GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : A Young Lion Named Tiger Will Play Open

It has been said that Sam Snead is such a natural player, he just fell out of bed one day as a youngster with a classic golf swing.

Eldrick (Tiger) Woods got started earlier. He had a golf swing while he was still in a walker .

“When Tiger was six months old, he would sit in our garage watching me hit balls into a net,” said Earl Woods, Tiger’s father. “He had been assimilating this golf swing. When he got out of the high chair, he had a golf swing.”

Earl compared Tiger’s learning skills to the flash-card technique used with children to accelerate the reading process, adding: “And that’s how he learned golf, the accelerated method.”

Tiger Woods has been accelerating ever since. When he was 3, he shot a 48 for nine holes on the regulation Navy Golf Club near his home in Cypress.

His early celebrity earned him a television appearance on the “Mike Douglas Show,” where he competed with Bob Hope in a putting contest.

Then, at the ripe old age of 5, he was featured on the TV show, “That’s Incredible.”

Woods is now a seasoned veteran of 16, a sophomore at Western High School in Anaheim.

He is probably the most renowned junior golfer in the country, having won world junior championships in four age brackets, the USGA Junior Amateur title and numerous other tournaments.

So what’s next for Tiger? The Nissan Los Angeles Open. He has been chosen as an amateur selection to play in the Feb. 28-March 1 tournament at Riviera Country Club, with the distinction of being the youngest golfer ever to play in a PGA Tour event.

Woods said he has played against PGA pros, but not of the caliber he’ll encounter in the L.A. Open.

However, his father said Tiger won’t be intimidated.

“I think he will do very well,” Earl Woods said. “He’s aware that he can play competitively against the top element of the PGA Tour.

“He has beaten the average tour player in the “Big I” (Insurance Youth Golf Classic) tournament. When he was 13, he beat eight out of 20. When he was 14, he beat 18 out of 20. Same tees.

“A touring pro played with each threesome that made the cut.”

The senior Woods added that when Tiger was 13, he played with John Daly, and explained: “He was beating Daly with about four holes to play. Daly said out loud, ‘I can’t let a 13-year-old beat me.’ Then, Daly proceeded to birdie three of the last four holes and beat Tiger by one shot.”

Asked about his recollection of the match with Daly, the PGA champion and longest hitter on the tour, Tiger Woods said: “I don’t remember too much except that he wasn’t a smart player. He would take a driver and go over trees and would hit sand wedges to par-fives.”

Woods said he didn’t overswing after watching Daly.

“I played my own game,” he said. “It’s too tough out there with rough, bunkers and trees. I don’t see how you can go all out all the time. He is going to have to throttle back.”

Woods isn’t in a hurry to turn professional. He plans to finish high school, then get his college degree.

“Colleges were writing to me before I was a freshman in high school,” he said. “But now under NCAA rules they can’t write to me until after my junior year.”

Woods named USC, UCLA, Arizona State, Arizona, Stanford, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, North Carolina and Hawaii among the schools that have shown an interest in him.

He discounted any notion that he has been groomed from the cradle to become a professional golfer--the Todd Marinovich syndrome.

“I’m the one who will have the say whether I turn pro or not, or maybe I’ll do a different sport,” he said. “It’s my choice. I made the choice to stay in golf.”

Said Earl Woods, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a former material manager for McDonnell Douglas: “If he wants to be the head fireman in Memphis, Tenn., that’s fine with me as long as he’s an upright, upstanding citizen and doing something he’s happy with.

“There are no expectations, or inherent pressure on him to become a pro. There’s no financial pressure on him to turn pro, or provide for Dad’s welfare. I’m set for life.”

Tiger Woods is mature for his age. In an interview, he answered questions thoughtfully and confidently without hesitation. He had street smarts as early as 6.

His father described how his son came home one day with a pocketful of quarters: “I asked him, ‘Where did you get that money?’ He said he got it while putting against older kids. I told him I didn’t want him putting for quarters anymore.

“A month later, he came home and his pockets were crammed with dollars. ‘We had a skin game,’ he told me. A skin was a dollar. I told him I didn’t want him to play for anything from this day on.

“I made a mistake saying don’t putt for quarters, so he thought it was all right to play skins for a dollar.”

Woods’ mother, Kultida, nurtured her son’s golf career when he was younger.

“She was the prototype of the golf mother,” Earl Woods said. “She took Tiger to golf tournaments from the age of 4 on. And I took over when Tiger was 11.”

Earl Woods, 59, once had a one handicap even though he didn’t start playing golf until he was 42.

“Tiger beat me once when he was 7. Then, it was 50-50 when he was 10 or 11. and at 12, he was like a jet taking off. I haven’t beaten him for the last four years and it’s not for lack of trying. I’m a very competitive person. Trying to beat him now is like trying to swim up the Niagara Falls.”

Tiger Woods is literally suffering from growing pains. He said he has shot up five inches in the last two years. He stands 6-feet-1 and weighs 140 pounds.

His rapid growth has caused hamstring, foot and back problems, and at one time, he couldn’t even bend down to read a putt. He said his doctor projects that he’ll eventually grow to 6-3 or 6-4.

Gaining weight, though, is a problem for him.

“I can eat anything I want and not gain a pound,” he said. “I’ve eaten two steaks and two prime ribs at a meal. Nothing.”

Woods said he has only played at Riviera three times, scoring in the low 70s. So what are his chances of winning his first tour tournament at 16 against established pros?

“It would only happen if I get every putt to go in and hit every shot perfectly,” he said.

Golf Notes

Earl Woods said he gave his son his nickname after befriending a Vietnamese soldier named Tiger, explaining: “He was so brave, I decided my (future) son’s nickname would be Tiger” . . . The Players Amateur Tour, sponsored by PGA professionals, is under way. There will be 40 to 45 tournaments at sites such as La Costa, the Nicklaus private course at La Quinta, the Stadium course at PGA West, San Diego Country Club, Industry Hills, Mesa Verde, Valencia, Torrey Pines, Bear Creek and Rancho Santa Fe. The membership fee is $80 annually with course fees ranging from $65 to $110. Detailed information can be obtained by calling (800) 428-9905. . . . The Women’s Public Links Golf Assn. of Southern California installed its board of directors on Jan. 6. The new officers: president, Doris Elzey (River View); first vice president, Shirley Logan (Meadowlark); second vice president, Diana Quint (Balboa Park); membership secretary, Phyllis Martin (Diamond Bar); treasurer, Joy Bower (Anaheim Hills); handicap, Frances Crowder (Rancho Park); team, Janet Millar (Palm Meadows); rules, Arleen Boyuls (Elkins Ranch), and rating, Nadine Maze (El Toro). . . . The Loose Cannon Classic, a benefit golf tournament, will be held on March 2 at Rolling Hills Country Club. . . . The Southern California PGA “Golf Expo” will be held Feb. 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center.