SILVIS, ILL. – Woody Austin is not going to the British Open even though he is exempt. He is not going because he said he is “exhausted.” The Open would be his ninth week in a row of playing PGA Tour events. That is his story, odd as it may sound, and he’s sticking to it, slings and arrows be damned.
Any player who skips a major championship, of course, opens himself to criticism because the majors are the ultimate in competition. They define great players. They change lives. They are what kids dream of while stroking 5-footers on the putting green. They are what grownups like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson dream of while stroking 5-footers on the putting green. Not as many people stroke 5-footers and say, “This one is to win a tournament sponsored by a tractor company.”
Jack Nicklaus lived for the majors. Woods seemingly would die for them. But now Austin comes along and thumbs his nose at the world’s oldest golf tournament, the tournament that so many professionals around the world would rather win than any other.
Not only is Austin taking a pass, he’s something of a hot player taking a pass. That’s what makes his decision particularly curious. In the last month he has won the Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis and tied for second in the Buick Open. As they say across the pond, he has been in form of late.
So, you might say Woody Austin, so long known for his temper and busy shirts rather than his game, has warped priorities. That he has lost sight of what really matters in golf competition.
He disagrees. He says he’s just following what his body is telling him. He’s playing the zombie card. He said he would play the British if he hadn’t played so many in a row, if this week’s John Deere Classic weren’t his eighth consecutive.
He didn’t plan to play eight in a row. He usually only plays three straight. But he got into the Memorial Tournament at the last minute and qualifed for the U.S. Open at the 11th hour. Then he played the AT&T National last week near Washington, D.C., because “my kids had a couple of trips into the White House and stuff ... so I just bucked it up for them.”
Besides, Austin said he couldn’t plan for the British. He found out he was exempt July 1, getting in through a five-tournament mini-money list.
“I’m thoroughly exhaused,” Austin said. “I proved it last week. I played like an idiot last week. ... I just don’t want to go over there for a major and just be so unprepared.”
Austin has played one British Open. So he says he’d have to go over to Carnoustie next week and be a quick study and learn how to play links golf in wind in just a couple of days. “Why go over there when I know I’m not at all ready to play,” he said. “It’s an awful far place to go when you’re already tired. I mean, Tiger hasn’t played more than two weeks in a row. This is eight. I’m exhausted.”
Now, you ask, why then is he playing the John Deere Classic this week if he’s on fumes? Why not take John Deere off and then go to the British fresh?
He gives three reasons, none of them particularly convincing.
One, he’s had four days off and hopes that will get him through the week before two weeks off.
Two, he didn’t want to blow off a tournament that has been good to him. Let him explain.
“My career hasn’t been based on the British Open, it’s been based on Buick Opens, John Deere Classics, Hartford, Memphis, everything like that. So for me to think or act like I don’t need to play the John Deere Classic anymore is ridiculous. ... For me to just say I don’t want to play a tournament that got me where I am today is just not me. I’m not going to do that.”
Three, he likes the riverboat casinos here. Don’t laugh. He’s serious.
“I’m a casino guy, so I spend the week at the Isle of Capri,” Austin said. “Even though this is eight weeks in a row, this is a relaxing weekend that I’m not going to be grinding it out. ... I’ve always been able to go to the casino and relax and enjoy it. This is actually like a week off to a point.”
Austin, as you can see, has some excuses. His rationalizations are hard for a golf purist to swallow. They make you want to say, “Woody, Woody, Woody, my God, Woody.” Putting a casino over a major isn’t in most top players’ handbooks. It’s OK to put a major over a lesser even, regardless of your past. And as for supporting the John Deere, they probably wouldn’t have missed him too much. He could play here in years when he’s not exempt for the British and other majors.
“It blows my mind,” Mark Brooks the 1996 PGA champion, said of Austin’s decision to miss the British. “I can’t even imagine it. I think he owes it to himself. It’s good to have an appreciation of the game and its roots. When he stops playing and sits in a rocking chair someday, maybe he’ll understand it better.”
Maybe. Maybe not. Might depend on how well he does in the casino.
Posted: 7/11/2007
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