Wednesday, November 21, 2001
[HAWAII GOLF]
Goosen silences POIPU, Kauai >> Birds sing when Tiger putts. Everything stops but the breeze and the sun, the beautiful sky and the faint hint, if you listen closely enough, of the sound of crashing waves on the coast. Perfect stillness, perfect silence, and when Tiger studies the green, everything fades into the background, and the day is suddenly clear and crisp and pure.
Tiger on day 1
With the world watching Tiger
Woods, Retief Goosen sneaks into
the lead after the first day of the
Grand Slam of GolfBy Kalani Simpson
ksimpson@starbulletin.com
Footfalls whisper gently, respectfully, as a few people tiptoe and sneak in the background when Retief Goosen putts. There is the odd murmur or cough, or even an occasional distant conversation on the wind when David Duval stands over the ball. And at David Toms' turn the crowd melts, everyone already leaving for the next hole in a mad free-for-all.With mere mortals, there is that almost imperceptible hint of white noise, background sound that has to happen when hundreds of people are crowded together in one place.
But when Tiger putts the world stops on its axis, and you can hear the birds and feel the breeze and be struck by the beauty that is a flawless fall day at Poipu. There is nothing else. Nothing moves. Not a sound. A kapu of silence for the king of golf.
And then, thunder.
"I think he has an advantage on any course we play," Goosen said yesterday at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.
Not because of the silence itself. Because he can cause the silence. Because he is Tiger Woods.
But Woods' 50-foot putt for eagle and the tie missed on 18 yesterday, and Goosen leads by a stroke after the first day of competition, finishing 31-35-66 and 6-under. Here, in the land where the wild chickens roam free, it is the Golden Goose that holds the advantage going into today's final.
"It's a nice opening round, I've a pretty good chance tomorrow," the South African, champion of the U.S. Open, said.
But Tiger ended the day closing, with a birdie on 18 and a score he liked after a game he didn't.
PGA Grand Slam of Golf
At Poipu, Kauai
Goosen31-35-66-6
Woods33-34-67-5
Toms31-37-68-4
Duval38-38-76+4
"I didn't really grab the ball very well today," he said. "I hit maybe one fairway through 13 holes today. ... I'm just kind of hanging in there, scrapping around.
"Towards the end I started hitting the ball a bit better. And I'm very happy to shoot what I shot today, because I was not driving the golf ball the way I need to drive it."
Woods is at the Grand Slam for the fifth straight year and defending three straight titles. And the gallery thought he played just fine.
Meanwhile, British Open champ Duval summed up his outing when he tripped on the steps to the interview podium. He could only smile sheepishly. "What a day," he said.
It was. Duval missed short putts. His ball lipped out. He ended up right in the lumberyard, finding the water twice. He spent time in the rough and on the sand. He finished 4-over, double-bogeying on holes 5 and 7 and vowing an afternoon workout to work out the day's frustrations.
Toms was in the hunt for the lead the entire day, but his play typified that of most of the field's outing: Hot start, nondescript finish. The field shot under par on a total of 16 holes on the front nine, 5 holes on the back.
"I shot 5-under on the front, 1-over on the back," Toms said, finishing the day two shots out of the lead. "You know, there's some difficult pin placements out there. ... You get out to the 17th hole, and the pin's stuck under a bunker, a 215-yard shot. And then the 18th hole, I couldn't reach the green. And basically the third shot, you know the pin's stuck up there on the little shelf and I almost spun it back in the water.
"So I just don't think, you know, the scoring opportunities really weren't there."
Luckily, there were fireworks on the front. Woods started it all by sinking a 20-foot putt for birdie on the very first hole. Later, on No. 6, Goosen hit a 25-yard sand wedge up and over and onto the hill that held the green, clanking the pin and falling home for eagle. And on 6, Woods made a great shot out of the rough from behind a tree to set up a six-foot putt for eagle.
"It came out absolutely perfect," Woods said. But he "yipped," (his words) and settled for birdie.
With perfect conditions, one player was missing on the links at Poipu. "We have not really seen the golf course with prevailing winds blowing 20 miles per hour," Duval said. He hopes to make a comeback today. If the wind comes with him, it only plays into Tiger's hands.