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"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
June 12, 2001
It isn’t even fun any more to predict the winner of major
championships. Maybe I should start predicting who’s going to
come in second. I still can’t decide whether Tiger Woods’
domination of golf is good or bad for the game.
One thing’s for certain, though. Woods isn’t going away any
time soon. To hear his father, Earl, tell it, the young dominator—as
Woods was called this week in a Newsweek article—has even
put his personal life on hold in quest of major championships. Why
bother to get married, Earl Woods told TV Guide recently. A
wife would only get in Tiger’s way, make him loose focus.
Tiger probably cringes every time his blowhard of a father
opines on the subject of life, love, whether African-Americans can
tolerate Scotland or whether his son is the next messiah. But
maybe Earl is right about one thing: His son has a narrow-minded
focus—the likes of which has never been seen—on winning
significant championships.
Heck, even Jack Nicklaus stopped to get married and have kids—which
by the way flies in the face of Earl Woods’ absurd notion that a
great player can’t have a personal life. Tiger, who cut loose
his girlfriend of two years a few months ago, seems to be letting
nothing stand in his way.
That’s why he’s likely to win his fifth straight major at
the U.S. Open this week. What stands in his way? Southern Hills is
hot, you say? Tiger is in better condition and has more stamina
than any player on the tour. Has anyone ever seen him sweat?
Southern Hills is too tight, you say? Tiger is the longest,
straightest driver in history, and if he doesn’t pull out the
big stick, he can hit a 2-iron 260 yards on a string. Take that,
David Duval and Phil Mickelson.
If Woods is putting well this week, chalk up another major. He’s
won so many times—a remarkable 20 of his last 50 tournaments—he’s
instilled a fear in his fellow competitors, a fear that no one can
beat him. Great players turn to mush when a big-time tournament
gets to the final nine holes. That’s Tiger’s time, and
everybody knows it.
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Zeb Patten of The Golf Center got a nice little lesson at the
St. Jude Classic in Memphis last week.
"The lesson was that I have to practice harder,’’ said
Patten, who shot 74-78 and missed the cut in his first PGA Tour
event since 1991. "I was stunned to see Jesper Parnevik
hitting balls for four straight hours. That level of player doesn’t
tinker with his swing for four hours. He’s standing out there
repeating the same thing over and over again, so it instills
confidence."
The truth is, like so many of us, Patten is a working man, with
lessons to give, a business to run and a family to attend to. My
God, what would Earl Woods say? Patten isn’t suggesting he’s
ready—as his good buddy Kip Henley did a year ago—to put it
all on hold for a belated shot at the tour. He’d just like to
find a way to hone his game like the guys he saw on tour and still
juggle all the other compartments of his life.
Patten wasn’t around for the weekend, but he got a good
education. A practice round with Loren Roberts and 1996 U.S. Open
champion Steve Jones proved enlightening. So did his two rounds
with playing partners Bart Bryant and Jason Gore, a star of
Pepperdine’s 1996 NCAA championship team. Gore hits the ball
nine miles, a real advantage on the play-for-pay circuit.
"Those guys hit it a ton," Patten said. "Jason
was 40 yards past me on every drive. It’s tough when you’ve
got a 3-iron looking at a green and he’s got a 6-iron."
Patten actually had things going on through 10 holes of his
first round. He was 1-under, but a three-putt on the par-3 11th
was, as he put it, a "momentum breaker." Patten went on
to bogey three straight holes. He brought it back around for a
time, but bogeyed his last two holes.
That made it tough the second day. Patten knew he’d have to
shoot at least 67 to make the cut, so he took some chances firing
at flags. There aren’t too many easy pin placements on the tour.
Patten, undaunted by not making the cut, took away some
positive thoughts from Memphis. He stacks up his putting with tour
players, and he’s confident in his ball striking. He’ll get to
put his power of positive thinking to the test in two weeks—he
qualified for the Buy.com Tour event at Fox Den in Knoxville.
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If by some oversight some of my friends in golf haven’t been
invited to the June 19 party to debut my book, Gentleman
Champion: Lew Oehmig’s Romance with Golf, a thousand pardons
for the oversight. And please come out to Black Creek from 6 to 8
p.m.
Oehmig, the 85-year-old amateur golfing legend, will be there.
The book will be on sale, and in his typical selfless fashion,
Oehmig refuses to take a penny. Net proceeds of the book will go
to the Tennessee Golf Foundation.
It will be a fun night and serve as another chance to give
Oehmig, the great champion, his due.
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