Mickelson Not Out of Woods Just Yet

By THOMAS BONK

Feb. 13, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LA JOLLA — Tiger Woods has 18 holes left to try to win his seventh consecutive PGA Tour event and he says he is calm. But how calm is he?

Well, after his third-round 67 Saturday in the Buick Invitational, Woods said this before they turned on the camera that was pointed at his face: “Everything I’m going to say is going to be deleted.”

Then he kicked the tire on a golf cart.

This is all you need to know about the current condition of Tiger Woods. He shoots five under and he is angry it wasn’t lower.

Is this guy a perfectionist or what? If he had shot a 68, he probably would have kicked two tires.

Woods is not in the driver’s seat in the Buick. That position is occupied by Phil Mickelson, who tugged and pulled a five-under-par 67 out of the semi-soggy fairways and soft greens at Torrey Pines. That is where Mickelson, at 16-under 210, will begin today’s last round leading Shigeki Maruyama by two shots, Davis Love III by five and Woods and five others by six.

In his six-tournament streak, the most Woods has trailed after 54 holes is five shots--last week at Pebble Beach.

Mickelson tried not to sound too confident about the Woods factor. Actually, he hardly tried at all.

“He started the day six back and he’s still six back,” Mickelson said. “For him to win tomorrow, he’s going to have to shoot an extremely low round.

“If I play well, I’m not going to worry about Tiger.”

No, let Tiger worry about Tiger. What Woods is most concerned about is why his putts aren’t going in.

By the time he talked with the media, Woods was no longer upset or angry or irritated.

He was merely hungry . . . and calm, really calm, he said.

Woods could have been worked up about the three birdie chances that got away on the last three holes, but he wasn’t, because that’s the way the ball rolls sometimes.

Only two things can happen on a putt. The ball either goes in the hole or it doesn’t. It wasn’t going in often enough to suit Woods.

At the par-three 16th, his eight-footer for birdie spun just left of the hole. At the 17th, the ball rolled just left on his birdie putt from six feet and at No. 18, a par five, his eight-footer slid past the hole about two feet.

“It is a little disconcerting knowing you are hitting good putts and [the ball] is not going in,” Woods said. “But at least one good thing is you are hitting good putts.

“I felt confident, I hit the ball right where I want to, a nice pace, and it just didn’t go in. That’s the way it is sometimes.

“It’s unfortunate. You feel, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ But you are doing nothing wrong. The putts just aren’t going in.”

It was also unfortunate for Woods that Mickelson opened up a six-shot lead. Woods had worked hard to hack his deficit from six shots to two after 13 holes. But Mickelson birdied four of his last six holes and put himself in position to win for the first time since the 1998 AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“This tournament means a lot to me,” said Mickelson, who was born in San Diego and who won here seven years ago.

Maruyama went about his business quietly and stayed close with a 69. The 30-year-old veteran of the Japanese tour is playing in the last group for the first time and trying to test his imported game on the PGA Tour.

He doesn’t sound really confident about his chances, though. Through an interpreter, Maruyama was asked if he felt the way he did Friday when he said he had no chance.

“He still thinks no chance,” the interpreter said.

Love managed to maintain some sort of contact with Mickelson’s lead with an entertaining six-birdie, one-bogey, one-double bogey round of 69. With the greens staying soft, there are a lot of birdie opportunities out there, which makes catching Mickelson more difficult, Love said.

“He’s going to be hard to catch, but you never know,” Love said.

Woods has a lot of company in his pursuit of Mickelson. Fred Couples, Steve Flesch, Kirk Triplett, Shaun Micheel and Jeff Sluman are all tied with Woods at 10-under 206. Sluman’s 66 was the low round of the day and enabled him to move from a tie for 33rd to a tie for fourth.

Couples, who played with Woods the first two rounds, is trying to win for the first time since the 1998 Memorial.

“If I don’t win, I hope Tiger does,” Couples said.

That makes them equal, because Tiger also hopes Tiger wins. He has successfully closed the last six tournaments he has played and is looking for the same kind of result today.

“I play for the thrill of it and the chance. . . . Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose--that’s the thrill of it,” said Woods, who will play in the second-to-last group.

And the perfectionist in Woods gets upset when he doesn’t reach his goal. For Saturday’s round, he wanted a 65.

That’s disappointing.

“Very,” he said.

As for his streak, all Woods could say was that he would try to go low, try to put some pressure on the players in front of him, try to extend it to seven.

“We’ll see what happens,” Woods said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

BUICK OPEN LEADERS

54-Hole Scores

Par 72

PHIL MICKELSON

66-67-67--200 -16

SHIGEKI MARUYAMA

69-64-69--202 -14

DAVIS LOVE III

65-71-69--205 -11

JEFF SLUMAN