Collision With Fan Stops Tiger in His Tracks

Now we know what it takes to stop Tiger Woods. Just put some pushy autograph hound in his path, run him straight into Tiger, have Tiger step on his ankle, tweak Tiger’s knee, and you’ve got it. Instant chaos.

Today was supposed to be the first day of a routine AT&T; Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with good weather, a fully stocked field and not a single controversy in sight, but that sunny mood might have sunk faster than a rock in Carmel Bay when Woods injured his left knee Wednesday in a collision with a fan after a practice round.

Woods said he won’t know until his tee time this morning if he can play. He was unable to swing a club after the injury, which he said was a hyperextension of his left knee.

“If I can’t rotate and can’t let it go, then obviously I can’t [play],” he said.

Woods was circled by fans on his way off the course and one crossed in front of him, then stopped. Woods stepped on the man’s ankle.

“My weight going forward and his weight coming toward me, [I] just hyperextended my knee,” Woods said.

The fan was not identified and was not detained. He also did not get Woods’ autograph.

“He yelled at me for not signing,” Woods said.

There were no ropes for crowd control in the area behind the 18th green, but that soon changed. Ropes were quickly set up and in place about an hour after Woods’ run-in with the fan.

Butch Harmon, Woods’ coach, doesn’t believe the injury to Woods is serious.

“I think he’ll play,” Harmon said. “But I don’t know how well.”

This is the fourth instance of unusual fan behavior affecting Woods at a tournament. The other incidents:

* An autograph seeker with a pen came close to poking Woods in the eye at the 1998 Pebble Beach tournament. Woods got ink stains on his cap.

* In the 1999 Phoenix Open, a loaded gun was found in the backpack of a man heckling Woods.

* Last week at Phoenix, a fan rolled an orange onto the green while Woods was putting.

Still, security is not usually an issue for Woods when he plays at tournaments, where plainclothes officers and private security men are routinely put in his group, in addition to regular crowd marshals. However, full security measures are not in effect during practice rounds.

What does not change, whether in practice or during a tournament, are the large crowds of autograph seekers gathering around Woods when he is anywhere except inside the ropes.

Woods didn’t seem all that angry about the incident.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of fans and sometimes they get a little aggressive,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons why we have the security we have. I know some of you [reporters] have said, ‘Why do we have so much security?’ It’s for incidents like this. So they don’t happen. Unfortunately, it happened today.”

Harmon, who was walking behind Woods when the incident occurred, said it was no one’s fault.

“It was just a freak accident,” he said.

Woods said a trainer checked his injured knee in the physical fitness trailer and said Woods had sprained a ligament.

Last year, Woods won nine PGA Tour events, three of them majors. He is winless in two events this year and has not won in five tournaments, dating to last year, but said he wasn’t that far away from his best golf. He tied for fifth last week at Phoenix after closing with a 65--but still finished 15 shots behind winner Mark Calcavecchia.

“I feel like I’m hitting good, solid shots,” Woods said. “I’m hitting good putts, they’re just a little off.

“The putts are grazing the edges. It’s not like I’m hitting terrible putts. At least they are grazing the hole. Pretty soon, hopefully, they will start diving in.”

Meanwhile, Pebble Beach tournament officials can only hope that Woods won’t be diving out for the week and that he shows up for his 8:50 a.m. tee time at Spyglass Hill.

Woods did not hesitate when asked about the odds on not playing.

“They’re up there,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

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TIGER TRACKS

Comparing Tiger Woods’ results this year with his results through the same number of tournaments last year:

*--*

2001 Category 2000 2 Tournaments 2 0 Wins 2 $251,000 Money $1,242,000 1 Top 5 2 2 Top 10 2 68.88 Scoring avg. 68.63 6 Rounds under par 7 0 Cuts missed 0

*--*

2001--At the Mercedes Championships, Woods got off to a shaky start in his first tournament of the year and never caught up. He closed with a 69 and wound up in a tie for eighth. At the Phoenix Open, Woods opened and closed with 65s but still finished fifth, 15 shots behind Mark Calcavecchia.

2000--At the Mercedes Championships, Woods defeated Ernie Els in a playoff for his fifth consecutive PGA Tour victory. At Pebble Beach, Woods was seven strokes behind with seven holes to play, before holing a 97-yard wedge for eagle on No. 15 and making birdies on two of the last three holes for his sixth consecutive victory.

THIS WEEK

PEBBLE BEACH

Today-Sunday

TELEVISION

USA

Today-Friday

3 p.m. (Delayed)

CBS

Saturday,

Noon-3 p.m.

Sunday,

Noon-3:30 p.m.

*

ALSO

A REAL

CUT-UP

David Duval is not taking a rare missed cut too seriously, Thomas Bonk writes. D8