Tiger turns his doubts into another great year

LEMONT, Ill. (AP) -Tiger Woods is turning into quite the trivia buff.

During the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago, he saw a couple of familiar faces as he walked off the 10th tee and approached as if wanting to impart some important information.

“Which city sits on two continents?” he said. “And what country has the most lakes?”

His favorite golf question: The eight major champions with the letter “z” in their surname.

When it comes to his own trivia, Woods often doesn’t have a clue.

He kept track of the score at the BMW Championship, which was all that mattered to him. Woods built such a big lead at Cog Hill with his course-record on Saturday that his only goal for the final round was to break par.

He closed with a 68 and wound up winning by eight shots.

In an era when a three-shot margin is considered comfortable, this was the fourth straight year Woods has won by at least eight, and the 10th time in his PGA Tour career. He was asked if big victories like that gave him additional satisfaction.

“First of all, I did not know that,” he said with a smile that suggested he was pleased to find out.

Odds are, he isn’t aware that he tied Sam Snead with his sixth year of six victories or more. To put that in perspective, only one other player over the last 25 years has won six times in a season – Vijay Singh in 2004.

So really, has anything changed about Woods?

He makes winning look ridiculously routine. Because he usually plays only the stronger courses, his adjusted scoring average is 68.06, giving him a 1.26 margin over second place. Such a gap is not unlike Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes – or even Woods in the world ranking, in which he has doubled the lead over Steve Stricker.

So why is Woods so proud of his game? Why does he call this one of his best years when he didn’t win a major?

Only he can appreciate how badly his ligaments were shredded in his left knee. Only he knows the extent of the surgery, not to mention the eight-month recovery that allowed doubts to invade his mind about how quickly he could get back to where he was.

Woods has been saying all summer that he never could have imagined winning so much after such a major surgery. Yet the more he keeps winning, the harder it is to believe him.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year … any of you guys probably wouldn’t have predicted I would have had a year like I did,” Woods said Sunday. “To be as consistent as I’ve been this year, I’m very proud of that.”

Even so, consistency is nothing new.

Over the last three years, Woods has finished out of the top 10 only seven times in 40 tournaments. Go back to Hoylake for the 2006 British Open, and he has won 52 percent of his PGA Tour events.

Sure, there are some noticeable differences.

- For the first time since he was a 20-year-old rookie, he had a lead in the final round on the PGA Tour and lost. Making it that much worse, it happened in a major for the first time ever, and it was Woods’ last chance to win a major this year.

- He failed to win a major, which is how he typically measures a successful year.

- He missed the cut in the British Open for the first time, including two starts as an amateur.

So what makes this year so different? His own doubts.

“There was so many uncertainties at the beginning of the season,” Woods said. “I didn’t know how the leg was going to respond. I’ve never had a leg that was stable. What kind of shots could I play? How was my recovery going to be from day-to-day? Am I going to hurt again? A lot of these things, I didn’t know.

“To come back and be, as I said, this consistent feels pretty good.”

For Woods to keep raving about exceeding expectations speaks to how low he might have set the bar after knee surgery.

Look back at his reaction, when he screamed and ran into a hug with caddie Steve Williams after making a 15-foot birdie to win at Bay Hill. Yes, it was the last hole. It was for the win. The extra emotion comes from being his first victory since knee surgery.

So even if winning this year looks routine, it isn’t to Woods.

And while the victories continue to pile up – his 71st on the PGA Tour – it is no less amazing.

After his third round at Cog Hill, Stricker headed to the range with his father-in-law and coach, Dennis Tiziani. This has been Stricker’s best year, with three PGA Tour victories and a career-high No. 2 world ranking.

His caddie, Jimmy Johnson, was chatting about the turning points in the season when he realized Stricker had won three times in his last nine starts. That’s winning at a 33 percent clip, which is strong stuff.

Then he was told Woods has won 30 percent of his tournaments over a 13-year career.

Johnson just laughed. What else can you do?

As for that trivia question? Istanbul lies between Europe and Asia. Canada has the most lakes.

