Chasing Tiger

Posted by Tom Curran: Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:19 PM

At 1:36, Tiger Woods teed off with a 3-wood on the 460-yard par-4 seventh hole at Augusta National and watched warily as his drive hugged the right trees.

At that point, Woods was even-par one shot off the clubhouse lead of Heath Slocum and good buddy Mark O'Meara. A wedge and two putts later and Woods had finished seven at even par.

So what's going on out here with Woods? Fairways and greens and hordes of people following his every move.

I had grand designs on following Woods through his first round -- every shot. Fat. Freakin'. Chance. Call me Masters Greenhorn.

Here's how it started: I watched Woods tee off on No. 1, playing along with Angel Cabrera and Stuart Appleby. He smashed his drive 340 yards into the left pineneedles, wedged to just off the right side of the green, bammed a chip 8 feet past and toilet-bowled in his putt for par.

I scurried to the second fairway, down to the bottom of the hill after the dogleg where I figured he'd be landing his drive. There was nobody there. Tremendous. I'm smarter than the rest! After about four minutes of self-congratulation, I realized I was standing alongside the ninth fairway. Moron.

So I missed most of Woods' par on 2. With 3 already jammed, I headed to the fourth - a par-3. Even though Woods was still in the third fairway, onlookers were stacked three and four deep ringing the tee box for Mike Weir, Paddy Harrington and Geoff Ogilvy. It's not just a challenge for the players with Tiger, but it's a challenge for the group ahead of him which gets a huge anticipatory gallery.

As Woods tidied up another par on 3 (20-footer to tap in range), Weir and Co. had to keep a wary eye on the green behind them to make sure they didn't address their tee shots while Woods was in the process of doing anything that might elicit a roar or groan.

By then, I'd come to the conclusion that the gallery following Tiger is a human tsunami. People are rooted in place ahead of him, but when he arrives then proceeds, the humanity that was there uproots and follows. So the gallery is constantly growing.

With only a chance to see necks and the backs of heads on Nos. 5 and 6, I jumped ahead to the 7th tee and got to see portions of the rest of the field. Olazabal, Sabbatini and Zach Johnson made their way through before the group ahead of Woods came through. As Weir stood at address a low, anticipatory roar could be heard building, like the noise you hear as a roller coaster click-clacks to the top and then reaches a fast, furious crescend, the roar built until Weir had to back off.

What was it? Had to be Tiger, right? That was the buzz around the tee box and Weir waited while the noise died. 30 seconds. 40 seconds. Then Weir was ready. And he pulled his drive right. Next up was Harrington. He pushed his drive right as well.

As it turned out, the hubbub was for a hole in one by Ian Poulter on the 16th - not Tiger at all. Poulter is now the clubhouse leader at -2. Woods is on the green at 9 and I'm scooting back out to catch him through Amen Corner. I'll be back in after that and then back to catch the tail end of the round.

Tiger a Little Loose from 150

Posted by Tom Curran: Thursday, April 10, 2008 11:23 AM

AUGUSTA, Georgia - Tiger Woods has finished his full-swing warm-up at the Masters. After taking a break in the clubhouse from 10:45 to 11 a.m., Woods returned to the driving range at 11.

With Mike Weir to Woods' left and Paddy Harrington to his right, Woods pounded mid-irons under the watchful eye and quiet mouths of caddy Steve Williams and swing coach Hank Haney.

At 11:03, Woods wiped his brow, took a long pull from his G2 "Tiger" Gatorade (red) and watched a few swings from Harrington.

After returning to his preparations, Woods and Weir exchanged nods at 11:08 as Weir headed for the putting green.

When the range picker came out, Woods eschewed the chance to pelt it with 3-woods and instead assumed the position - right foot over left, toe stuck in the ground, right hand on the end of a club, left hand on hip.

At 11:17, Woods switched from his 3-wood to a higher iron for approaches to the green positioned about 150 yards out. Using either an 8 or a 9, Woods missed the target green long and left then had about four balls land short and to the right before dropping three within about six feet. Either he was off-target or he was intending to hit to different sides of the green.

At 11:20, he hit some low-trajectory lob wedges and sand wedges to the near target green then, at 11:23, packed up to head to the practice green.

What did we learn? That it's a very repetitive, methodical and silent process Woods goes through on the range preparing for the first round of the Masters.

And that, for all of us who show up at the course 7 minutes before our tee time and hit three putts, we shouldn't be stunned when we go out and shoot a radio station.

Now back to track Tiger over the first six holes.

Fog Causes First Round Delay

Posted by Tom Curran: Thursday, April 10, 2008 9:30 AM

AUGUSTA, Ga. - There are eight players on the course here at Augusta National and nobody's in the red. Fog delayed the start of the tournament and some of the leftover wetness is going to make the course play long especially to start the day.

This being my first Masters, I was expecting massive traffic on the way to the course this morning. It was hellacious on Wednesday for the final practice round.

But my eight-mile trip from Candlewood Suites took a little more than 15 minutes and the slowest going was coming out of my hotel.

My plan is to now go out to the putting green and driving range to see if Eldrick needs any tweaking before he heads out.

I'll be back with an update before Tiger tees off at around 11:15. I plan to scurry in again to update after his first six holes then again after he moves through Amen Corner (11, 12, 13). The last one, obviously, will be after the round.

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