Cashing in on Tiger's absence

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

KAPALUA, Maui — Maybe it takes Tiger Woods' absence to realize what truly matters when you golf not just for a living, but to achieve greatness.

Japan's Shigeki Maruyama is among the 36 PGA pros competing in the Mercedes Championships. Eric Risberg • Associated Press

Woods is recovering from knee surgery, not yet swinging a golf club and joking that if he spends any more time on the stationery bike he will be in the Tour de France before he gets back to the PGA Tour. Mickelson chose to stay home with his family.

Since Woods joined the tour in 1996, at age 21, he and Mickelson have won 50 tour events. Woods has 34 of those — 27 since 1999, when he won the first of four consecutive Player of the Year honors.

The PGA Tour will play 48 official events for $225 million this year. Tiger has taken a huge bite out of those totals the past few years and it isn't the money elite players are missing. Golfers can make a great living without winning on this tour — the guy who finishes last this week gets $54,000. But the great players only care about winning.

It was a simple statement that came late in a press conference dominated by talk of Tiger. His impact is so ubiquitous he can be an ocean away and still wreak havoc. Els, soft-spoken and blunt, admitted he basically let Woods pick his game apart in 2001 — the only year in the last nine Els did not win a tour event.

The decline started a year earlier here. Woods and Els eagled the final hole Sunday to go to a playoff, which Woods won with two birdies. Els was brilliant, and beaten. He would finish second five times that year, setting a record with three seconds in majors — twice to Woods. It was an unforgettable $3.5 million year, but what Els could not forget was being beaten.

"Tiger went on a streak there which I don't know if we'll ever see again," Els recalled. "Everything he did was obviously unbelievable. Unfortunately for me, I was caught up in that whirlwind of his."

Els started to push in 2001 when he should have pulled back, beginning the year by self-destructing here and then was "just flat" for six months. Now he admits he was too hard on himself. He ultimately realized he had to "fall back on his talent ... trust that." He rallied last year with four victories worldwide, including the British Open — his third major.

"I eventually got mentally stable again," he said. "My own little battle. I just basically played my game again. Instead of trying to improve things, doing things out of the ordinary trying to chase Tiger down, I thought, 'Play my game, see where it goes.' "

Els isn't the only one who sees Woods in his victory dreams. Sergio Garcia came to last year's Mercedes talking about being No. 1 on the PGA and European tours in the same year. He closed with a 9-under-par 64 here, chasing down David Toms with a birdie on the 18th, then birdieing it again to win a playoff.

It would be his only birdie at the 72nd hole all year. He finished sixth on the money list and didn't win another tour event, although he was the only player with Top-10's in all the majors. He did win on the Asian and European tours, where he was 12th on the money list.

Garcia, who turns 23 today, calls last year "a pity."

"Probably the first six months I was playing really well," he said. "Unfortunately, I was putting badly, just hitting bad putts. When you get into that mood, it's tough to get it going. Even like that, I gave myself a lot of chances to win. Because I didn't putt well, I didn't win as many times as I should have, or at least I feel that I should have."

Garcia calls Woods "a great player, probably going to be the best player ever." But he is careful to add this:

"Hopefully, I'll try to make that not possible myself. ... I'm not going to give him more credit than he deserves. He's a wonderful player, but that's it for me. I believe in myself."

Garcia believes he will win a major and admits there will be a "little spot in my heart that's a little empty" if he doesn't.

He won't fulfill that dream this week. But his odds of defending are definitely better with Tiger training for the Tour de France an ocean away.

TODAY'S TEE TIMES

10:30 a.m.—Jonathan Byrd, Luke Donald. 10:40—Phil Tataurangi, Bob Burns. 10:50—Loren Roberts, Charles Howell III.

11—John Rollins, Dan Forsman. 11:10—Chris Riley, Gene Sauers. 11:20—Rich Beem, Craig Parry. 11:30—Spike McRoy, J.P. Hayes. 11:40—Chris Smith, Jeff Sluman. 11:50—Jim Furyk, Bob Estes.

Noon—Shigeki Maruyama, Nick Price. 12:10—Rocco Mediate, K.J. Choi. 12:20—Retief Goosen, Justin Leonard. 12:30—Craig Perks, Vijay Singh. 12:40—Ernie Els, Matt Kuchar. 12:50—Kevin Sutherland, Ian Leggatt.

1 p.m.—Jose Maria Olazabal, Len Mattiace. 1:10—Chris DeMarco, Matt Gogel. 1:20—Sergio Garcia, Jerry Kelly.