Earl Woods first uttered the words six
years ago, when his son was on the verge of losing in the final match of
the U.S. Amateur. Between the morning and afternoon rounds, he
whispered in his ear, "Let the legend grow."
These days, the legend of Tiger Woods is on steroids.
"The great thing about Tiger is that he's always, always going to hang in there and come up with a great shot when he needs it," said Grant Waite, who had a front-row seat to Woods's latest heroics Sunday in the Bell Canadian Open.
This one was no less spectacular, a shot that only Woods dares
to try.
Clinging to a one-stroke lead on the par-5 18th at Glen Abbey,
he was in a fairway bunker 218 yards from the hole, the final 100
yards over water. The ball came off crisp and clean, rocketed into
the gray sky and dropped 18 feet behind the flagstick.
"With the tournament on the line, to have the poise and the
calm and the confidence to stand there and hit that shot explains
basically what Tiger is all about,'' said Waite, who finished one
stroke behind when his 20-foot eagle putt curled off at the end.
"He really doesn't have to say anything. That explains pretty
much what kind of a person and a golfer he is," Waite said. "He
is very special.''
Woods has been that way all year.
It began in Hawaii at the Mercedes Championships, the first tournament of the year, with an eagle-birdie-birdie finish to defeat Ernie Els in a playoff. Every week that followed gave Woods another opportunity to outdo himself, and he almost always delivered.
There was that 97-yard wedge he holed from the fairway, the
catalyst to his seven-stroke comeback at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for his sixth straight PGA Tour victory, the longest streak in 52 years. Four months later, he hit a 7-iron from out of thick rough, over a cliff and onto the par-5 sixth green during his 15-stroke romp at Pebble to win the U.S. Open.
He won the career Grand Slam at St. Andrews, and made it three straight majors at the PGA Championship. He has won in the rain at Memorial, in darkness at Firestone.
How does he do it?
"Guys pull off some of the best plays and best shots, best
competitive performances, when the pressure is on because that's
when they concentrate the hardest," Woods said after winning
Sunday.
That's why the legend grows.
Earl Woods was watching the final round from his home in
Cypress, Calif., and admitted to be a little shocked that his son
could take the ball right at the flag.
"But it didn't surprise me that he pulled it off,'' the father
said. "He's that good, and he's always been that good. He has this
ability to see things with his creative mind, and then he has the
physical ability to execute the shot. Some have a creative mind but
can't do it. Tiger sees it and he does it. And he does it well.
That's the difference.''
Tiger Woods with the Canadian Open and Triple Crown trophies. Allsport
Such dramatics are not limited to this year.
When his father told him to "let the legend grow," Woods went
out and birdied the the 34th and 35th holes of the '94 U.S. Amateur at the
TPC at Sawgrass, the latter birdie coming on an all-or-nothing shot into the
island-green 17th to take a 1-up advantage over Trip Kuehne.
He won his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title by making a 30-foot birdie putt on the next-to-last hole to tie the match against Steve Scott, then beat him in extra holes.
Adding to the theater are the crowds Woods attracts -- about 50,000 at Glen Abbey Golf Club, the largest in the 96-year history of the Canadian Open. The Buick Open galleries were double their normal size because Woods was playing.
Everywhere he goes, the gallery packs each fairway as if at a
major championship. Rarely do they go home disappointed.
"In every tournament, he'll hit shots that people will be
talking about for 30 years,'' his father said.
There were two of them in the Canadian Open. The 6-iron on the
final hole Sunday, and the 380-yard drive on the same hole Friday,
which left Woods only a 60-degree wedge for his second shot. On a
par 5.
The heroics will cease for the next five weeks. His summer run
into history is over. Woods will not return until the Presidents
Cup next month, then play the final three PGA Tour events of the
year. He is defending champion in all of them.
How much better can he get? How many more times can he win?
How many shots does he have left in the bag?
"What we're doing is witnessing Rembrandt paint, and we're all
marveling at him mixing paint and brushing strokes,'' Earl Woods
said. "The more you watch, the more you appreciate his talent. And
every week, you see a move with the brush you had never seen
before. And the painting starts to come to life, more and more and
more.
