CHAMPS ADMIT TO JITTERS : GOLFERS SAY NERVES ARE BIG PART OF GAME.Byline: Ron Sirak Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. One of the truly compelling things about golf is that rarely is pure athletic skill alone enough to win. It takes something much more elusive, much more special. Something not found on the practice tee. Winners are able to embrace the tension of the moment, feel the nervous energy and make it work for them. Tom Watson has that special ability. So does Annika Sorenstam. And Nick Faldo Nicholas "Nick" Alexander Faldo MBE (born 18 July 1957) is an English golfer on the European Tour, and one of Europe's most successful players of all time. Over his career, he has won three Open Championship titles and three US Masters titles. He was ranked the World No. . Tom Kite Thomas Oliver Kite, Jr. (born December 9, 1949) is an American professional golfer. Kite was born in McKinney, Texas. He began playing golf at age 6 and won his first tournament at age 11. has enough of it to feel that winning is still possible, even though he is 46 years old and has gone three years without a victory. And he'll tell you quite honestly how much he wants it. Truly remarkable champions don't hide from fear, they recognize it, let it fill them up inside. And then contain it. ``You hope to feel it,'' Kite kite, in aviation and recreation kite, in aviation, aircraft restrained by a towline and deriving its lift from the aerodynamic action of the wind flowing across it. said Tuesday while practicing at Westchester Country Club The Westchester Country Club (or Westchester Biltmore Country Club) was founded by John McEntee Bowman, who hired Walter Travis to design two golf courses in Rye, New York as a luxury resort hotel. for this week's Buick Classic. ``If you are not feeling it, you are not worth a damn. You're nervous, you're scared. Whether you admit it or not, it's there.'' That seems to be a key component the great ones have in common - they have the strength to admit that they are nervous. They don't hide from fear by trying to pretend it doesn't exist. They fight it on it's own terms. Sorenstam made no effort to deny her fear after winning the U.S. Women's Open on Sunday. ``When I came in this morning I had a little stomach ache, butterflies but·ter·fly n. 1. Any of various insects of the order Lepidoptera, characteristically having slender bodies, knobbed antennae, and four broad, usually colorful wings. 2. all over,'' she said. ``I wanted to do it so badly.'' Yet she went out and shot a brilliant 66 and won by six strokes. Faldo said he was so nervous on the back nine at the Masters this year that ``I was drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. on every hole, my mouth was so dry.'' Then there was Watson's victory at the Memorial over the weekend. It was his first win in nine years. Most of that time his brilliant ball striking was sabotaged by miserable putting. Sometime around the end of the last decade those 4-footers that Watson made so routinely just quit going in. It became a battle of nerves. So many times during his drought Watson was in contention going to the final round, only to miss short putt after short putt. His test at the Memorial came early on in Sunday's final round. He three-putted No. 1 and then on the third hole hit his 15-foot birdie putt 4 feet past the hole. ``Oh, geez geez interj. Used to express mild surprise, delight, dissatisfaction, or annoyance. [Shortening and alteration of Jesus1.] , here we go again,'' Watson said he was thinking. But he made it and went on to a two-stroke victory. Watson described the battle with the butterflies in very vivid terms. ``Just like a heavyweight heavyweight - High-overhead; baroque; code-intensive; featureful, but costly. Especially used of communication protocols, language designs, and any sort of implementation in which maximum generality and/or ease of implementation has been pushed at the expense of mundane fight,'' he said. ``You get in there and first round you take a punch. Then you give a punch back. And when I took a punch on the first hole, I gave a punch on the third hole.'' Watson kept punching away - just like he had been punching away since 1987 when he last won. ``The beauty and the agony agony, n severe pain or extreme suffering. agony 1. death struggle. 2. extreme suffering. of the game is some days it is so easy and other days it is so tough,'' Watson said. ``Even though players say, ` I hate this game ' you know you got to go out there and if you are in competition, you better find a way to do it.'' Part of the sentiment hits at something anyone who has ever played the game understands. Some days it is easy and some days it is so difficult. And anyone who has ever stood over a 4-foot putt to win the weekend nassau knows how the mouth can go dry and the hands begin to shake a little bit. ``That's why Greg got all those letters,'' Kite said about the outpouring of support for Norman after the Masters. ``People understand what he was feeling.'' Perhaps Norman needed to understand what he was feeling a little better. ``I didn't feel nervous at the first tee,'' Norman said last week about the final round of the Masters. ``I am not concerned about it,'' Norman said when he returned at the Memorial after a five-week vacation. ``I'm really not. There is nothing in there for me to go soul searching about and say, `Boy have you got to do a major overhaul in your approach to the game.''' That thinking is a little alien to a Watson, Faldo, Sorenstam or Kite. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how you can be contending for a major championship and not be nervous,'' Kite said. He's not alone in that thinking. The great champions know that real strength comes from embracing fear. It's why golf, more than any other sport, transcends mere physical ability. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: ``When I came in this morning I had a little stomach ache, butterflies all over. ``I wanted to do it so badly.'' - Annika Sorenstam on the U.S. Open The term U.S. Open is applied to "open" United States national championships in a particular sport, in which anybody, amateur or professional, American or non-American may compete. These include:
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