Flash back to June of 2008 when Tiger was capturing his 14th major championship on a sun-drenched Monday along the Pacific Ocean at Torrey Pines. On one leg Tiger fended off a gritty Rocco Mediate to once again lift a major championship trophy. Few, if any, would have predicted that Tiger would fail to capture a major in the five years between then and now. Between several injuries and a messy and public separation from his wife stemming from Tiger’s well-documented infidelity, his game hit rock bottom along with his life. It was once a foregone conclusion that Tiger would eclipse Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships, and all of a sudden Tiger seemed old with an ailing body, an uncooperative swing, and a bulky putter.
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| Cheat on me and I will take $750 million and beat you with a 9-iron |
“It’s a process,” Tiger kept telling the media as he played one mediocre round after another. It seemed like the “process” was taking forever. A man with less patience than Tiger may have abandoned the process long before. In 2012, Tiger’s game finally started to come around. He won three times on tour. However, he was not a huge factor in the major championships, which have come to define his career. While 2012 would have been considered a great year for any other tour pro, it was simply pedestrian for a man with 78 career wins and 14 majors.
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| What sport am I playing again? Tennis? |
Tiger has gotten off to a booming start in 2013. He has already won 4 times including the most recent addition of The Players Championship, which is arguably the tour’s most prestigious event outside of the major’s. Tiger is not only winning, he is back to doing it in impressive fashion. He is bombing his driver, flushing his irons, and back to putting the way he did in the early 2000s. His putting was perhaps the last part of his game to come around out of the slump, and so far this year he is leading the tour in putting.
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| When will Tiger win another major? |
So I know what you’re thinking, yes it’s all well and good that Tiger has won 7 times in the last 18 months, but when is he going to do it on Sunday in a major? Well, I don’t believe you will have to wait long for the answer to that question. This year’s US Open is at Merion GC in the City of Brotherly Love. The final round falls exactly five years to the day after Tiger’s win in 2008. Merion seems to set up perfectly for the type of golf Tiger is playing right now. Tiger’s lone problem at this stage is his waywardness with the driver. Normally, that would haunt you on a long US Open track with hellish rough. However, Merion sets up more like the course Tiger just brought to its knees, TPC Sawgrass. Merion is short which will allow Tiger to hit long irons and fairway woods, which he absolutely crushes with accuracy. Merion’s small greens also require the type of precision iron play Tiger has brought to the table this year.
So you heard it on Hammertime Sports first. Tiger will be lifting the US Open trophy next month, and order will be restored in the golf world. As an unabashed Phil Mickelson fan, I hope I’m wrong. I can’t stand Tiger, but damn is that guy good. The roar is back.
-Andy
No doubt golf is more interesting when Tiger is playing and playing well.
ReplyDeleteHere's a conspiracy theory for you (I have plenty). The PGA is paying Sergio to insult Tiger/further destroy his own career to stoke Tiger's 'Stomp them when they're down' fire and return him to a dominate golfer that everyone is afraid of.
How else do you explain Sergio dropping the oops-this-wasn't-supposed-to-be-racist 'fried chicken' bomb? No one is that stupid. He is the Mandarin front of the Evil Arm of the public relations wing of the PGA.
You heard THAT here first, too.