On the Prowl : Money, Wins, Ink Aside, Competitors Say Woods Is Still a Tour Rookie

CARLSBAD —  Next month in China, it becomes 4695, the Year of the Ox. But out here on the golf course, it’s a new year, and 1997 is about a whole new animal.

It’s definitely the Year of the Tiger. Feel free to celebrate in your car with a 320-yard drive straight down the middle of the street.

As the PGA Tour is called to the first tee this week in the $1.2-million Mercedes Championships at La Costa, home of herbal wraps, mud baths and aroma therapy, it appears that men’s pro golf is about as healthy as downing a sprout sandwich in the steam bath at the spa.

Let’s look at the major changes for 1997.

First and foremost, tournament prize money has jumped $6.1 million, to $75.2 million. Next year, expect golf club technology to include forged irons of gold.

Augusta National has rebuilt three greens for better drainage--of water, not putted golf balls.

Pace-of-play rules have been tightened, basically so tournaments can continue to end before sundown.

Nick Faldo now shares teaching pro David Leadbetter with Greg Norman, which could prove interesting on Sunday at the Masters.

Woods has worked on his bunker play and his pitch shots from intermediate distance, but that may not prove nearly as important as another decision he made.

“To wear dark clothes during practice rounds,” Woods said.

Come again?

“So pen marks don’t show,” he said.

That’s the price of fame for 21-year-old superstars with megawatt smiles and multimillion-dollar endorsement deals: autograph-seeking fans wielding pens.

Actually, ink is something Tiger Woods is getting a lot of these days.

The subject of five books--three of them completed--Woods has made more recent magazine covers than Madonna’s motherhood, John F. Kennedy Jr.’s wedding and Newt Gingrich’s hair put together.

Proof that Woods actually has arrived in full force is that he was recently named one of the year’s 25 most intriguing people by People magazine, the bible of pop culture.

Woods hasn’t played much golf since the Skins Game the weekend after Thanksgiving. This has allowed him time to reflect on a whirlwind last quarter of 1996.

In rapid-fire succession, Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Amateur, signed endorsement deals worth $60 million, moved to Florida, won two tournaments, created a stir when he backed out of a dinner in his honor, decided against changing his name legally from Eldrick to Tiger, considered hiring a bodyguard and spent a lot of time wondering about his rightful place in the world of sports.

“I never expected the media to be something of a blitzkrieg,” Woods said. “All the questions asked--what I do, what I think--every day, it took its toll on me.”

The attention and the expectations could add up to a heavy burden, but Woods said he wouldn’t shoulder it.

“I have no control of that,” he said. “All I can do is just play golf and be myself. There’s only so much I can do. The burden . . . I don’t see it as that. My only burden is to make four-footers occasionally.”

He begins Thursday in the season-opening Mercedes Championships, where Woods and 31 other tournament winners from 1996 will compete. Norman, who consistently begins his season in Florida, is not playing.

Woods would not reveal where else he will play. But at least he had a good reason.

“If I do, you guys will write it,” he said. “Then the tournaments will probably expect me to play.”

That’s how it works, all right. In any event, those close to Woods said he probably will play at Phoenix, at Pebble Beach, at Riviera, then at Doral, Bay Hill, the Players Championship and the Masters.

One tournament Woods definitely won’t be playing is next week’s Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Michael Milthorpe, the event’s executive director, said the 93-year-old entertainer telephoned Woods to ask him to play, but was rebuffed.

“Mr. Hope isn’t going to be with us much longer, and if you get a phone call from him, that would seem to mean something,” Milthorpe said. “I guess not. That’s short-sighted.”

Milthorpe did not blame Woods, but IMG, the management agency representing Woods.

“They’re going to alienate him to a lot of people,” Milthorpe said. “It’s sad.

“Obviously I’d like to have him in our tournament, but this event has gone on for 37 years, so we can go on for one more year without him.”

Woods also is going on without one part of Team Tiger. He parted ways recently with attorney John Merchant, who advised the Woods family in its association with IMG and the endorsement agreements.

Woods said his primary goal for 1997 is to play well, which is always a good idea, and possibly win some tournaments. Like everyone else, Faldo said he will be watching.

“Well, I just saw him in the hotel,” he said. “His swing looked pretty good to me.

“Seriously, who knows what’s going to unfold. In truth, he’s been on tour for about five minutes, hasn’t he? Give him a full year.

“I know I wouldn’t want to be playing with that glaring spotlight. It’s fine when you’re playing well, but when you’re not playing well, it’s a lot of pressure. He’ll learn.”

Last year, Woods learned enough to become the first player since Curtis Strange in 1982 to have five consecutive top-five finishes. But that didn’t stop Davis Love III from whispering something to Woods on Tuesday.

He told Woods that his rookie year was only beginning.

Craig Stadler acknowledged two disparate opinions of Woods.

“Some people expect him to win every tournament and others hope he falls on his face,” Stadler said.

What will happen probably lies somewhere in between.