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Camp notes
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 | | Woods |
Quiet time: Tiger Woods had one of his quietest meetings with the media ever. Interviewed with Tom Lehman, Phil Mickelson and Notah Begay III, he was asked just three out of the 16 questions at the U.S. session. And one of his answers: "Ditto."
Hunch pays off: U.S. captain Ken Venturi had a feeling Kirk Triplett and Stewart Cink, both rookies, would play well together. They did -- with seven birdies.
"They both played off each other, they liked each other, and they thanked me for what I did," Venturi said.
You are what you wear: Much was made of David Duval's decision to wear a plain, navy blue long-sleeved shirt, rather than a traditional team golf shirt. Venturi said it was because of Duval's injured back and neck, which he was trying to keep warm.
Venturi was asked why Duval didn't wear a golf shirt over his other shirt. "Then it was too hot," Venturi said. "So we discussed it. That's part of our uniform."
Case closed -- until Friday.
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And finally...
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 | | Duval |
You are what you play: Duval had to play the final 16 holes with a borrowed 7-iron. His snapped in half when he hit a tree on his follow-through on the second hole, with the splintered end flying over the heads of the gallery. So Duval got a club with a similar grip but a different shaft, from an assistant pro in the clubhouse. He used it once -- on the 11th hole -- and hit it stiff to the flag. "I said you better keep it in your bag," Venturi told him.
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LAKE MANASSAS, Va. -- Tiger Woods finally felt bad on a golf course.
His tee shot on the 175-yard par-3 16th went left and over the green, forcing Notah Begay III into an awkward chip back to the pin in a match against Ernie Els and Vijay Singh that still hung in the balance.
And Woods was unhappy.
"That's one of the interesting things about playing alternate shot -- you feel bad if you hit a bad shot," Woods said. "Normally you feel bad for yourself and now you feel bad for leaving a bad shot for your partner."
Begay pitched the ball back to 20 feet from the pin. Woods stood over the putt, knowing he was going to make it.
"Notah hit a great shot out there, just to put it on the green," Woods said. "And I told him the job was done. I'm going to make it."
It was that kind of an afternoon for Woods and Begay, the former Stanford roommates who were pitted against Singh and Els in the headline match of the day. When one struggled, the other made up for it. When both were on -- as they were on the 580-yard par-5 14th, Woods can bomb a 365-yard drive and Begay can follow with a 215-yard 3-wood to make birdie and match Singh and Els.
"We had to hang on for dear life coming in, and we did it," Woods said.
"I just got out there and just tried to maintain a positive mentality, positive attitude and support Tiger," said Begay.
Woods hadn't played competitively since winning the Canadian Open in August. He looked rusty at times, but made the big putts when he had to at the 15th -- a 6-footer to save par -- and 16th holes.
"I didn't feel as comfortable as I would like to, since I haven't played in a while," said Woods. "Coming back out and having to hit shots that actually meant something was different. I was a little tight, a little nervous."
So was Begay, playing in his first professional team competition.
"I was very nervous for the first few holes and for most of the day," he said.
U.S. captain Ken Venturi said that Woods and Begay will play twice more (Begay will sit out one of the matches either Friday or Saturday). They're slated to face Shigeki Maruyama and Carlos Franco in best ball Friday, beginning at 8:27 a.m.
"When he missed a shot or I missed a shot, he came back and gave me support," Begay said of Woods. "It was just a great experience for me. To take on Ernie Els and Vijay, two of the top players in the world, and to battle them all the way to the 18th hole and have to hit a couple of shots the way I did, I couldn't have dreamt of a better way to start of this sort of competition for me."
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