Winning in the rough is missing link for Woods
Tiger will face test off tee at Turnberry, writes Mark Reason
TIGER WOODS has 14 Major titles, he has won every Major at least three times, he is perhaps the greatest sportsman who has ever lived, but he has yet to win an Open Championship on a links with traditional knee-high rough. At Turnberry he will have the chance to prove he can play links golf when the summer is at its most savage.
Turnberry's grass is currently on stilts. Ernie Els denied that the wavy stuff had been fed steroids, but raised a hand to indicate the level it had reached. Colin Montgomerie said 150 members had played a medal a fortnight ago and lost 480 golf balls. "Avoid the rough at all costs," he warned.
Tiger's three Open victories have come on burnt-out courses with no significant rough. More severe tests, like Birkdale, Lytham, Troon, St George's and Carnoustie, have all defeated him. You can't hit a wild tee-shot there and get away with it. Woods's one weakness over the years has been exposed.
But the absolute greats find a way to overcome. Roger Federer finally found a way to win the French Open.
It will not be so easy for Woods. Phil Mickelson is not travelling to Turnberry, but chances are he would not have featured anyway.
Tiger's real challengers lie further down the world ranking list -- and on the links courses, more than at any other Major venue, he is up against people who believe they can beat him.
One of the great modern links golfers, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia or Padraig Harrington, will surely play well next week. Woods won't just be handed victory as he sometimes has been in America. If he is to win, then he has to put his ball in play off the tee.
Graeme McDowell said: "Turnberry has got some of the heaviest links rough that I've ever seen. Turnberry is not one of these unbelievably long Major venues. It's a golf course that asks you to position the ball well off the tee. It's a tee-shot golf course."
Driving has been Woods's weakness. At the Masters in April a couple of his tee-shots almost crossed the state line, but there have been signs in recent weeks that he has finally located his rudder. He has moved up to a giddy 73rd in the driving accuracy stats, his highest position for years.
If the wind forces him to hit his driver, then he proved at last month's US Open that it will not bring a conclusive end to his chances. But if the wind stays down he will cook up a series of stinging fairway woods and long irons. He then becomes favourite.
Harrington is still in awe at the way Woods steered his way round in 2006.
"That performance at Hoylake was remarkable," said the champion. "Nobody else could have played the way he played that golf course. It was phenomenal -- his distance control, striking, to hit those greens from the distance he played.
"If the golf course gets hard, he'll be able to do it again. This is a golf course that stacks up reasonably well [for him]. But he doesn't win 50 per cent of his Majors.
"I don't have to worry about Tiger Woods. I know if he plays his very best golf he's unbelievable. But, if you look through his career, he doesn't average two a year, so that means there's two for everybody else -- at least. I believe that I can be one of those numbers. As good as Tiger has played the last 10 years, he didn't win them all. You've got to accept that there are plenty of opportunities when he's in the field."
Over the years Turnberry has rewarded great ball-strikers -- Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in 1977, Greg Norman in 1986 and Nick Price in 1994. These were the greatest golfers in the world playing at their peak.
By that logic Woods should be a certainty to win next Sunday, but in recent years the Open Championship has tended to defy logic. If, in the summer of 2003, you had predicted that Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton would win the next two Opens, followed by consecutive victories for Woods and Harrington, you may have been led gently to a sanatorium.
There are the great links players like Garcia and Els. There are a hatful of Americans like Brian Gay, third in driving accuracy and in the top 10 for putting, who have the game to cause another surprise in calm conditions.
Indeed, the list of potential winners is long and winding, but one that leads inexorably back to Woods. When Federer won Wimbledon, Tiger texted: "Great job, now it's my turn."
Telegraph
