Quiet Please!
Some impressed Tiger Woods friends, a resurgent college star, and a grateful new winner on the Champions Tour are featured in Tour Insider Tim Rosaforte's weekly notes column
There was a moment in a round John Cook played at Isleworth recently that told the Champions Tour player and long-time member of Tiger Woods' inner circle that whether it was the WGC-Accenture Match Play or the WGC-CA Championship, the game was soon to be on.
The 16th hole is a drivable par 4, and Woods unleashed one of his violent swings, posting up on the most famous knee in sports. An uneasy silence was broken as Woods held his follow through.
"You OK?" Cook said.
"Never better," said Woods.
"Seeing that," Cook said, "I pretty much knew it was game time."
Californians Cook and Mark O'Meara both swung through their old neighborhood on the way to South Florida for the Allianz Championship. O'Meara popped in on the Wednesday after Tiger's son, Charlie Axel, was born.
"Sure enough, there's Tiger sitting on the couch with Sam watching cartoons and being a father," O'Meara said. "His daughter is nestled right there next to him. Listen, people at home don't know him as well as I know him. But he's an inspiration not only on the golf course but he's doing such a great job off the golf course. He's enjoying life having two children now and I just assume with that he's going to become an even better player than he already is."
O'Meara added that Woods was "swinging good or better than he ever has," adding, "his leg is 110 percent."
Local knowledge pays off for Chappell Kevin Chappell knows how to get around a golf course, as anyone who watched his win in last May's NCAA Championship can attest. But getting around the golf courses of the AT&T National Pro-Am requires the special knowledge only a Pebble Beach caddie can provide. Enter Sam Reeves, a Fresno resident who knew Chappell from their hometown and arranged for the NCAA champ from UCLA to be accompanied last week by one of the Monterey Peninsula's best loopers, Rob (Rocket) Lytle. "There was a trust right away," Chappell said from Los Angeles on Wednesday night, where he returns as a participant in this week's Northern Trust Open.
Chappell's name isn't getting much mention with newbies like Ryo Ishikawa getting the headlines this week and 24-year-old Dustin Johnson coming off a win at Pebble. Not making it through first stage of qualifying school turned the Bruin into yesterday's news. But thanks to The Rocket's reads and club selections, and some natural talent that was unsheathed in 40 mile-an-hour winds, Chappell made eight birdies and shot 68 on Saturday to move up 14 places and into the top 10.
Having worked the rotation of courses for 32 years, Lytle knew Chappell had game when he suggested a chipped 9-iron from 117 yards and the kid had enough skill to pull the shot off under tournament conditions. "Best distance control I've ever seen," Lytle said. Chappell recalls hitting shots and Rocket saying, just after putting the club in the bag, "You've got 15 feet, down grain, up hill."
They were really clicking at the close, when Chappell was thinking about blading an L-wedge to get close to the pin at 17. Rocket told him to play a flop shot with nine feet of break. "He said it was in five feet from the hole," Chappell said. With a birdie at 18, the 22-year-old finished with three in the last four holes.
Then the real bad weather came, wiping out the final round, preserving Chappell's T-6, and moving him on to Riviera, one of his home courses in college, where UCLA golf coach Derek Freeman will be carrying his bag. "I was very disappointed we didn't get to play Sunday or Monday," said Lytle, who also came out of the caddie pen to lead Ronnie Black to a come-from-nowhere T-4 in 2001. He wanted to keep playing, because the kid was so pure, and with the heavy winds, there was a good chance to move up -- especially with Rocket on the bag, calling the shots. "It's not like Tiger Woods is going to call me up, you know what I mean?" he said on Wednesday, leaving work. "I wasn't happy with sixth."
