Kim dazzles, but Tiger's lurking at Congressional

by Robert Lusetich

"I did play very well but that man can go out there and shoot 60," the precocious 24-year-old said.

He was not far wrong.

Woods put his horrendous putting display at Bethpage two weeks ago well in the rearview mirror, took advantage of a rain-softened course and fired the easiest of 6-under-par 64s on a perfect Beltway summer's afternoon.

He's in a three-way tie for second, two adrift of Kim, who had eight birdies.

"I hit the ball well today and made some nice putts; two bombs out there. Overall, it was a pretty good day," Woods said.

What he'd have given for a round like this, 12 of 14 fairways hit, 15 greens in regulation and 27 putts, two weeks ago farther up the coast in Long Island.

"It's just part of golf," he said philosophically of his U.S. Open disappointment. "Sometimes you just have those weeks, and unfortunately, I had that week at the wrong time. ... But the whole idea is to make sure you have consistent speed. As long as your speed is good, day in and day out, you can turn it around pretty quickly."

What Woods has turned around quickly is that old "Fore-Right!" block which plagued him earlier in the year.

Watching him swing Thursday, he looked like the flawless player who shot 65 in the final round to win the Memorial.

It really does make you wonder how this man could possibly lose a golf tournament when he's so in control of his golf ball.

Woods had a lone blemish on his card, drawing an iron on the par-4 10th too far so it found the greenside bunker.

After a tidy sand splash shot, he misread a 6-footer for par. The only other poor swing he made was on the par-5 16th, where he set up to draw a 3-wood into a left pin but curved it slightly to the right, missing the green. He chipped up to 8 feet, though, and calmly buried the birdie putt.

The round could've been even better, given three near-misses for birdie, including an 8-footer on the 17th which he later admitted he'd pulled.

"You can be so aggressive out there," he said.

"You can fire at a lot of flags. The fairways got wide because it's not going to run out. If you get aggressive and get it going, you can post a number out there."

Woods likes Congressional because it's a classic and a U.S. Open-caliber course, so in a sense he wasn't happy that it was so benign Thursday.

"It's not the way I want it," he said, "I'd like to get the greens faster, but you can't do it when you get half an inch of rain overnight. If we get no more rain and this place starts drying out a little bit, we can get these things up in speed.

"Come Sunday, they won't be springy, but at least they'll have a little more roll-out to them and you have to think about how you're going to go into some of these flags. You can't just always fire the ball up there. If you leave it 10, 15 feet past the flag, you've got a hell of a putt because it's going to roll out."

What was interesting, too, is that Woods had his British Open ball flight in play Thursday. He hit a lot of stingers with both driver and 3-wood off the tees and flighted down his irons. He later said that high shots, especially with the irons, would probably spin too much so he relied on, instead of pitching wedges from 130 yards, "itty bitty" 8 irons.

There is, of course, a long way to go in the tournament, but if there's a player who can match Woods' explosiveness, it's Kim.

Kim is something of an enigma in that he's got tremendous talent but not always the discipline necessary to realize that potential.

When he's on, though, he's a formidable opponent.

"He's got so much talent," Woods said. "It's just a matter of him working hard and getting the experience and getting up there in position a lot of times and beginning to understand how to (win). That takes time. He's still very young."

Kim, though, always seems like a man in a hurry. He may not always be heading in the right direction, but he's in a hurry nonetheless.

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At his pre-tournament press conference he was asked about the 11 birdies he made at Augusta earlier this year and said he doubted there would be many more rounds like that because he wasn't going to be so aggressive anymore, firing at pins.

What happened?

"I guess I can't help myself," he laughed.

It's going to take that sort of bravado to derail Woods.