TULSA, Okla. – Because the best front-runner in golf history carries a three-stroke advantage into the final round of the PGA Championship, Sunday figures to be familiar Tiger Woods victory march rather than a dramatic finish trending toward upset.
Not only has Woods converted all 12 of his 54-hole leads into trophy photo-ops, he has controlled his ball in a highly precise manner all week. That combination would seem to leave little hope for his pursuers. Stephen Ames, a famous Woods whipping boy, is three strokes behind and back for more. Woody Austin, sloppy Saturday, is a shot further in arrears. John Senden sits behind one further, Ernie Els one below that.
Each needs the same rare thing: A career day coupled with an uncharacteristic Woods collapse.
A meltdown seems so unlikely because Woods is so under control. He has reduced the game into a simple exercise: Hit the fairway, usually with a long iron. Hit the green. Make a putt or lag it close.
“I felt like I’ve really controlled my golf ball around the golf course,” Woods said.
Don’t look for him to get wild Sunday. He has the same simple plan he has had shooting 71-63-69.
“Just try to keep hitting fairways and put the ball in the center of the greens and lag putt well,” he said.
He gets into his target, hits at his spots and repeats for the next shot. He reduces the game into those tasks and blocks everything else out and accepts the result. In doing so, he makes the game look so easy.
Sunday he will perform in front of Ames in the final twosome. That pairing is juicy, of course, because Woods beat him, 9 and 8, at the 2006 WGC Accenture Match Play at La Costa after reading what was a sensible assessment from Ames, what others were thinking: That Woods was shooting low scores and winning tournaments despite often hitting crooked shots with his driver.
Ames says now his comments were taken out of context, but that’s besides the point. Woods took the backhanded compliment to heart and took it out on Ames on the course. That’s nothing new, for Woods has beaten Ames in all four rounds they have played together. That includes twice at the 2005 Players Championship, the same tournament Ames won the next year about a month after the match-play whipping.
Ames has a chance to answer now in a large way, in a way that would keep Woods from his 13th major title and give the toothy, opinionated one from Trinidad his first. But he says he’s not thinking revenge. Rather, he enters the fray with nothing but compliments.
“He’s relentless,” Ames said of Woods. “He’s constantly hitting great shots and great putts. It’s like Jack was. Players get on the tee and their knees start shaking.”
Ames is no pushover, especially on a target course, like here, like at the TPC Sawgrass, like in a U.S. Open. He had a share of the lead Sunday at this year’s Open before a couple of blowup holes, and here he is back in contention at the next U.S. major.
But Woods has taken down all comers when leading entering the final round. And he’s beaten the men next to him convincingly. Woods’ final-round scoring average when leading after 54 holes is 69.25. The dozen paired with him in the final Sunday group have averaged 72.92.
“The statistics will tell you, yes, it is over,” said Els, six strokes behind. “But as a competitor, I can’t sit there and tell you it’s over. I can’t ever do that. ... (But) yeah, if I was not a golfer and was a fan on the couch, I’d be putting my house on him. As a fan.”
House, farm, ranch. It’s all the same. Whatever the property, it’s a good bet.
Posted: 8/11/2007
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