Tiger Tanks It After Leading Open Early Stewart, Bank Teller Cash In On Collegian’s Back-9 Collapse
When you start playing badly in golf, they say the wheels are coming off. Well, take a look at poor Tiger Woods.
There he was, cruising along with a share of the first-round lead in the U.S. Open and he cracked up. The Tiger Woods bandwagon was involved in a very serious one-car wreck at Oakland Hills Country Club.
The wheels came off, the tires went flat, the engine blew up, the frame collapsed, the bumpers melted and the radio got stuck playing “Taps.”
Woods played the last five holes in 9 over par, turning a potential 67 into a 76, going from 3 under par to 6 over, and covering those last five holes in 28 strokes.
So instead of the 20-year-old U.S. Amateur champion leading the U.S. Open at the end of the first day, that honor went to Payne Stewart, who was once the U.S. Open champion, and Woody Austin, who was once a bank teller.
Both Stewart and Austin toured the mushy layout softened by rain in 67, 3 under, and led Lee Janzen and John Morse by a shot.
There are eight tied at 69: Frank Nobilo, Paul Azinger, Jumbo Ozaki, Philip Walton and qualifiers David Berganio, Bob Ford, Gary Trivisonno and Stewart Cink.
Former Pullman resident Kirk Triplett was in a group of 12 at 70.
After taking a few moments to calm himself in the locker room, Woods held a brief news conference next to a hospitality tent.
“I am fine,” he said evenly. “Life goes on. Tomorrow is another day.”
He sounded as if he was trying pretty hard to convince himself.
Maybe he was, but Earl Woods said his son shouldn’t be down simply because he happened to finish bogey, double bogey, quadruple bogey, bogey, bogey.
“He’s been through this before,” the elder Woods said. “Maybe not in a tournament of this magnitude, but he’s played like a bum before.”
Gee, thanks, Dad.
On a bright and sunny opening day, the star trio of Woods, John Daly and defending champion Corey Pavin was attracting huge crowds.
Ten marshals and four policeman shepherded the group.
Woods was absolutely beaming early. He holed out a wedge from 60 yards on No. 5 for birdie, then hit the flagstick on No. 6 with his approach for another birdie.
He had an eagle putt to take the lead by himself on the par-5 12th, but his two-putt birdie still put him 3 under and tied with Stewart and Austin.
But Woods seemed to become unnerved when his second shot from 187 yards on the par-4 14th stopped on the back fringe of the green. He asked for a ruling, saying there was a sprinkler head in the way, but he couldn’t get relief because he was not on the green.
He hit a poor chip shot to 8 feet right of the hole, then missed the putt and took a bogey.
On the 15th, he pulled his tee shot into the left rough and blasted out to the front fringe. He chipped 12 feet past the hole and missed that one, then missed a 2-footer and made a double bogey.
On the 16th, Woods pushed his 6-iron approach into the pond. He took a drop and hit a sand wedge, but the ball spun back off the green into the water again. Woods took another drop. He knocked the ball 18 feet above the hole and two-putted for quadruple-bogey 8.
On the 17th, he three-putted.
And on the 18th, he drove into the left rough, hit his second shot through the green into the rough, hit a flop slot on the green to 10 feet, then missed the putt.
“Unfortunately, my swing kind of left me a little bit,” Woods said. “Out here, you can’t do that.”
“He dug himself a big hole and we don’t like that,” the elder Woods said. “And it wouldn’t surprise me if he made the cut.”
Meanwhile, Stewart felt really good about his round, even though he missed five fairways, which isn’t the way to play this course.
“I had a lot of fun out there today and I’m just going to laugh all day about it, too,” said Stewart, who had seven birdies but also a double bogey on the par-three ninth.
Then there was Austin. You take a former bank teller, let him swing a golf club in his first U.S. Open and what do you get?
If it’s Albert Woody Austin, you get a share of the 18-hole lead at tony Oakland Hills, where members pay a $48,000 initiation fee and probably consider bank employees equally as important as, say, caddies.
Austin, 32, spent seven years behind the counter at the GT Federal Credit Union in Tampa, Fla., until he earned his PGA Tour card in the 1994 qualifying school.
It has been a long and bumpy road for Austin to his first U.S. Open. He spent 1994 on the Nike Tour and won $72,206, or about what he might handle on a good day at the credit union.
“I could have given up a long time ago,” Austin said.
Then last year on the PGA Tour, Austin made deposits of $736,497, which included the $216,000 he made for winning the Buick Open.
But he hasn’t forgotten his days at the bank.
“Just go in and get in there and take people’s money and give it back to them,” he said. “I was there for so long, I could have moved up through the system and been a manager, a bank manager, whatever.”
As for Woods, his next career decision will also be about money - whether he should say two years at Stanford are sufficient and turn on the money faucet by becoming a pro.
That kind of choice can wait, said Earl Woods, who knows very well the pros and cons of the pros and college.
“Professional golfers are entertainers and you pay to watch them play,” he said. “On top of that, he’s not even getting paid. I’m paying for it.”
xxxx U.S. OPEN LEADERS Leaders after the first round of the 96th U.S. Open Golf Championship on the 6,974-yard, par 35-35-70 Oakland Hills Country Club’s south course in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Woody Austin 35-32-67 Payne Stewart 36-31-67 Lee Janzen 33-35-68 John Morse 32-36-68 David Berganio 37-32-69 Bob Ford 35-34-69 Philip Walton 34-35-69 Gary Trivisonno 34-35-69 Stewart Cink 34-35-69 Frank Nobilo 33-36-69 Masashi Ozaki 33-36-69 Paul Azinger 34-35-69