What that has to do with anything remains a mystery.

But if Woods were to win the Tour Championship next week in Atlanta, he would be the first golfer to go over $11 million for a season. He probably doesn’t know that.

it was one of those days at la Vuelta. The break went really early, the chase was left until late, and everywhere in between, you couldn’t help but think – why exactly am I watching this? The boring transition stages are manageable at the Giro, because it’s the first Grand Tour of the year, manageable at the Tour, because it’s well, the Tour, but the Vuelta? The Vuelta suffers from its spot as last in line. These non-dramatic stages often get the big yawn, and why not? The season is long for us fans too, you know?

Valverde’s henchmen once again kept things under control.

And so it was today. The break went, the peloton yawned, we yawned, and the break churned out a yeoman’s plight for the day. Behind in the field, the only happenings of any consequence were riders falling down from boredom. Robert Gesink and Ezequiel Mosquera were two very notable victims of dozing while driving. You never hear about these two climbers falling down in the mountains (well, not that much) – just goes to show you that their physical as well as mental talents are best utilized uphill.

Robert Gesink fell down, but he was ok-ish on the line. He went to the hospital post-stage.

Let’s take a motorbike across the gap to the break, fast forward a century and a half worth of kilometers and take a look at the finale. The field is churning out pavement like a summer thunderstorm chasing you all the way to your front door as you desperately try to keep it at bay to keep those really nice new white socks you just got from being ruined. Or something like that.

The day’s conspirators: Markel Irizar (Euskaltel), Francisco José Martínez (Andalucía-Cajasur), Anthony Roux (Française des Jeux), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), and Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Slipstream. They went inside the first 10k, pushed out to a seven minute cushion, to which the field didn’t care for, and were subsequently given a 300 second leash for most of the day.

When it came time for that late race tension, the gap was falling faster than a Sammy Sanchez descent, but not quite fast enough. I guess that would mean that the gap was coming down about as fast as an Ivan Basso descent. Either way, the break was being downright stubborn.

With 5k to go, the hitherto happy breakmates all pulled out their respective weapons, sharpened or loaded them, or in the case of Anthony Roux, both.

It was Al’s favorite, Martijn Maaskant, who looked to have cracked the day’s code. He pulled out his battle axe, swung mightily, and left his former friends for dead in his billowing wake.

Anthony Roux of Francaise des Joux (last name rhymes with team name? reason for hire) had been in the background sharpening his blade, loading his revolver, just waiting for such a moment. He recognized the merits of Maaskant’s move, saw the look of defeat on his opponents’ visages, took out his six shooter and shot them all down – they were done. As soon as he rocketed from the dying group, the field came a’churning from behind and gobbled up the fresh meat.

The field wanted more though and set its sights on the two remaining pieces of delectable tissue. Roux was certainly aware that there was a carnivore creeping up on his buttocks, so when he made the juncture with the ailing Maaskant, he took out his blade, jabbed Maaskant in the ribs, and left him for the multi-colored shark grinning its sharp teeth in eager anticipation.

Maaskant was done. His white flag went up, he prepared for his demise. Roux, however, had used his two weapons to perfection. All that was left now, was to see if his motor was running well enough to keep Jaws at bay. The final 500 meters were an agonizing parade of pedal pounding fury. Shark versus man, man versus shark. Oh the drama. The sprint opened up behind Roux, but waver he did not. He groveled, pushed, pried, pulled, pounded, injured his poor pedals, all the way to the line, not even sitting up to breathe in the sweet succulent perfume of success.

Whew. And I’m spent.

Silence Lotto found their way onto the podium today for the rarely awarded honor of gigantic height difference between teammates. Or something like that.

It was a good day for France – they went 1-2. William Bonnet took the sprint from the field – a notable result if it weren’t for Anthony Roux’s attention stealing victory. David Moncoutie continued the happy France feel when he stepped on stage to receive yet another blood red climber’s jersey. Dare we say that France could be a threat in Mendrisio? We dare not dream such wild dreams.

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