Trio not up to par against Tiger
By
DAVID O'BRIEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/19/07
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — John Smoltz, Jeff Francoeur and Adam LaRoche teamed up to face
Tiger Woods on the golf course Saturday. It wasn't even close.
LaRoche forgot his clubs, and things went downhill from there.
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"We got crushed," Francoeur said Sunday, a day after Woods beat the trio's best ball on 16 of 18 holes. "But it was the best time I ever had getting my butt kicked."
Smoltz, Francoeur and LaRoche, the former Braves first baseman, played Smoltz's pal Woods at Isleworth Country Club, where the PGA star has a home.
Smoltz and Woods play a round of
golf together each year during Braves spring training. This was the first time Francoeur and LaRoche were part of it.
"We could not have played worse," Smoltz said. "But it was such a blast."
Smoltz is a scratch golfer who might play on the PGA Champions Tour someday. Francoeur and LaRoche are also long hitters and good golfers, by most standards.
But the PGA tours in general, and Woods in particular, are a different level.
"We're not used to being [golf] teammates," Smoltz said, offering a half-hearted excuse for his trio's performance. "We like playing against each other."
The tone for the day was set when LaRoche showed up at the Braves' clubhouse at Disney's Wide World of Sports in jeans, unaware of their approaching tee time. The Braves waited for him to change into khakis.
When they got to the country club, LaRoche asked where Chipper Jones was. Told the third baseman wasn't playing, LaRoche had a troubled look and informed the group he had left his clubs in Jones' car Friday. Jones met him halfway to deliver the clubs.
After making Woods wait, the Braves watched him tee off first and blast his tee shot over a stand of trees the others would never try to clear.
Woods shot a "66 or 67," according to Francoeur, or 68, according to Smoltz.
The others? "I shot probably 77," Smoltz said. "[Francoeur] had one of his worst rounds." LaRoche? "I shot about 84," Francoeur said, "and I can truly say Rochy was worse than I was."
Before Saturday, Francoeur said he played golf with Woods — on PlayStation.
"I told him, 'I've actually played you quite a lot,' " the young right fielder said. "He had no idea [what Francoeur was talking about]."
On the par-3 second hole, he said Woods hit his tee shot six inches from the cup, then talked some good-natured trash, as he would throughout the round. "He's like, 'I misread that one,' " Francoeur said, smiling and shaking his head.
"What amazes me is how far he can hit the ball, because he's not a huge guy. He's just got so much swing speed. He teed off [on the first hole], hit one about 340 yards, then got some chocolate-chip cookies out of his cart. ...
"It's amazing you can have that much fun and shoot 66 or 67."
Francoeur said the baseball players didn't actually have complete scores — because they so often picked up before finishing a hole, after Woods birdied it.
While it probably didn't match the thrill of playing golf with Woods, the Braves were clearly happy to see LaRoche again for the first time since he was traded to Pittsburgh in January for reliever Mike Gonzalez.
After LaRoche entered the clubhouse, pitcher Mike Hampton said to him with a straight face, "I know you don't have cable [TV] in Kansas, but you've been traded. You've got to go to Bradenton [the Pirates' spring training home]."
