George Ferguson Column: Still chasing tiger

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wa. – Twenty years. I was 20 years old and going to college at the University of Montana when Tiger Woods won his second of three consecutive United States Amateur Championships.

It was then and there that I became a true fan, and it was there when I realized that I was very lucky. Because at that moment, I realized my generation was going to have not one, but two once-in-a-lifetime athletes, as eventually Woods joined Michael Jordan on that pedestal.

Fast forward 20 years, and I finally got to watch Tiger play golf in real life. However, Thursday’s opening round of the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay also didn’t seem like real life, because, for 14 holes, I watched a Tiger Woods I’d never thought I’d see. No, the Tiger Woods I saw for the first time in my life was not the Tiger I grew up idolizing.

No, as I followed Tiger around the unique, beautiful and brutal Chambers Bay layout, it didn’t take long to see just how different this Tiger is from the one that I have watched do some of the most amazing things with a golf ball over the last 20 years. It may not have started out that way, but after his first two holes, it was clear, Tiger is a shell of his former self. He still looks the part, dressed in all black under a hot Tacoma sun. He still has flashes of absolute brilliance, like his closest-to-the-pin shot on 16, his only birdie of an otherwise difficult round of 10-over par 80.

No, it was much less of the old Tiger, and much more of the Tiger people have grown accustomed to seeing in the last two years. His skulled, worm burner second shot from the middle of the 18th hole Thursday evening was an indication that Tiger is not remotely close to the level he needs to be at right now. His tee shot on the devastatingly long par-5 eighth hole — so far to the right that he saw a part of the course even many local patrons said they have never hit before — was another tough moment to witness.

Yes, Tiger played a devastatingly bad round of golf, along with playing partner Rickie Fowler and Louis Oosthuizen, who together were a combined 28 over par after just one round of golf at Chambers Bay. Yes, today was not what I had waited for 20 years to see.

Like I said before, there were flashes of the old Tiger, and one thing that will never seem to change is, he still had the biggest gallery of the entire day. Crowds swarmed every hole, every viewing area on this great golf course, just to get a look at him, and I’ll admit, my reason for staying on the course for almost 12 straight hours Thursday was to do just that, to get a look at Tiger Woods as many times as I could.

Well, I accomplished that mission, and I have some very tired and very sore feet to prove it. After all, whether you’re a player, spectator or a journalist, Chambers Bay is extremely brutal on the body, especially the feet, and because I wanted to get the full Tiger experience, I’m going to pay for it tomorrow.

And that’s just it. I didn’t really get the full Tiger experience, because Tiger just isn’t Tiger anymore, and that’s why the adrenaline I felt in the morning, knowing I was going to watch one of my all-time favorite athletes play golf in the U.S. Open, the greatest golf tournament on the planet, didn’t take long to fade. In fact, the adrenaline of watching Tiger quickly turned to sadness and eventually, to feeling like I was watching a quarterback or pitcher who has tried holding onto a career for much too long. That’s what it felt like to me when Tiger walked off the 18th green under dark, chilly and gloomy skies Thursday night. It was almost as painful to watch Tiger as it was to walk the 10-11 miles up and down Chambers Bay that I did Thursday.

Now don’t get me wrong, my first day of covering a sporting event as big as the U.S. Open wasn’t all sad and it wasn’t all about Tiger. I spent the morning watching some great golf, and great golfers. I followed Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson for a time, and I was able to watch Dustin Johnson hit an incredible shot on the ninth hole, one that seemed almost impossible from the bunker he was in below the green.

I saw Chambers Bay test the world’s best golfers just like everyone who has played this amazing public golf course hoped it would. When Fowler putted a ball off the ninth green late in the day, I can’t tell you how many local patrons I heard say: “Hey, I’ve done that several times.”

Yes, for someone like me, someone who doesn’t get a chance to be a journalist at a sporting event like the U.S. Open very often, I made sure to take full advantage on the first day, and it was special, fun, fascinating and a day I won’t soon forget.

But in the end, it was also the first time I have ever seen Tiger Woods play golf in real life, and because of that, and the 80 he posted, the day became something so surreal that I almost feel like it didn’t happen at all.

And, when so many friends and family back in Havre ask me: “What was it like to finally see Tiger?” The only honest answer I can give is, I didn’t see Tiger…at least not the one I spent most of the last two decades watching and admiring. There was a time in my life when I wondered if I would ever see Tiger Woods play golf at all, let alone in the U.S. Open. I didn’t know if that would ever become a reality.

Well, it may have been a reality Thursday at Chambers Bay. But at the end of a long, crazy day, I almost feel like I didn’t see him at all. I guess there’s always Round Two. Maybe today will be the day I see the Tiger I wanted to see for the last 20 years.

One can hope anyway.