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 Reunion, Stanford-style Woods, Martin, Kribel team up for practice round
Posted: Tuesday June 16, 1998 09:10 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- They looked like three college kids playing a fun round of golf. The laughter and words flowed easily. Poor shots were greeted by put-down lines. In many ways, it was just like all those rounds Tiger Woods, Casey Martin and Joel Kribel played at The Olympic Club when they were students at Stanford. The only difference was that this was a practice round for the U.S. Open. Kribel, at 21 the youngest of the three, tried a chip from the back of the three-tier seventh green Tuesday morning, and no sooner had the ball landed than Woods said "bye," laughing as the ball rolled off the green. When Woods tried a chip from the thick, greenside rough at No. 9 and went completely under the ball without moving it, all three made eye contact then dissolved in laughter. On the ninth fairway, the bushy mustache of Woods' caddie, Mike "Fluff" Cowan, was likened to the rear end of a yak. Woods and his coach, Butch Harmon, were laughing so hard Kribel had to back away from his shot. "Is this how he wins all those tournaments?" Kribel shouted, referring to the distraction. Kribel, who was using his red Stanford Cardinal golf bag, then hacked his ball out of the wet, 6-inch rough and applauded in genuine admiration when Martin hit his approach shot within 3 feet of the hole. It was as if this were homecoming day, except they were coming home to play in one of the game's most important tournaments. "I played here nearly every Monday when I was at Stanford," said Woods, who would have graduated this year if he had not quit school before his junior year to turn pro. "It was either here or at San Francisco Country Club." There was one other reminder that this was different from one of those rounds in college. The most famous fragile right leg in golf has been further weakened by circulatory problem, and Martin's reliance on a golf cart is now constant. As the threesome moved down No. 6, about 20 people -- including coaches, family members, tournament officials and security personnel -- milled in the middle of the fairway. Emerging from the small crowd was a green single-person cart carrying Martin. The company that makes the cart was quite appropriate. There, emblazoned on the front and again on the rear of the battery operated vehicle were the words "PRIDE Cars." If there is one thing Martin is all about it is pride -- pride not in beating the PGA Tour in court to win the right to use a cart, but pride in making it to the tournament he fantasized playing in while hitting Whiffle balls in his back yard as a kid. It was a dream that almost became a nightmare. Martin nearly didn't get to the U.S. Open, making a double bogey on the final hole of his 36-hole sectional qualifier. "He thought he had let his dream tournament slip away," Cameron Martin, 28, said about his 26-year-old brother. "It showed what he is all about that he could do what he did." What he did was sit for more than an hour thinking he had blown his chance at the U.S. Open and then go back out and win a five-way playoff for the final qualifying spot with a 25-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole. In a way, Martin has faced many of the obstacles that Woods had to hurdle last year in his rollicking first full year on the PGA Tour. Everywhere Martin has gone there were interviews, requests from disability rights groups and obligations to corporate sponsors. "We haven't built as many barriers as maybe we should have," King Martin said about the demands on his son's time. "There has been so much more to this than just playing golf." But on Tuesday it all came back to golf. On one green, Kribel shared a private thought with Woods and then slapped him in the chest with the back of his hand, with Woods knocking the hand away. Just two guys sharing a guy thing. Three talented young men whose lives crossed paths because of golf and Stanford University were playing The Olympic Club once again. Only this time they were getting ready for the U.S. Open.
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