Tiger Woods Stages a Comeback
LAURA OKMIN, HOST: That collective sigh you heard yesterday coming from the Southeast, CBS executives, the PGA tour, and Tiger Woods, as golf's number one player and ratings booster came a whisker away from missing the cup. On this edition of PAGE ONE, with the string of 73 straight cuts in jeopardy, Tiger Woods once again lives up to his billing, thrilling us with a Sunday-like performance on Friday.</s>TIGER WOODS, GOLFER: I'm always proud of the fact that I always gave it everything I had. And when I'm all said and done with my career, I can look back on it and say, you know, I couldn't have done it any better.</s>OKMIN: It is banned in college sports yet readily available. Did an over-the-counter stimulant play a role in the deaths of two college football players?</s>TODD NALDER, TCU ATHLETIC TRAINER: If the athlete doesn't know that he has some type of heart condition or anything like that, it could be deadly.</s>OKMIN: Plus, meet Doug Mientkiewicz. He's helped turn around the Minnesota Twins. But he couldn't have done it without first turning himself around.</s>DOUG MIENTKIEWICZ, MINNESOTA TWINS PLAYER: This game was never fun. I grew up where this game was never fun. This game was competition. This game was serious.</s>OKMIN: Welcome to this edition of PAGE ONE. I'm Laura Okmin. Every time we're about to view Tiger Woods as human, he does something superhuman. Scrambling to avoid missing the cut in a major for the first time as a pro, Tiger made a quick detour into the phone booth, donned his red cap, and finished yesterday's second round in spectacular fashion. Our John Giannone is in Duluth, Georgia where Tiger got an unfamiliar early wakeup call this morning. Hi, John.</s>JOHN GIANNONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Laura. Yes, Tiger Woods was hoping that that early tee time would help him make an early statement to the rest of the leader board. And for a while, Woods was doing just that. Four birdies during his round, he also had an eagle on the ninth hole where he chipped in from about 105 yards. However, the background is a different story, a bogey on 14, where he missed a two-foot put, another bogey on 17 where he putted three times. And he finished out with a bogey on 18. So, Tiger Woods finishes his third round one under par for the round, one under par for the championship. And his hopes of hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy here at the PGA Championship for the third straight time all but eliminated. And Tiger Woods has had to deal with his own mediocrity for the last three days. And that includes a frantic Friday where making the cut became the operative thing.</s>GIANNONE (voice-over): At the turn, there was trepidation. A bogey at 13 only intensified concerns. Two holes later, Tiger Woods was worried, so much so that he actually asked a network cameraman to chase to the cut.</s>WOODS: I fouled out on 15 tee. I had to ask what was it, either one or even. And I was totally even. So I knew that I needed to make a couple of birdies coming in with no mistakes.</s>GIANNONE: Woods obliged, as he so often does. With two fortunate home stretch puts totaling nearly 70 feet, Woods finally felt his PGA pulse and extended his four-year streak of making the cut at tour events to 74.</s>WOODS: A lot of us left because I had a bad putt there on 15 in the hole. Sixteen, I didn't hit a very good second shot in there. I hit a good putt. But still, I mean, afternoon greens, it could have gone any which way. But it happened this time in the hole. And all of a sudden, boom, I'm at an even par.</s>DAVID DUVAL, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: I'm sure he was aware that he was in trouble there for a while. I don't know how concerned he was. But I doubt he wanted the weekend off.</s>WOODS: Sometimes I don't finish where I want to. But I'm always proud of the fact that I always gave it everything I had. And when I'm all said and done with my career, I can look back on it and say, you know what, I couldn't have done any better.</s>GIANNONE: Woods insists he can still hoist his third straight Wanamaker Trophy, despite logic and a logjam on the leader board. But perhaps his best gift from this weekend might be the lessons learned about humility, his golf game, and about how the other half of the golf world so often lives.</s>WOODS: To be in contention or leading, or near the lead, you can't be playing where I'm playing right now. So it is a little bit tougher knowing the fact that your game is not quite where you want it, and you have to hit the shot that it calls for.</s>DUDLEY HART, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: Obviously, you want him in the field, and you want to play against him. And it would mean more to beat him. But we're so concerned with what we're trying to do, I, personally at least, I don't have a whole lot of time to be worrying about what Tiger is doing.</s>DAVID TOMS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: The game he has, there's no reason why he can't still win the golf tournament because everybody is bunched up, you know, depending on the conditions. And he has the game to get right back in contention.</s>GIANNONE: And even when that game isn't great, Woods still chases greatness. Part of the intriguing Friday storyline centered on his pursuit of the great Byron Nelson's PGA record of making the cut at 113 consecutive tournaments, a record Woods keeps in a dream chest right next to Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championships.</s>WOODS: He played at the highest level for that long. It's actually incredible. Hopefully I can come close, if not surpass that.</s>BRAD FAXON, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: For someone like Tiger that's in the spotlight all the time, this media attention that he's under, to be able to give it his all every time he plays, it's almost an impossibility for what he's done. It's Ripken-esque I think.</s>OKMIN: John, looking at the leader board, we see Phil Mickelson right there. Everyone, especially Phil, know he's still trying to win that first major. Is this course built for him?</s>GIANNONE: He says absolutely, Laura. He's been talking all week about the great comfort he feels with the Bermuda grass, with the length of the course, with the success he's had in Georgia, even with people calling him the best player never to win a major. He still insists that that's a compliment of sorts because it means you're the best at something. Mickelson said, believe it or not -- and this is an unforeseen level of confidence that he's showing -- after round two, he said he's hoping to use round three to create some distance between himself and the rest of the field and so that by Sunday he won't have to worry about having to catch up or having to hold onto a one-stroke lead.</s>OKMIN: Tom, one guy who did get that major monkey off his back was David Duval, who won the British Open. How is he looking? Could we see major number two?</s>GIANNONE: Yeah, you know, David Duval was looking great in round two until he missed the putt on 18. And he blew past the reporters after his round and went right out to the practice green. So, David Duval is locked in. And he remembers what happened at the British Open last month, where he used round three, which they always call moving day on the tour, to move right up. He was even par after two rounds with the British, shot a 65 in round three.</s>OKMIN: Coming into today's third round, the leaders were at minus nine. What score do you think is going to win this tournament? How low can they go?</s>GIANNONE: I'll tell you what, Laura, conditions are ideal. It's beautiful weather again today, no rain at all. There's a slight breeze, so it's not nearly as oppressively hot as it was on Friday. I'm thinking 17 or 18 under par, which would toy with the record Tiger Woods and Bob May set last year for the PGA Championship. And if it goes a little lower than that, Woods' record for a major lowest score was 19 under at the British Open last year.</s>OKMIN: Wow. John Giannone, thank you. Ahead PAGE ONE, it's banned in college sports. But for student athletes, getting some is as easy as going to the store, the draw of ephedrine.</s>DR. JOHN XEROGEANES, EMORY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: What it actually does is act like speed. It will make you have more energy, thus you get a better workout. So, it will hype you up. But it's like taking five or six cups of coffee.</s>OKMIN: Plus, the Minnesota Twins taking a surprising starring role this season. The story of their unexpected leading man. And that leads us to this week's poll question. The 2001 season may go down as the most surprising pennant chase of all times. But which team's success surprises you most? The low-budget Twins, lovable losers no more the Chicago Cubs, the Phillies, or the starlet Seattle Mariners? Log on and vote. Results later in the show.