Never mind that he already
has won three times in his first eight events on the PGA Tour this year. This
has nothing to do with the fact Woods is 5-0 over the past nine months in tournaments
that follow at least a three-week layoff.
The GTE Byron Nelson Classic
marks an important anniversary for Woods.
He was pounding balls on
the back end of the range last year when Woods hit one particular shot that brought
together every component of a new swing that coach Butch Harmon had introduced
over a span of 18 months.
The shot was pure. Better
yet, his mind was uncluttered. What had been a step-by-step process suddenly
felt natural.
He put down his club and
picked up the phone.
"I told Butch that I finally
felt ... I'm not going to say, 'I'm back,' but that I could hit the shots on
call, when I wanted to and how I wanted," Woods said this morning as he prepared
for this week's GTE Byron Nelson Classic in Irving, Texas. "That's where you
want to be. I knew I was about to start winning again."
Woods got in a three-hour
practice round today with former Stanford teammate Casey Martin at Cottonwood
Valley, one of two courses used for the Nelson Classic. Then he downed two small
cartons of yogurt, a glass of orange juice, and reflected on one of the most
dominant 12 months of golf.
"This was a big tournament
last year, just to prove to myself that what I had done was the right thing,"
he said.
All Woods did was revamp
a swing that had brought him six victories in his first 21 starts on the PGA
Tour, including a record-shattering win at Augusta National that made him the
youngest Masters champion.
Throughout the process
of changing his swing, he managed to win twice and have 19 top-10 finishes by
relying on a short game that never gets enough credit. And he ignored suggestions
that perhaps he wasn't as good as first believed.
Woods knew better.
"When I won San Diego last
year, Butch and I were on the same flight together and I told him I'm going to
win seven times that year," Woods said. "I knew I was not far off. I knew it
was a matter of time before it all clicked. And it finally did."
Woods tied for seventh
in the Nelson Classic last year, doomed by a 5-iron into the water on No. 17
in the third round that led to a quadruple bogey. Remarkably, he never finished
lower in a stroke-play tournament the rest of the year.
As for the winning?
That started a week later
in Germany, and seems as though it won't let up.
In the 12 months since
that epiphany on the practice range, Woods has played 22 tournaments around the
world, including two on the European Tour and the World Cup. He has won 12 times
and earned over $9.3 million (that alone would put him 17th on the career money
list).
Even more astounding is
the number of times he could have won.
Woods has finished out
of the top 10 only twice since last year's Nelson Classic. One was the Sprint
International, the week after he won the PGA Championship and a week he was sick.
The other was the Nissan Open, a week after his streak of six straight PGA Tour
victories ended.
Hey, even the No. 1 player
in the world can suffer a letdown.
The key for Woods is how
long he can sustain this level of play. David Duval won 11 out of 34 events.
Before Duval was Nick Price in the mid-'90s, Tom Watson in the early '80s, Jack
Nicklaus in the '60s and early '70s.
"It's not easy," Woods
said.
Asked what he thought was
the biggest obstacle, Woods offered a friendly smile and nodded in the direction
of a reporter. His relationship with the media improves every year as he gets
more comfortable with those around him.
Still, expectations can
take on a life of their own.
"If you don't shoot a good
round, they hammer you," he said. "Not everybody. But they don't understand how
you can shoot 72, when 72 is a good round sometimes depending on how you're hitting
the ball."
Those scores haven't come
along very often. Woods has failed to break par only 13 times in his last 80
rounds dating to the '99 Nelson Classic.
How long can he stay this
high?
"Many great players have
sustained it for years," Woods said. "They may not have finished in the top 10
every week, but when they're not playing well, they still have a chance to win.
And that's where you want to be."
That's where Woods is now,
and has been since that day on the range a year ago.
A look at Tiger Woods's
performance the past year, dating to the 1999 GTE Byron Nelson Classic (x-Stableford
scoring system):
1999
Tournament
Scores
Total
Place
Margin
Money
Byron Nelson
61-67-74-69
271
T7
-9
$96,750
Deutsche Bank
69-68-68-68
273
Won
+3
$320,380
Memorial
68-66-70-69
273
Won
+2
$459,000
U.S. Open
68-71-72-70
281
T3
-2
$196,792
Western Open
68-66-68-71
273
Won
+3
$450,000
British Open
74-72-74-74
294
T7
-4
$77,975
PGA Championship
70-67-68-72
277
Won
+1
$630,000
International
7-9-2
x-18 points
T37
NA
$12,480
NEC Invitational
66-71-62-71
270
Won
+1
$1,000,000
Disney Classic
66-66-66-73
271
Won
+1
$450,000
Tour Championship
67-66-67-69
269
Won
+4
$900,000
American Express
71-69-70-68
278
Won
P-1
$1,000,000
Johnnie Walker
68-72-70-71
281
6
-6
$44,800
World Cup
67-68-63-65
263
Won
+9
$300,000
2000
Mercedes
71-66-71-68
276
Won
P-2
$522,000
Pebble Beach
68-73-68-64
273
Won
+2
$720,000
Buick Invitational
71-68-67-68
274
T2
-4
$264,000
Nissan Open
68-70-69-72
279
T18
-7
$37,731
Match Play
5-1 record
--
2
4&3
$500,000
Bay Hill
69-64-67-70
270
Won
+4
$540,000
Players Championship
71-71-66-71
279
2
-1
$648,000
Masters
75-72-68-69
284
T5
-6
$184,000
P1-won playoff on first
hole
P2-won playoff on second hole
Events - 22
Wins - 12
Money - $9,353,908
