Tiger’s teacher both proud, sad

Monday, Oct. 7, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

By Brian Hilderbrand

and Bob Cloud

LAS VEGAS SUN

While the overwhelming majority of the record crowd that showed up for the final round of the Las Vegas Invitational was rooting for Tiger Woods, at least one spectator viewed the sudden-death playoff between Woods and Davis Love III with mixed emotions.

Butch Harmon, a longtime instructor to Love who now works closely with Woods, said Sunday's playoff was difficult for him to watch.

"It was a tough thing for me because I worked for so long with Davis," Harmon said. "You just hope when you have two guys in a playoff like that that you care about and that you worked so hard with, you just want to see them both play well and it turned out Tiger was the winner."

Harmon was asked if he was surprised that Woods pulled off his first PGA Tour victory in only his fifth start.

"No, not at all," he said without hesitation. "He's a great player, you've seen that. After (his first start at) Milwaukee, he's really been in the hunt every week to have a chance to win. He should have won Quad City. To be honest with you, he let Quad City get away.

"Then he came here and shot one under the first day and didn't play very well and we did an awful lot of work on Wednesday night to correct some of the swing flaws that he had."

Harmon said that in winning the $1.65 million LVI, Woods silenced the critics who said the 20-year-old had turned professional prematurely.

"I think all the people that questioned his decision to turn pro -- to a lot of players who criticized him and said he would have to prove himself before hey would accept him -- I think he proved himself," Harmon said.

After a 60th-place finish in his first pro start, Woods has finished 11th, fifth, third and, now, first. Woods is an astonishing 63 under par in his 19 rounds since turning pro and -- since the first round of the U.S. Amateur -- has played 513 holes of golf in 90 under par.

"What you've seen here is just the tip of the iceberg," Harmon said of Wood's potential. "This is the first time in his life he's been allowed only to play golf. He's had to go to school and try and make his grades and not practice in good conditions and had to do all the things that a youngster does.

"For the last five weeks, you've seen a young man do nothing but concentrate on golf and I think the record is incredible."

* ADD TIGER: The light desert air obviously agrees with Tiger Woods, who led the LVI field in driving distance with a 321.9-yard average. Woods, however, ranked tied for 20th in driving accuracy, hitting 78.3 percent of the fairways during the five rounds. Woods' playing partner Sunday, Keith Fergus, believes the 20-year-old will probably never meet a par-5 he doesn't like. Throughout the LVI, Woods -- who was 5-under on the par-5s Sunday -- continually reached the par-5s in two, usually hitting nothing more than a 6-iron for his second shot. "He's got a tremendous advantage," Fergus said. "I'm hitting driver, then another driver to try and get anywhere, and he's hitting middle irons. He's got tremendous length and he's got all the shots."

* MORE TIGER: In addition to his $297,000 first-place check, Woods earned several other perks with his LVI victory, including a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour and spots in next year's Mercedes Championship, NEC World Series of Golf and the Masters. Woods became the 12th first-time winner on the PGA Tour this year and the first non PGA Tour member to win a tour event since Jose Maria Olazabal won the 1994 NEC World Series of Golf. Woods also became the first player to receive a sponsor's exemption and win the tournament since Phil Mickelson captured the 1991 Tucson Open.

* PHIL STILL TOPS: The $46,200 pocketed by Mickelson for his eighth-place tie in the LVI increased the left-hander's lead in the PGA Tour money list over Mark Brooks. With his LVI winnings, Mickelson has garnered $1,620,999 through 22 tournaments, compared to $1,374,244 for Brooks, who has played in 29 events. Mickelson goes on a two-week hiatus from the tour, playing in the Dunhill Cup at St. Andrews, Scotland next week before heading to London for the World Match Play Championships. He returns to the U.S. for the Tour Championship Oct. 24-27 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., the final official event of the season.

* PRO-AM WINNERS: Las Vegan Lee Siefert won the amateur shootout portion of the Las Vegas Invitational on Saturday with a 14-under-par 58. Jess Bueno of Dana Point, Calif., took second with a 13-under 59 and Las Vegan Steve Petruska and Ron Yanen of Moundsville, West Virgina tied for third at 12-under-par 60.

* NO REPEAT: When Woods beat Davis Love III for the 14th annual LVI championship, it denied Love the opportunity to become the first repeat winner of the event. In 14 years, there have been 14 different champions -- five of whom made this year's cut to weekend play. Love, who won the LVI in 1993, was the highest finishing former champ with his second-place effort; Paul Azinger (1987) tied for eighth place; John Cook tied for 19th; defending champ Jim Furyk tied for 22nd place; and Fuzzy Zoeller (1983) tied for 69th place.

* ODDS & ENDS: LVI officials estimated Sunday's crowd -- easily the largest in tournament history -- at 25,000 based on a count of cars at nearby parking lots. "By our count, we parked about 12,000 cars," said tournament manager Charlie Baron. "At an average of 2.2 people per car, I think it's safe to say we had between 20,000 and 25,000 people here (Sunday), which definitely would be our largest crowd." ... Vijay Singh started Sunday's final round seven shots off the lead, but took a 9 on the par-4 sixth hole en route to an even-par 72 and a tie for 40th place. ... Sunday's playoff marked the fourth time in 14 years a playoff was needed to determine a LVI champion. It was the 10th tournament decided by a playoff on the PGA Tour this year and the third in a row, following the B.C. Open and the Buick Challenge. It also was the second straight playoff loss for Love, who was involved in a five-way playoff last week at the Buick Challenge. ... Love's second-place finish was his 11th top-10 showing this year.