Sports Watch
Jones, Woods like
comforts of homeTHE world's greatest football coach and world's greatest golfer both have something in common. "There's no place like home."
- June Jones
"There's no place like home."
- Tiger Woods
Hawaii's June Jones is glad that his football Rainbows are playing in the friendly confines of Aloha Stadium for a Pac-10 finish to an amazing turnaround season.
Playing Washington State Saturday night in the regular-season finale and Oregon State on Christmas Day in the Jeep Oahu Bowl before hometown fans will give the Rainbows a better chance of finishing 10-3 than if they were playing the Cougars and Beavers away from home. After all, it's a jungle out there.
"Hopefully we have our biggest crowd since the SC (Southern California) game and that the fans will give us the advantage," Jones said.
For Tiger Woods, home is where his heart is right now, after an exhausting six-week road trip from Texas to Spain to Taiwan to Malaysia to Japan and finally Kauai, where he won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf yesterday for the second straight year.
He's looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with his parents, whom he hasn't seen in nearly three months, and a five-week break from golf.
Not that he minds the traveling.
"I truly enjoy, not the grind and grueling schedule, but traveling the world and seeing different sights. I've traveled the globe, but Taiwan and Malaysia were two places I've never been before. That's what really excites me," said Woods.
FLYING in his own private Citation-10 jet certainly helps for golf's most frequent flier. But all that traveling can be exhausting. His flight from Spain to Taiwan was 20 hours, with stopovers in Dubai and Bangkok. And it makes him appreciate spending time at his Orlando, Fla., home.
"I don't get a chance to go home very often. But when I do, it's very, very nice to be able to sit on my own couch. And to know where to walk so you don't run into a door going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
"I've had it so bad that, sometimes, I'll call the (hotel) front desk because I don't know where I'm at. I'll wake up and ask, 'What city is this?' "
Woods adds, "That's how much we travel in this sport, because playing golf, there are no home matches. We don't spend half the season at home and half the season on the road. Our entire season is on the road."
So, besides knowing where the bathroom is in the middle of the night, Tiger likes going home in order to hang out with his two dogs, Joey and Penny.
Creature comforts such as that.
Tiger makes it a point to add that, even though he is golf's traveling ambassador to the world, his first obligation is to the American PGA Tour.
"If you look at my schedule, I've only played one event during our calendar year outside the United States," Woods said. That was the Deutsche Bank Open in Germany. Which he won, by the way.
"All my global hopping was after the season was over. That's usually what I like to do. I am focusing on our tour and trying to get my name up there on the money list and the Vardon Trophy and hopefully player of the year at the end of the year."
And Woods, after his Grand Slam sweep in golf in 1999, capped by his victory in Kauai, clearly exceeded all expectations. The scary thing for his peers is that Tiger thinks he can improve.
Besides, there are so many other places in the world he has yet to see - and conquer.
