Herrmann: Tiger's excuses mask his frustration

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.

Call Tiger Woods a morning person. No snide remarks about his old nocturnal habits, either. We're talking strictly golf here. The greens at Pebble Beach get too firm and dry and bumpy late in the day, so he prefers to play early.

Take the past two days. He was really grumpy when he walked off the course with a 3-over-par 74 late Thursday, saying basically that he played just fine but the greens were "awful." They were nothing like the surfaces on which he had played his 7 a.m. practice rounds.

He was in a much more chipper mood Friday, having played in the morning, when he was able to put his considerable spin on the ball. "They put some water on the greens last night. And as I said, we were spinning the ball back, 20, 30, 40 feet," he said after shooting a 1-over 72 in the second round. "It was a totally different golf course."

No disrespect to the greatest golfer in the world, but it sure sounds as if he's just putting spin on the fact that he is not playing the way he did when he won the U.S. Open by 15 strokes here 10 years ago.

Woods would have you believe that the Open golfers who teed off in the afternoon Thursday might as well have been playing in straitjackets and blindfolds. The problem with that theory is that the best scores of the day occurred in the afternoon.

On Friday, he made it sound as if Pebble Beach had been converted from the Mojave Desert to the Garden of Eden overnight because of the watered greens. Makes sense, except that the U.S. Golf Association reported early Thursday that it had watered the greens Wednesday night, too. So it wasn't all that different a course.

Pebble Beach always is dryer and firmer in the afternoon than it is in the morning. Poa annua grass does get bumpy later in the day when it blossoms more. Chances are that happened in 2000, too. Woods quite possibly was just psyching himself up for a weekend run at his fourth U.S. Open championship.

If you're a Woods-watcher - and judging from the TV ratings, most of you are - you have seen and heard this before. Part of his mystique was never admitting weakness. According to Woods, he always plays well. It's just a spike mark, a photographer's click, a few misread putts that do him in.

This always has worked. It has worked mostly because he was a dramatically better golfer than everyone else. But he doesn't have that going for him this year. His game hasn't been Tiger-like, probably because of the turmoil in his personal life, his long absence from golf because of the scandal and a neck injury on top of it.

Pebble Beach's greens could have been Isleworth's or Augusta's or Pine Valley's Friday and it would not have made much difference. He rarely gave himself a shot at birdie because he either missed fairways (No. 3) or buried a shot into a bunker (No. 12) or left his approach shots long (No. 16) or short (No. 13). He made three birdies, including a chip-in on 11, and four bogeys.

Still, he left the course only seven strokes out of the lead with half an Open to go. "I feel good. I'm right there," he said.

Ernie Els, who played with Woods in the final round of 2000 and the first two rounds this year, said (after shooting 68 to go 1 under), "I think he's very close. I haven't played with him in about a year. I think his ball-striking was pretty good the last two days. His short game is pretty sharp. He just didn't make enough putts. I think it's only a matter of time before he starts getting in his stride."

Until then, though, people need to take his complaints and agronomy lessons with a grain of salt. The USGA made Woods' comments into more than they should have been by holding a news conference to refute them.

When his game is back to normal, he won't mind playing in the afternoon - late Sunday afternoon.