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South Africa: Woods Casts Vast Shadow Over Rivals, Even When Absent

Colin Anthony

24 June 2008

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opinion

Johannesburg — ISN'T that a magnificent par-three third at Torrey Pines? It is 178m, with the tee jutting against the edge of a sharp drop to a canyon which sweeps ahead of you to the target: a green elevated aggressively from the canyon floor but which is still low enough to leave you with a slightly downhill shot.

From the tee it's a sight to make a double-figure handicapper like myself tremble: the Pacific Ocean provides the backdrop while the cliff face runs diagonally in front of the green from right to left, and the canyon arches around behind it. Long or left and you're toast, while the bale-out area, short right, is so tiny it should be ashamed of itself. It is the kind of sight which, surely, must excite the professional in a way us amateurs cannot imagine. It is a sight all amateurs dream about.

There is a bunker embedded in the hillside in front of the green -- a trap amateurs would probably be quite happy to be caught in, given the more fearsome dangers around the green.

Tiger Woods found it during the US Open play-off against Rocco Mediate and he was not happy at all. He bogeyed the hole, Mediate birdied it, and Woods went from being one ahead to one behind.

Any other golfer, on such a big stage, would have heard the whispering voices of self-doubt creep in. Woods, grimacing in anger more than from the pain of his damaged knee, consolidated with two pars and then birdied the sixth and seventh.

What is it about this man, particularly in Majors, that sets him apart? He proved with his 14th Major title that everything that has been written about him and spoken about him is an understatement; none of it is hype. Is there any other sports figure who can say that?

While it was clear that his damaged knee, which following an operation after the Masters had ruled him out of practising for the US Open, was not hindering his actual swing, it was clearly causing him discomfort.

Besides that, who could have won one of the most sought- after titles in golf without practising for two months? Only one man.

That man will be missing for the rest of the season. He knew the risks -- doctors had warned him against playing at Torrey Pines, saying he needed more time to recover and might aggravate the injury.

But Woods, driven by his almost single-minded goal of winning more Majors than Jack Nicklaus, found the risk acceptable. Had he not won, it would have been a double disaster. But he has his third US Open title on his CV and he would probably consider that a fair trade.

Woods is having reconstructive surgery on his knee. Notice how nobody is asking if he will still be able to dominate after such a long lay-off. Others who have experienced something similar -- SA's Ernie Els in particular -- have battled to find their pre-injury form. After this year's chapter of the US Open, Woods proved that, for him, nothing is impossible.

The TV networks and golf sponsors are probably more upset than Woods about his absence. Suddenly, they have to broadcast the rest of this season's tourneys without their main drawcard and already the frowning bean counters are reworking budgets. But my sympathies do not lie with them.

Rather, I already feel for the winners of the two Majors still to come this year -- the Open Championship and the PGA.

For no matter who wins them and no matter how scintillating their play might be, they will always have a question mark hovering over their trophies: would they have won had Woods been in the field?

Anthony is editor of The Golfer, which appears in Business Day on Thursday.

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