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US Open 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
June 15, 2005; Source: AnyoneForTeeWill Pinehurst No. 2 give the world No. 1 his 3rd US Open victory, or will its woods be the downfall of Woods? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PINEHURST, NC. The text message Annika Sörenstam sent to Tiger Woods immediately after her victory last weekend in the McDonald's LPGA Championship was short and to the point. It read "9-9", a reference to the fact that the world no. 1 female golfer had caught up the world no.1 male golfer's tally of major championships. Tiger's reply was, in his own words, unprintable. Tiger can move ahead of his Swedish rival this week - and join the select club of two (Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen) with a double figure tally of majors - if he wins at Pinehurst. But only if he keeps it out of the pines for which Pinehurst is, rather obviously, famous.There are thousand of them, lining every fairway. But is Tiger worried? "If I read some of the stuff you guys write, it looks like I have no game left so I might as well quit and retire," he told AnyoneForTee, while rooting around in the trees along the seventh fairway (picture right). "I won a major this year, that's pretty good. I like my chances. I've been playing well."  But what about his errant driving, we asked? "My game is coming together nicely," he said, his disembodied voice filtering out of the bushes alongside the eleventh (picture left). "I've been working very hard on my game and now I'm striking the ball the way I want to, but you guys don't seem to want to believe me."Indeed, it must have been very hard, we suggested, working so many hours on the practice tee with Hank Haney, getting that big carve to the right with the driver perfected. A shot Butch Harmon could never manage to teach you while you were winning four consecutive majors in 2000 and 2001? "Butch who?", asked Tiger, sitting astride a branch ten feet up a pine, swishing at his ball which had nestled in a fork above his head.  What about the Pinehurst rough, we asked? It's at least four inches deep all round the course and the ball sinks to the bottom of it every time, according to the 2004 Open Champion, Ted Handlebar (Todd Hamilton - Ed). "Just take a look at my driving stats," said Tiger, as he gave up searching and dropped another ball in the thick stuff, then began looking for that one as well (right). "I've improved my distance AND my accuracy. How many guys can say that?" We did look, and the results are below. Tiger has indeed improved in 2005, moving up six places and adding five yards to his average drive, while gaining 23 places and a massive 0.2% in his percentage of fairways hit, to be the 159th most accurate driver on tour. We wanted to go and apologise to him for doubting his ability to conquer Pinehurst. But we couldn't find him. Marshalls thought he was somewhere in the trees beside the fifteenth (left), but neither he nor Stevie Williams had been seen for half an hour, so we gave up and went home. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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If he has emerged in time, Tiger will tee off from the 10th at 7.44am on Thursday with Luke Donald and the man Tiger beat in the playoff for the Masters, Chris DiMarco. AnyoneForTee will be following him, but not standing in the gallery down the right. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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