What's wrong with Tiger Woods? Not much

Michael Jordan enters the Hall of Fame this weekend with a lifetime's worth of experience handling the pressure of living up to his name, not to mention the standards set to a height never thought reachable.

As we speak, there's only one other athlete alive who understands the contradiction, and more than that, Tiger Woods is living it.

The experts have feasted on him this year because he didn't win a major coming off a season on the shelf.

So even with 5 victories, two seconds, and 12 top 10s in 15 starts - a dream season for any other human - it has given the critics a chance to coach Woods on how he ought to play golf.

"A lot of the time, they're not out there playing on the golf course," Woods said Thursday after shooting an opening-round, 3-under 68. "I'm out there analyzing the situation and hitting the shots I think are right."

As the late afternoon sun beat down, I walked with Woods from the putting green to his car, and he smiled at the notion that he needs help with his game.

If he was at all annoyed with some of what has been thrown at him this season - and there has been a lot shoveled his way - he sure didn't show it.

"Getting advice is just part of the game," Woods told me. "I think I know what to do and when to do it. I see what I see and analyze it, and try my best to execute it.

"Really, I feel like I know what I'm doing out there."

Woods chuckled again, signed several dozen autographs and headed for the driving range.

It's amusing, of course, that Woods has become a target, but then again Jordan suffered through the same on-court critiques.

Among the many things Woods supposedly has done wrong this year - and we won't recount them all here - is not playing aggressive enough during some tournaments and not being cautious enough in others.

On the first day of the BMW Championship at the redesigned Cog Hill No. 4 - otherwise known as Dubsdread - caution was the word of the day.

"I think you had to be a little careful," said Steve Stricker (1 over), who played alongside Woods and Heath Slocum (1 under). "It's really like playing a new course and you're not quite sure on some shots."

All agreed that it was shockingly long, playing 7,400 yards Thursday, eliminating some approach shots that were available two years ago.

"With the added length, you're going to have longer clubs into these flags, and it's hard to get them close," Woods said. "If you dump it in the middle of the green, you have pretty tough putts, up and over ridges.

"But if you fire at it, a lot of the guys are short-siding themselves just by a little bit, and leaving easier pitches but still not a green in regulation.

"For instance, No. 11 over here, that front pin was always just an easy pin, dump it on the right, and it's an easy up-and-down.

"Now if you dump it on the right, that's a deep bunker there. You have almost no shot to get it close. You've got to try to miss it a little bit left or long like I did.

"That's the thing that you have to try and get used to. Some of these pins, the misses are not where they used to be."

Woods used to own the par-5 11th, often hitting a high cut left over the trees and dropping it down on a spacious green for an eagle chance.

On Thursday, he couldn't even try the cut. He hit a bullet draw with his 3-wood and couldn't hold the green.

"I had 260 to the front. If I tried to cut it, there's no way I could get there, so I had to use the wind to try and help me get it there, and I carried it about 270 and it rolled over the back," Woods said. "But the hole is so much longer than it used to play."

He did get up and down for a bird, one of 4 on the day, to go with a lone bogey, and it was his only birdie on the three par-5s.

Still, after shooting a 63 Monday in the final round of the Deutsche Bank in Boston, and with a very respectable round Thursday that left him 2 shots off the lead, Woods is in a solid position to compete for his fifth victory at Cog Hill.

That might keep the wolves at bay.

For awhile.

A good walk

Woods and Stricker have played together several times lately, and neither has a problem with that since they're good friends.

They were joined at the hip Thursday, talking on the practice green, laughing on several tee boxes, and chatting throughout the round.

"It's been great for me because he's a guy you can learn a lot from just by watching him," Stricker said. "He's fun to watch, too, because he hits shots no one else can hit, that no one else would even think of hitting into the wind or with a pin location.

"But he can spin the ball in spots the rest of us can't."

So they were discussing club selection?

"We talked about everything but golf out there," Stricker laughed. "It's just nice to see him loose and having fun. He's a good guy - until it's time for him to hit. He turns it right on and he can dial it up in a hurry."

Old home week

Wisconsin native and Illinois grad Steve Stricker had big numbers in orange traveling with him Thursday, which is usually the case in Lemont.

Among those on hand, and fully decked out in Illini garb, were his college golf coach, Ed Baird, and Mark Coomes, who coached hoops at several Illinois universities.

Third wheel

Heath Slocum was the third member of the Woods-Stricker group, and while largely ignored in Thursday's first round, Slocum acquitted himself nicely, shooting a 70 and continuing a fine year that included a victory at The Barclays a couple weeks ago.

Shot of the day

Woods hitting a 30-foot pitch on No. 5, between branches, through a hole the size of a backboard. Every other player in that spot Thursday went under the braches and off the green. Woods put it within 17 feet.

"The other option was underneath, but I didn't know if I could actually get through the rough," Woods said. "There was a gap there in the tree. I told (caddie) Stevie (Williams), if it stays on the green, it's a bonus."

Save of the day

Woods draining a 12-foot par putt on No. 6, his 15th hole, after a bogey on No. 5.

And finally -

Steve Stricker, on seeing so many old friends from his Illini days: "I heard everything out there but the fight song."

brozner@dailyherald.com