Tiger Woods circus comes to Hazeltine

The gates at Hazeltine National Golf Club opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday. What followed was a chaotic chase to find Tiger Woods.

Thousands of fans streamed across the course like ants in search of a bread crumb, running this direction and that, begging marshals for clues. They clutched hats, programs, flags and their PGA Championship tickets for him to sign.

The first sighting came on the fifth hole, where about 200 people gathered. Within an hour, the crowd was about 5,000 and growing by the minute.

Woods can't win the Grand Slam this year. Fans in Minnesota couldn't care less.

"They love their golf," Woods said. "From what I've been told, they come out here in full force, and they're going to be loud and boisterous."

In place of a Grand Slam, what they might settle for is something else only Woods can accomplish this year: The American Slam.

No one has ever won all three American majors in the same year. Ben Hogan won the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in 1953; Woods won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in 2000.

The closest anyone has come to the "American Slam" was Sam Snead, who won the Masters and PGA Championship in 1949 and was runner-up in the U.S. Open.

Woods doesn't care what it's called. He's more interested in a number.

"Any time you can win one major championship in a year, it's going to be a successful year," Woods said. "I think winning two in one year so far, it's been even better. I'd like to make it three."

Four was on everyone's mind when Woods made short work of two long golf courses at the Masters and U.S. Open, winning each of them by three strokes. Adding to the hysteria, he was only two strokes out of the lead going into the weekend at the British Open.

An 81 in the third round, his worst score as a professional, quickly ended talk about a Grand Slam. Woods was no mood to look back, nor did he see the PGA Championship as cause for him to reassert his dominance in the majors.

"There's no extra incentive at all," he said. "I take the same focus, the same approach to each and every major championship, and that is get my game mentally and physically ready for this one week.

"It's the last major of the year, and you always want to end it on a good note."

The scene of the final major is Hazeltine, which doesn't appear to play nearly as long as its 7,360 yards might indicate.

Woods has won four of the last five majors played on par-72 courses, which suggest he can overwhelm the par 5s and essentially turn it into a par 68.

Not Hazeltine.

Not with a third hole that measures 636 yards, and two others that are pushing 600 yards. Woods was asked how he played No. 3 during his practice round Tuesday.

"Very easy," he replied, holding his audience in suspense. "I got there in regulation -- driver, 3-iron, 9-iron. I can't get there unless it's downwind."

If Bethpage Black was meat loaf and mashed potatoes, Hazeltine more closely resembles roast duck with an orange demiglaze.

This is more about precision than power, the course gliding and turning through rows of maple trees and over ponds and lakes (water comes into play on eight holes).

"It's even longer than Bethpage was, so that tells you something," British Open champion Ernie Els said. "But it doesn't quite play the same length as Bethpage. I don't know what it is, but I'm hitting a lot more 3-woods off the tee.

"The way the golf course is playing now, it favors a lot more players than Bethpage did [only a few], but not as many as Muirfield [just about everybody]."

If the course isn't as tough as Augusta or Bethpage, no one can argue with the field. The strongest group ever assembled for a major is at Hazeltine, with 99 players from the top 100 in the world ranking.

Despite Els' victory at Muirfield, his first major in five years, Sergio Garcia finishing in the top 10 in all three majors, and Phil Mickelson getting closer and closer to the first major of his career, Woods remains a heavy favorite.

Just because he didn't win the Open -- with an 81, no less -- hasn't taken much luster off his mystique. Besides, Woods arrived at Hazeltine having won the Buick Open.

"There's one guy out here everybody is going to be looking for, and he's just won last week," said Thomas Bjorn, giving clues that weren't necessary. "We live in a time now where it's very difficult to be the best player in the world because there's a guy out here that does things better than we have ever seen in the game."

The British Open certainly didn't change the way fans regard him.

The grandstand behind the 18th green was packed when he finished his practice round with Mark O'Meara and John Cook, looking more like a Sunday afternoon at a major than 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

During Woods' news conference, hundreds of fans huddled behind a white picket fence waiting for him to emerge from the media center.

Inside, Woods could only grin when someone asked whether it was good for golf that he won't be winning all the majors this year.

"You know what, dude, I can't give that to you," he said.

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