we'll see what he can do.'
Tiger was in the right fairway bunker, his ball on a downhill
lie. He's 218 yards from the green, and he's got to hit it over
trees, water and bunkers. He hits a six-iron, and the ball goes
right over the flagstick, lands on the green and trickles just
off, 18 feet from the hole. There's pandemonium. He becomes the
first guy since Lee Trevino in '71 to win the U.S. Open, the
British Open and the Canadian Open in the same year. Phenomenal
stuff.

"But that's not what I remember best. The thing I remember best
is his tee shot on 18. As Tiger begins his backswing, there's not
a single sound, nothing stirring at all, total silence. Then,
right in the middle of his downswing, somebody yells, 'Tiger!' He
stops cold, like a freeze-frame in a photograph. The position he
stops in is absolutely perfect. How he can stop with that
clubhead going 125 miles an hour, I don't know. I can think of no
other golfer who can stop so close to the ball with a driver.

"People might say, 'He should be able to hit the ball, even if
there is a distraction. If his concentration is so great, he
should be able to block it out.' Just the opposite is true. He
was able to stop because he has the greatest concentration and
the greatest discipline. He's like a Zen master. He plays every
shot fully committed and without fear. He's not going to allow
anything--an opponent, a noise from the crowd, the difficulty of a
shot--to interfere with his effort to execute his shot, and he's
not going to execute the shot until the conditions in his head
are just as he wants them to be. That's the essence of golf. He
understands that better than anybody who plays."

B/W PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN LANKER

68
TIGER'S AVERAGE SCORE IN HIS FOUR WINS IN THE MAJORS.

313
The distance, in yards, of Woods's average drive during his four
victories in the majors.

7
USGA titles won by Tiger. Bobby Jones has nine; Nicklaus and
JoAnne Carner have eight; and Anne Quast Sander also has seven.