Thoughts From Southern Hills

By Bill Fields
Photo: Matthew Harris August 17, 2007

It is tempting to think of professional golfers as distinct from the rest of us. Their swings are better, their creases are sharper and their self-confidence is always sky-high. Right? In fact, a lot of them possess as many doubts as dreams and envision as many lipouts as hole outs. The depths of their valleys aren't like yours or mine, but they know the way down.

They are, in other words, more like Woody Austin, regular guy and excellent golfer, than Tiger Woods, icon and world-beater, who, with his two-stroke victory over Austin in the sweaty 89th PGA Championship last week at Southern Hills CC, moved another major championship closer (Woods has 13 now) to Jack Nicklaus' pro record of 18. Once widely viewed as an unassailable mark, it appears Woods, who is 31, will surpass it well before he turns 40 -- perhaps say, at the 2011 Masters, when he will be all of 35 years old and will have won while wearing red more often than the Oklahoma Sooners.

Of course the time and place that the record will change hands is only an educated guess. Woods had to sweat -- literally (in the blistering heat) and figuratively (on a suddenly tight leader board late Sunday) -- down the stretch in Tulsa, Okla. That he came through triumphantly was no surprise, but the fact the 43-year-old Austin (along with third-place finisher Ernie Els) was the one making him work so hard for the trophy was, because Austin is better known for being extremely hard on himself. Think of it as some well-deserved fanfare for the common man, who earned $756,000 for his runner-up finish and also secured a spot on Nicklaus' 2007 U.S. Presidents Cup roster, a slightly more formal squad than "Beer 30," Austin's recreation softball team back home in Derby, Kan., outside Wichita.

For a fellow with only three PGA Tour victories, the most recent coming earlier this summer at the Stanford St. Jude Championship thanks to a final-round 62, Austin isn't unfamiliar to casual golf fans. His backstory is unique, for starters. Austin grew up in Tampa, Fla., which produced Eddie Pearce and Gary Koch, but unlike that hotshot duo who filled their trophy cases as young amateurs, Austin was a late bloomer. "I didn't play a big junior tournament until my senior year of high school," Austin said last week. "I won the North and South Junior [in Pinehurst, N.C.]. It was the first time I had been out of Florida. Nobody knew who I was. I was 5-foot-3 and 95 pounds. That summer was when I started to grow -- I had a growth spurt and grew five inches and 30 pounds."

Austin would continue to fill out -- he is 6 feet, 190 pounds today -- but his path to the PGA Tour took an unscheduled detour when he tore tendons and cartilage in his left knee during the 1987 Q school. Seven years, many mini-tours and an off-season gig as a credit-union bank teller later, Austin earned his PGA Tour card in 1994 and promptly won the Buick Open during an impressive 1995 rookie season in which he finished 24th on the money list. He was 32nd in 1996, but Austin didn't crack the top 100 in earnings again until 2003. An incorrect eyeglass prescription that sabotaged his vision played a part in his slide, as did his anxious personality, mediocre putting and a tendency to beat himself up mentally when he didn't fulfill his expectations.

Anyone who has walked by a television in the past decade has seen the lowlight of Austin's anger-management failure during the 1997 MCI Classic. Frustrated after missing a putt, he bashed the right side of his head several times with his putter hard enough to put a noticeable bend in the shaft. Austin stayed on his feet after the punishing blows, but the infamous clip has had legs. The video has followed him into the rubble of his slump and out of it. He understands, but only to a point, as he explained in one of his unflinching and revealing press conferences that occurred after he got in contention at Southern Hills.

"If you catch me on the golf course doing something bad, and you want to lead in with that [head-banging tape], so be it," Austin said when asked by Golf Channel's Rich Lerner if he was amused by the footage. "But if you're going to lead in with that after I shoot 62 or win a golf tournament, why? That has nothing to do with the 62. You lead into everything that Tiger does with the fist pumps and all the good stuff. You never lead in with all of his bad stuff. So why is my one thing in 10 years, where I did something outrageous, the only thing that [is aired]?"

Austin reiterated the notion of a double standard regarding Woods when it comes to more mundane slams of club to turf. "That's his 'competitive fire,' is what it's called," Austin said. "He's 'competitive,' he is 'aggressive.' I do that, I am a 'loose cannon.' I 'can't control' myself. I'm not competitive? It's like I'm not good enough to get mad. He's good enough to get angry all the time? Why can he get mad more than me, but it's competitive fire as opposed to somebody who is too hard on themselves? I don't get it."

The topic of Woods crept into much of what Austin had to say last week, but parts of his critique made more sense than others. Austin insisted repeatedly, for instance, that he had outplayed Woods in the second round even though the world No. 1 shot a 63 to his 70. "I watched [his round on TV]," Austin said, "and I had it inside him all day long. I outplayed him by at least four or five shots, and he beat me by seven."

That is a cockeyed view because golf is not only a gauge of ball-striking skills but also of how capably good shots can be converted into birdies. Austin must know that, but his view is jaundiced by his history as an above-average player until he gets a putter in his hand. "I'm a very nervous person, I have a lot of nervous energy, and it shows [when I putt]," Austin admitted. "It's very hard to make a putting stroke when you're real nervous; it's a lot easier to make a golf swing when you're real nervous as opposed to putting."