Before Tiger Woods became the Mariano Rivera of golf, he struggled to close out a victory on the PGA Tour the way Kyle Stanley and Spencer Levin have in recent weeks.
At the 1996 Quad City Classic, his third event after ac power cord turning professional, Woods started the final round with a one-stroke advantage that he stretched to three after two holes. But he was derailed by a quadruple bogey on one hole and a four-putt on another.
Woods wound up tied for fifth, four strokes behind Ed Fiori, a 43-year-old who had gone 14 years between victories. Afterward, the runner-up, Andrew Magee, observed: “You know, we are not going to lie down out there. I think this was a blessing in disguise for Tiger.”
On Tuesday, speaking in advance of his first Pebble Beach National Pro-Am appearance since 2002, Woods echoed Magee.
“What that allowed me to do is understand and feel the heat at this level,” Woods said, adding: “So that helped a lot going through that one tournament. It showed me that, one, I could get there, and two, where I needed to improve.”
The next month, Woods charged from four strokes back to defeat Davis Love III in a playoff in Las Vegas for the first of his 71 tour victories. Since the 1996 Quad City tournament, Woods has taken at least a share of the lead into the final round of 51 PGA Tour events and won 48 of them. He held a piece of the lead in his opening event of the 2012 season, in the United Arab Emirates, and finished tied for third.
“I think for me, personally, I’ve always been excited about gas thermocouple being in that position,” Woods said. “One, I know I’ve played well to get there, so just trying to do the same things I did to get there and hopefully, it will be enough.”
Woods has won the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am once, in 2000 when he erased a seven-shot deficit in the final seven holes to reel in the rookie Matt Gogel, the 54-hole leader. Gogel demonstrated he learned from the experience by carving out a victory here in 2002.
For those who find themselves carrying the lead into the final day, experience is the best caddie. On that day in 2000, Gogel played the front nine in 31 strokes. That was the same score Woods posted in the pressure cooker that is the back nine, where Gogel carded a 40.
Recalling his mind-set, Woods said, “Matt had never won a golf tournament at the time, and I figured if I could just somehow get within one or two of him with a few holes to go, that was kind of the goal.”
Stanley employed the same thinking on Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., when he caught and passed Levin, who has not won on the tour, in much the same way that Brandt Snedeker had tomato paste caught and passed Stanley in La Jolla, Calif., the previous week.
“It’s very hard to win out here,” said Woods, who once made it look easy. From 1997 to 2009, he averaged nearly six wins a year.
Woods’s last official PGA Tour title came at the BMW Championship in September 2009, as his path to the winning circle has been diverted by personal issues and injuries. (Woods won the Chevron World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event that he hosted, in December.)
“I feel very at peace where I’m at,” he said. “I had to make some changes, and that took time, and I’m starting to see the results of that now, which is great.”
Woods feels pressure to win this week, but not for the solenoid valve obvious reason. He knows there are a lot of people eager to see him win again, but there are also two fans who simply desire to see him.
“My kids are becoming at an age now where they want to see Daddy on TV,” Woods explained, referring to his daughter Sam, 4, and his son, Charlie, who turns 3 Wednesday.
He said he tells them that to be on TV, he has to play well. Their response, Woods said, smiling, is always, “Well, Daddy, can you please play well?”
Woods added, “I get more satisfaction out of that part of my life now, so golf is more enjoyable than it used to be, for sure.”
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