Woods Stars in His Favorite Role

PEBBLE BEACH —  Poor Tiger Woods. It doesn’t make any difference whether he shows up at the Buick Classic or the Deutsche Bank/SAP Open or the U.S. Open, he will always be the player everyone else has to beat to win the tournament.

Now, that must be a tough position, basically because the expectations are high. There are many who figure that Woods shows up at tournaments and spends as much time working on his victory speech as his short irons. They think the checks are pre-printed with his name.

The pressure must be suffocating, all right. Bet Woods can barely haul his shivering body out of bed to get to the first tee on Thursdays. Woods must be an absolute nervous wreck. That fairway must look as wide as fettuccine.

Uh, not really. In fact, just in case there is anyone out there who truly believes that is the way Woods feels, let’s set the record straight.

Please note the Tiger Rules:

Tiger is not nervous. Tiger does not feel the pressure. Tiger is used to being the favorite each time he sticks a tee in the ground. Tiger is the one to beat at this U.S. Open and he will be the one to beat at the next U.S. Open.

If Woods were any more relaxed, he would need to install a recliner on the first tee, shove a pillow behind his back and then knock his first shot 290 yards down the middle while sitting down.

The fact is that golf, especially major golf events, are not upsetting to Woods. Actually, they are invigorating. They pump him up, give him something to shoot for.

Goodness knows, Woods could use a few more targets. As the 100th U.S. Open begins today at Pebble Beach Golf Links, the single target that most often finds itself in Woods’ path is none other than Jack Nicklaus.

To be compared to Nicklaus is high praise indeed . . . history’s greatest player against the guy who might take that label for himself. If you check the career of Nicklaus after about four years as a pro, Nicklaus had four major titles to two for Woods at the same stage. But Woods leads in PGA Tour victories, 19-17.

Almost every week, Woods is asked whether the stress of being the favorite wears on him. His answer is always the same. He says it doesn’t, and the way he says it, it’s almost as if he wonders why he even gets that question.

You can almost hear him thinking . . . “Does Pavarotti fret that he’s not going to get a standing ovation? Did Michael Jordan worry he might drop the NBA trophy every single time they handed it to him? For that matter, did Nicklaus ever feel he wasn’t the one to beat at a major championship?”

Woods is clearly the chosen one in professional golf. A couple of weeks ago, it was suggested to Woods that he ought to get a finder’s fee for helping the PGA Tour increase its TV package by tens of millions. Woods played along.

“You think?” he said.

Woods was not kidding. Money aside, there is also his prominence. And with Jordan’s retirement, Woods is probably the most famous active athlete in the world. Look at it this way: That we’re even talking about a golfer being the most famous athlete in the world should tell you the extent of Woods’ impact on professional sports.

Besides, Woods doesn’t know any better. Ever since he can remember, Tiger has handled the attention, the pressure, the media, the expectations, the money and the fame. It’s what he does, it’s his job. He just happens to do it better than anyone else who plays golf.

And now he’s in front of us again. Here at Pebble Beach, the U.S. Open promises to follow its normal tortuous path of identifying the best players in the game and then trying very hard to embarrass them. The Open is known to be sort of quirky, the major championship that has given us great champions such as Nicklaus (four times) and Ben Hogan (four times) and mixed them in with other winners such as Jack Fleck, Lou Graham and Andy North.

At 24, Woods is halfway through the major slam, which is winning all four of the major tournaments. The Masters and the PGA Championship are already in his bag, which means that the Open and the British Open are left.

It is generally agreed that the U.S. Open will be the toughest major for Woods to win because of the way the courses are set up, with narrow fairways, lots of rough and small, hard greens.

So in the next four days, we are going to see if that really is true. Maybe Tiger will spend too much time in the rough. Maybe he won’t be able to coax his golf ball to stay put on greens the consistency of a runway at LAX.

Then again, maybe Woods will remember how he played the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am the first week of February. . . . Seven shots down with seven holes to go, he closed with a 64 and won by two.

Yes, there is a different feel to Pebble Beach in June, with dry fairways, hard greens and sunshine. But Woods also saw the shape of the fairways, the line of the rough and prepped himself for the challenge.

So at 8:40 a.m. today when he steps on the first tee, you can expect Tiger to be confident, calm, composed and, yes, the favorite. He’s used to it that way. And with about $15.5 million in career earnings, plus about $100 million in endorsements, he’s hardly poor Tiger, is he?