By Art Spander
PITTSFORD, N.Y. — It’s a strange game, golf, a bizarre game, and at the same time an enthralling game, different from the rest. Get a touchdown ahead in football or two runs in front in baseball, and the other team needs to match that for a tie.
But not in golf.
In golf, you can go from a three-stroke deficit into the lead before you get to the first tee.
In golf, they have these evil things called bogies — or worse, double-bogies — that destroy all that a player has worked for without anybody else in the field taking a single swipe at a ball.
So when Tiger Woods after round one of the 95th PGA Championship on Monday said, “I’m only six back,” when he finished early, the comment was both wishful thinking and perhaps less absurd than it appeared.
Not that Woods was thrilled after double-bogeying his final hole, the ninth, and coming in with a 1-over-par 71 at Oak Hill Country Club.
Not that falling behind more than a third of the field has to make us believe — even if he believes — Tiger this weekend has a chance to get that 15th major.
Every swing in golf swing can be an adventure. Or a disaster. On the fourth tee, Phil Mickelson hit one over the fence, which was more than the San Francisco Giants had been able to accomplish in two weeks at AT&T Park until Brandon Belt homered Thursday.
Phil was stuck with a double-bogey seven on the hole. Take two steps backwards. Then he made some birdies. Move on up.
Mickelson at least won the British Open a couple of weeks back. Tiger hasn’t won a major in five years. His start doesn’t make it appear that streak will end this week.
The rains hit the Rochester area Thursday afternoon, suspending play for a while. After resumption, Mickelson, with another double, on 18, would end at 71, the same as Tiger.
Adam Scott, the Masters champ and playing with Phil, came in at 5-under 65, to tie Jim Furyk, meaning Woods trailed not only one man by those six strokes but two.
“I’m still right there,” said Woods, repeating what he told us at the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. Alas, when each tournament concluded, he wasn’t there. At least where he wanted to be, in first place.
“We have a long way to go,” was one of his observations Thursday. So does Tiger Woods.
That last hole, the ninth since he started at the 10th, represented all that’s been wrong for Tiger in the majors. A two-shot differential, in a negative direction.
A par would have brought him in at 1-under. However, his second shot was into the rough, his third into a bunker, his fourth onto the green. Two putts, and he had a six.
“I was completely blocked out and tried to shape one over there,” said Woods, “and I drew no lie at all from my third shot. I was just trying to play 20 feet long and putt back and try to just get bogey. I didn’t even get over the bunker. Hit a beautiful putt. Just lipped out.”
Just lipped out. A week ago, at the Bridgestone, Woods shot 61 in the second round, then went on to win the tournament. He was ready. Or so he said. Or so we thought. Now, we don’t know what to think, except at age 37, Tiger may have lost the battle to time.
Tiger always has been private. It’s his right. He’s never been one to say more than required, and sometimes not even that much. But it would be gratifying to hear him expand on what’s really deep in his heart.
Woods will concede he’s lost yards off the tee. He won’t concede he’s not the golfer of 2000 or 2008. We know he isn’t.
What he needed on Day One of the last major of 2013 was an impressive round, say 4-under-par, a jolt to the others, a warning that Woods can still bring it, if not quite in the manner of a few years ago. He needed to show us that he can play in a major as he did last week in a tournament that, while important, is not a major.
“I played really well today,” said Woods. “As I said, just a couple — you know , one loose 9-iron in there . . .”
If-a, could-a, might-a, often that’s a golfer’s mantra when reviewing a round that he wanted to be better. This one, in actuality, could have been worse. Woods one-putted seven of the first nine holes, one of those a 10-footer for a par at the 10th, his first hole.
“This round realistically could have been under par easily.”
But realistically it wasn’t.
