Tiger Woods is winless in a pro golf season for the first time in his career. But where better to end the drought than at Firestone South?
View full sizeTiger Woods says the pieces are coming together to give him his best chance at a tournament win this season. Bill Livingston says if he can't continue his dominance at Firestone, where will that next win occur?AKRON, Ohio -- Firestone has always been the flint off which Tiger Woods strikes sparks. So if it's August, he must be lighting up Akron like a match in the heart of darkness.
The reference is to the Shot in the Dark a decade ago. It was his most memorable moment at the World Golf Championships' Bridgestone Invitational, which begins Thursday.
A winner by a staggering 11 shots in 2000, Woods' next-to-last shot of the tournament was all over the flagstick, even though few could see it. He walked to the 18th green with fans' cigarette lighters flaring in salute to him in the darkness. After he sank the birdie putt, a sheet of white from flash cameras turned night into day. "It was like a rock concert," said Woods.
The encore would be to win another Bridgestone. He has not won anywhere this year, you see. It has never happened to him before as a professional.
Like everything else that followed his one-car traffic accident Thanksgiving night and the sordid revelations about his personal life that ensued, it has been a season of shadows for Woods, even on the golf course.
"It's been a long year. It's been a long 10 months," he said.
But if he can't find his way out of his troubles here, where he has won seven times, the record for one tournament at the same course, where will he? (Sam Snead's eight victories at the Greater Greensboro Open came on two courses.)
Then again, Woods has already played such previously Tiger-centric venues as Augusta National, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews this year. He has two top-10 finishes to show for his seven overall starts.
Firestone South unlocks all sorts of nostalgic memories. It recalls the tree-lined courses Woods played in his youth. The first time he played here, in fact, was as a 15- or 16-year-old with his late father, Earl. Firestone is also a straight-forward course, unlike life. You can identify the trouble and skirt it.
Woods' struggles on the course are clearly related to the turmoil off it. "I haven't practiced as much as I used to, nor should I. My kids are more important," said Woods of the breakup of his marriage.
The old NEC Invitational trophy was framed in floodlights after Woods' dramatic triumph in the gloaming of Firestone's 18th hole in 2000. Woods has dominated the vaunted Akron course in a manner seldom seen in professional golf.Once, he was considered a near-lock to break Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors. With next week's PGA Championship still to be played, he needs five more majors for 19. Five is as many as Woods' rival Phil Mickelson has won in his entire career. Five is as many as Seve Ballesteros ever won. Five is a lot.
Woods will be 35 at the end of the year. The shadows are lengthening.
Woods' greatest victory, it now seems, was his costliest one. In the 19-hole U.S. Open playoff with Rocco Mediate in 2008, Tiger stumped around Torrey Pines, another favorite venue of his, using his driver as a crutch. His left knee, now surgically repaired, was an orthopedist's nightmare.
One of Nicklaus' strengths was that he was relatively injury free during a long career, in which he won his first major at the age of 22 and his last at 46.
Woods missed the rest of the season in 2008. He couldn't hold a final-round lead in a major (last year's PGA) for the first time in his career. Now he has to come back from seamy disclosures as well as inconsistent shot-making.
He has had trouble off the tee, and fixed that; was spotty with his irons, and is working on that; and, at the British Open, when he drove the way even he would want to in his wildest dreams, he couldn't make a putt. Putting gets them all at times.
Tom Watson never won a major after he couldn't make abracadabra pars with his chipping and putting. Hell on this earth was watching Ben Hogan or Sam Snead putt.
"I've three-putted quite a few times, which I don't do normally," said Woods.
Nicklaus had an undiscouraged competitiveness that allowed him to absorb disappointment and come out swinging even better the next time. Jack was second a stunning 19 times in majors.
Woods is being tested in disappointment everywhere now. He is not the type of player who can come out of clutter and confusion and suddenly put together four pristine rounds. Ben Crenshaw did that to win the Masters in 1995. Ben Curtis came out of nowhere to win the 2003 British Open. Tiger has never been a Cinderella story, although victory here would be a start of one.
"You'll start seeing trends," he said. "I'm starting to put the pieces together."
Where better to turn the puzzle into a mosaic than Firestone?