TIGER TAKES A SWING AT A... : FORE-BAGGER

BETHESDA, Md. — Tiger Woods awakened Tuesday morning to see his picture at the top of the front page of the Washington Post. In the New York Times, there was a full-page advertisement announcing a new association between Woods and Golf Digest.

When Woods arrived at Congressional Country Club to play a practice round for the U.S. Open, he needed a security detail of 20 to protect him from the crowds.

Reporters were told they would not be allowed inside the tee area when Woods was there. The rule applies only to Woods and his group, no one else.

There were 33 television cameras--Greg Norman had only five--and a standing-room crowd of more than 500 at Woods’ news conference, which featured this question:

“Where are you staying?”

Woods repeated the question, then replied, “In a room.”

There you have it. Obviously, it’s a room with a view, because from where Tiger Woods is sitting these days, he is looking down on all of golf, which lies there at his feet, waiting for him to walk all over it.

Or so it seems. When the 97th U.S. Open begins Thursday at Congressional, where seven presidents have played golf, it’s clear that the current chief of state is a 21-year-old who plays as if he holds veto power over bogeys.

“I don’t see anything stopping him,” Tom Watson said.

“This kid, he’s got a run going right now and he doesn’t want to lose. And he’s a phenomenon, that’s what he is, and he’s going to continue to have this huge frenzy about him, whenever he plays, wherever he goes.”

In the big picture, where Woods is going next is anybody’s guess. But for those who follow the golf scene, it’s clear what’s at stake for Woods at Congressional when he tees it up--with no reporters around, of course.

It’s the Grand Slam. It’s winning all four of golf’s major championships--the Masters, the U.S. and British Opens and the PGA Championship--which nobody has done in one calendar year.

Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player have won all four major titles but not in the same year.

If the truth be told, that would be about as difficult as finding a shirt in the merchandise tent around here that’s under $60.

For the record, Woods said he could win the grand slam . . . maybe.

“I’m not going to rule out the possibility,” he said. “I think if you look at [Phil] Mickelson, who won four times last year, if he won the right four, he’s got the Grand Slam.

“That’s kind of a simple way of looking at it. But the practicality of winning the Grand Slam is very unlikely. There are so many different factors that go into winning even just one of the legs of the Grand Slam, it’s so difficult.”

Because of his record-setting 12-shot Masters victory in April at Augusta, Ga., Woods already has the first major title of the year.

Steve Jones, the defending Open champion, said he doesn’t want to put Woods on a pedestal, then chose to illustrate his point.

“He’s a person like everybody else,” Jones said. “He has to put his pants on by himself . . . is he still doing that himself?”

It was a joke, of course. But the fact remains that although Woods is rich enough to hire somebody to do anything he wants, it’s still up to him to hit the shots on the course.

Congressional seems well suited to him. Not only is it long, at 7,213 yards, but he will need to use his driver on only three holes--the 474-yard par-four sixth, the 466-yard par-four 10th and the 583-yard par-five 15th.

Woods plans to use his three-wood and two-iron on the rest, basically because he hits the three-wood 280 yards and the two-iron 240 yards, and they’re not as likely to stray from the fairway as his driver.

There are going to be a great many in his peer group curious to see how Woods plays Congressional. Nicklaus is one of them. In 1972, Nicklaus became the last person to win both the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year.

“Well, he’s on a pretty big high and he’s playing awfully well,” Nicklaus said.

“Congressional is a very, very good golf course for him.”

As for the British Open at Troon, Scotland, and the PGA at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Nicklaus isn’t as sure whether the conditions will favor Woods.

“But I would say the chances of Tiger winning [the second major] at Congressional are very good,” he said. “Beyond that, I don’t know. I think anybody winning all four is a very, very difficult chore, but it’s possible.”

So far this year, Woods has given every indication that anything is possible.

His $1.365 million in prize money in only 10 events leads the list and so do his three victories on the PGA Tour.

Woods also leads in scoring average, driving, total driving and birdies. In less than 10 months since turning pro, Woods already is No. 106 on the PGA Tour’s all-time money list, ahead of such players as Arnold Palmer, Player and Billy Casper.

Along the way, Woods has picked up endorsements and fame with relative ease. Not to mention copycats. According to a reporter from New Zealand, there is a 13-year-old golfer there who calls himself Leopard Lee.

All right, but the king of the golf jungle remains Tiger Woods. And even he doesn’t allow himself much time to reflect on his winning the Grand Slam.

He said he might, though.

“If I won the first three and then I had a one- or two-shot lead going into the last hole on 18 on Sunday, then I would think about the Grand Slam,” he said.

“But you have to understand, it’s so hard just to win a tour event, let alone a major. So it’s kind of hard for me to [think] about it.”

