Woods Goes to Great Lengths

INDIO —  It might be the most intimidating sight in golf ... Tiger Woods with a driver in his hand. And although he might be the most dangerous competitor -- combining distance and accuracy -- that professional golf has ever experienced, Woods is taking steps to get a little scarier.

If that’s possible, said Fred Couples.

“He’s the best driver of the ball we have,” Couples said. “He’s also the best long-iron player, the best middle-iron player and he’s got the best short game when he’s on.”

Even though Tiger may be most powerful when he is holding a driver, we have discovered that he hasn’t had the same one in his hands very often. Woods is engaged in an unusually long and intricate campaign to test drivers and find the one he wants to play.

In the 10 months since the AT&T; Pebble Beach tournament, Woods has played 173 drivers, by conservative estimate, as he tries to find the perfect one.

When the Skins Game begins here today at Landmark Golf Club, Woods will continue testing Nike prototype forged titanium head drivers that are continually being tweaked to provide the No. 1 player the exact action he requires off the tee.

“We’re pretty close,” said Woods, who is testing one with a slightly shallower face. And, after testing graphite shafts with longer lengths, Woods is back to his familiar steel shaft and length of 43 1/2inches.

“I might be hitting the ball just a little too high now, but I thoroughly enjoy being able to work the ball again, left to right and right to left, so maybe I need one with a ball flight just a touch flatter.”

So the process continues, trying to match Woods with his driver, a multimillion-dollar game for fledgling golf club manufacturer Nike, which has made Woods the linchpin of its campaign to sell drivers.

Even if it’s taken about 15 dozen drivers so far to try to find the right one for Woods.

Couples was floored by the number.

“The only time I used to change was when the head cracked,” he said.

But Nike is determined to match Woods with the club in his hands at the place where his game begins, the tee. Woods ranked sixth in driving distance in 2002, averaging 293.3 yards, and he was 11th in total driving, a combination of distance and accuracy.

According to Tom Stites, lead engineer at Nike, Woods complicates the project because he likes to hit so many kinds of shots with his driver.

“Everything imaginable,” Stites said. “He’s just one of those guys, like Arnold or Nicklaus, who’s never going to be satisfied. That’s what’s cool about working with him.”

Most players hit the ball farther last year, mainly because of improvements in equipment. Like everyone else, Woods wants distance and is able to achieve as much as anyone else with the speed of his swing and his ability. But he has high demands for his equipment as well.

A deep-faced driver with a large club head that still conforms to U.S. Golf Assn. rules provides several places to launch the ball to fly farther. At the same time, Woods is also a control player, using spin to help him hit a draw or fade. Tests have shown that a club with a slightly smaller head can increase spin.

The problem is finding the right combination.

If that sounds complicated, it is, but Stites knows he’s on the right track when he hears Woods make contact with the ball.

“It’s like a Stradivarius,” he said. “Put it in some other people’s hands, it sounds like a different instrument.”

Phil Mickelson, who joins Woods, Couples and Mark O’Meara in the Skins Game, is also making some changes in his driver. He’s playing a different version of his Titleist 983 with a new shaft, designed to hit the ball higher.

But Woods is the only one still testing prototypes, with none of the standard artwork on the sole plate. Tests have shown he could average an additional eight yards in distance with every half-inch increase in the length of the shaft of his club, but Stites says Woods is comfortable at 43 1/2inches, 1 1/2inches shorter than the average on the PGA Tour.

The process isn’t done yet, as we have seen. At the Tour Championship a month ago, Woods missed 14 fairways on the last day. This week at the PGA Grand Slam, Woods had a round of 61 and won the special event by 14 shots.

Whatever driver Woods was using, he played it well enough to win five PGA Tour events, among them the Masters and the U.S. Open, and to win $6.9 million in prize money. In 2003, he might not even hit a prototype anymore.

“As far as the driver goes, you’ll see some rotation in what he uses from now until next season starts,” Stites said.

Woods said the time is coming when he’ll find a prototype he likes. Maybe when he hits the 200 mark.