FARMINGDALE, N.Y. - What a forlorn couple they made, Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams, unhappily huddled under an umbrella, soaked yet forced to remain in position on the 11th hole as the rain pelted down on Bethpage Black Saturday night.It was portrait-as-metaphor; insult added to the injury of a United States Open title defense which is slipping away.
The world No. 1 and his faithful sidekick were made to stand in the rain for more than 10 minutes even though play had been halted; even though it was already beyond 7 p.m., the light had all but faded into dusk and, more to the point, the deluge had turned large portions of the golf course into a frog habitat.
It was obvious to everyone except the United States Golf Association that despite their small army of volunteers with squeegees, no more golf was possible after the third round's belated late-afternoon start.
The USGA finally got the hint and called an end to festivities, freeing Woods and Williams as well as the other contestants on the course to retreat to the clubhouse after one of the longest days — almost 12 hours of play — in major championship history.
Certainly, more golf had been played than was thought possible given the grim weather prognostications for Saturday.
Sadly for Woods, it still wasn't enough to give him the chance to gain some traction on what he'd hoped would be a 15th major championship.
"Unfortunately, my score doesn't reflect the way I've been playing," Woods lamented, before throwing out his oft-used verbal equivalent of a shrug, "it is what it is."
It's perhaps a trifle melodramatic to say nothing has gone Woods' way at this Open, but consider that after he carded a second-round 1-under-par 69 — historically a fine score at this championship — Woods actually lost ground on the tournament leader.
He'd been 10 shots back of Mike Weir after the first round and awakes Sunday 11 shots adrift of second-round surprise leader Ricky Barnes, who made the most of the favorable draw to shoot stellar rounds of 67 and 65 and set a U.S. Open 36-hole scoring record.
"It's been lucky with my draw but you've got to take advantage of it," Barnes said of the benign conditions and palatable weather he's experienced as opposed to those playing in the Woods half of the draw.
"If you don't take advantage of it, it's useless."
Throughout his career, Woods has been the best there's ever been of taking advantage of opportunities; he's like the proverbial wolf with lamb chops flying by.
But he knows that he's failed to make the most out of his first two rounds at Bethpage.
In the opening round, he turned an even-par score into a 4-over 74 and Saturday he could've easily been a couple of shots better. His short game, normally a strong suit, has been indifferent.
Imagine his ignomy when he hears that Johnny Miller — a name which most certainly does not appear on the Woods Christmas card list — at one point during the NBC telecast mischievously said that "he's chipping like me right now."
Miller offered the assessment after watching Woods butcher the 15th hole for the second straight round.
In the first round, Woods double-bogeyed the hole. Saturday Woods short-sided himself with his approach, failed to get a flawed attempt at a flop shot onto the green, then compounded the misery by stubbing a chip, leaving a 6-foot bogey putt. Fortunately, he made it.
Continuing a disturbing theme at majors begun at Augusta, Woods made bogey on his final hole, the ninth, after missing the green.
It's not as if he can not win this championship, for he's earned the benefit of the doubt, no matter how improbable.
But neither is this one of his rotation of favorite courses, from Firestone to Bay Hill to Torrey Pines, where, for instance, 10 years ago he shot 17 under par on the weekend to leap-frog more than 30 players and win the Buick Invitational.
Woods needs Zeppelinesque implosions from the 26 players ahead of him on the leader board as well as a pair of rounds in the mid-60s.
He's fighting history, too. Only once in 108 years of U.S. Opens has anyone rallied from 11 shots back at the halfway mark. Lou Graham won the 1975 Open at Medinah in a playoff against John Mahaffey after Tom Watson capitulated on the weekend.
Woods is stubborn enough, this great champion, to believe it's not a bridge too far. He will, as always, fight with everything he has until the bell rings.
"I'd like to," Woods said when asked whether he could win, "I'm hitting it well enough. I just need to obviously make a few more putts and get it rolling."
Although he was unhappy about the bumpy, slow greens and the closing second-round bogey, Woods conceded the damage was done in the first round.
"Yesterday was the day that did it," he said.
"On my half of the draw I had to finish at even par, one over par at the worst because I think one under par is the best my side of the draw did. That would have been a really good score.
"But instead I ended up at four over par and that was about the mean for the day on my side (of the draw), which is not what it's going to take to win a U.S. Open.
"You have to do better than that."
He would know.
source: "On my half of the draw I had to finish at even par, one over par at the worst because I think one under par is the best my side of the draw did. That would have been a really good score.
"But instead I ended up at four over par and that was about the mean for the day on my side (of the draw), which is not what it's going to take to win a U.S. Open.
"You have to do better than that."
He would know.
source: "On my half of the draw I had to finish at even par, one over par at the worst because I think one under par is the best my side of the draw did. That would have been a really good score.
"But instead I ended up at four over par and that was about the mean for the day on my side (of the draw), which is not what it's going to take to win a U.S. Open.
"You have to do better than that."
He would know.
source: foxnews.com
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