Actually, thinking about it is not such a problem. There is no shortage of people willing to do it for him.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tee Times

First- and second-round tee times Thursday and Friday in the U.S. Open golf championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. (times Pacific); a-amateur:

*--*

Thursday Friday Threesomes 4:00 a.m. 8:20 a.m. Mike Brisky, Brad Bryant, Jim McGovern 4:10 a.m. 8:30 a.m. Stewart Cink, Donnie Hammond, Ted Tryba. 4:20 a.m. 8:40 a.m. Clarence Rose, Grant Waite, Larry Silveira 4:30 a.m. 8:50 a.m. Christopher Perry, Andrew Coltart, Ken Green 4:40 a.m. 9:00 a.m. Hale Irwin, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus 4:50 a.m. 9:10 a.m. Fred Couples, Ian Woosnam, Greg Norman 5:00 a.m. 9:20 a.m. Davis Love III, Colin Montgomerie, Phil Mickelson 5:10 a.m. 9:30 a.m. Mark Calcavecchia, Steve Elkington, Mark Brooks 5:20 a.m. 9:40 a.m. Curtis Strange, Nick Price, Tom Watson 5:30 a.m. 9:50 a.m. Mike Hulbert, Larry Rinker, Paul McGinley 5:40 a.m. 10:00 a.m. Stephen Ames, Jay Don Blake, Billy Andrade 5:50 a.m. 10:10 a.m. Russ Cochran, a-Chris Wollmann, David Ogrin 6:00 a.m. 10:20 a.m. Padraig Harrington, Duffy Waldorf, Fred Funk, 6:10 a.m. 10:30 a.m. Loren Roberts, John Cook, Thomas Bjorn 6:20 a.m. 10:40 a.m. Michael Bradley, Mike Reid, Jay Haas 6:30 a.m. 10:50 a.m. Jeff Sluman, Hal Sutton, Scott Simpson 6:40 a.m. 11:00 a.m. Vijay Singh, Bob Tway, Scott Hoch 6:50 a.m. 11:10 a.m. Kenny Perry, Mark McNulty, Daniel Forsman 7:00 a.m. 11:20 a.m. Sean Murphy, Rob Bradley, Ed Humenik 7:10 a.m. 11:30 a.m. Peter Teravainen, a-Joel Kribel, David Toms 7:20 a.m. 11:40 a.m. Bernhard Langer, Masashi Ozaki, Fuzzy Zoeller 7:30 a.m. 11:50 a.m. Roger Gunn, a-Bob Kearney, Marty Schiene 7:40 a.m. 12:00 p.m. Gregory Sweatt, Jim Estes, Hideki Kase 7:50 a.m. 12:10 p.m. Michael Clark II, Spike McRoy, John Mazza, 8:00 a.m. 12:20 p.m. Eric Brito, Kent Jones, Michael Martin 8:10 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Dennis Zinkon, Bill Porter, John Pillar 8:20 a.m. 4:00 a.m. Bob Gilder, Paul Goydos, Ronnie Black 8:30 a.m. 4:10 a.m. Lee Rinker, Frank Lickliter II, Kelly Gibson 8:40 a.m. 4:20 a.m. Craig Parry, Scott Dunlap, Mark Wiebe 8:50 a.m. 4:30 a.m. Peter Mitchell, Brian Tennyson, Gary Nicklaus 9:00 a.m. 4:40 a.m. Tom Lehman, Tiger Woods, Steve Jones 9:10 a.m. 4:50 a.m. Tom Kite, Jose Maria Olazabal, Paul Azinger 9:20 a.m. 5:00 a.m. Corey Pavin, Nick Faldo, Lee Janzen 9:30 a.m. 5:10 a.m. Payne Stewart, Ernie Els, John Daly 9:40 a.m. 5:20 a.m. Larry Mize, Dave Stockton, Larry Nelson 9:50 a.m. 5:30 a.m. Raymond Russell, Len Mattiace, Gregory Kraft 10:00 a.m. 5:40 a.m. Olin Browne, Dennis Trixler, Dick Mast 10:10 a.m. 5:50 a.m. Dave Schreyer, a-Terry Noe, P.J. Cowan 10:20 a.m. 6:00 a.m. Andrew Morse, Chris Smith, Mike Swartz 10:30 a.m. 6:10 a.m. Steve Stricker, John Morse, Robert Allenby 10:40 a.m. 6:20 a.m. Paul Stankowski, Stuart Appleby, Jesper Parnevik 10:50 a.m. 6:30 a.m. Mark O’Meara, Lee Westwood, Justin Leonard 11:00 a.m. 6:40 a.m. Brad Faxon, Frank Nobilo, Tommy Tolles 11:10 a.m. 6:50 a.m. Paul Broadhurst, Jim Furyk, David Duval 11:20 a.m. 7:00 a.m. Scott McCarron, Darren Clarke, Jeff Maggert 11:30 a.m. 7:10 a.m. a-David White, Marco Dawson, Edward Fryatt 11:40 a.m. 7:20 a.m. Bradley Hughes, Jimmy Green, Matt Gogel 11:50 a.m. 7:30 a.m. Greg Towne, Randy Wylie, Gary Robison 12:00 p.m. 7:40 a.m. Rick Cramer, Mike Sposa, Jacob Ferenz 12:10 p.m. 7:50 a.m. Anthony Aguilar, a-J.Semelsberger, Perry Parker 12:20 p.m. 8:00 a.m. Ken Schall, Kevin Altenhof, Brett Wayment 12:30 p.m. 8:10 a.m. Roy Hunter, Slade Adams, Rodney Butcher

*--*

U.S. OPEN CONGRESSIONAL 1997

* WHEN: Thursday through Sunday (18-hole playoff would be Monday in case of a tie).

* WHERE: 7,213-yard, par-70 Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Md.

* DEFENDING CHAMPION:

Steve Jones.

* TV: Thursday and Friday, ESPN, 8-11 a.m. and 2-4:30 p.m., and Channel 4, noon-2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, Channel 4, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.