Tiger Woods Does it Again: PGA Championship
Tiger. Tiger. Tiger. Well, he did it again. Tiger Woods took down another major golf tournament. It now marks his 12th major victory, and his 3rd PGA Championship Tournament victory. The win also continued Tiger’s undefeated winning streak after having at least a share of the lead going into the final round of a major tournament. He is now 12 for 40 in his first forty major tournaments. To put that in perspective, Jack Nicklaus, the all-time leader in major wins, had only 9 victories through his first 40 major tournaments.
Tiger’s season-ending victory at Medinah, the site of the PGA Championship, may only be the beginning of the end for the rest of the world. Just about every golfer this side of the sun is beginning to fear what this victory may entail for the rest of their major pursuits in the year to come. While Tiger may not be in the unbelievable rare form that he was in 1999 and 2000, he is getting close. During that ’99-’00 stretch, Tiger’s game was marked by daring risks, an unbelievable driver and the ability to reach the green on approach shots that even the best of pros might not even dare to take. But that style of golf has not been the method of choice for Tiger over these past 3 victories. His recognition of the fact that his putting skills are superior, his greens-in-regulation ranking is approaching celestiality, and that his fairway percentage without the driver is so superior to everyone else, has resulted in his most calculated stretch of golf ever.
Tiger has practically eliminated his driver from his golf game. You can’t really blame him though? I mean you saw it, didn’t you? He tried using his driver twice in the front 9 of the last day, and both times his swing resulted in his usual “I’m sick in the stomach” face. What’s the reason for his poor driver display at the PGA’s, or even dating back to the British Open? Maybe it is a result of him retooling his golf swing. Or maybe it is even just as simple as him over-swinging whenever he uses the driver. But whatever it is, he is defeating the world’s best competitors on courses designed for lengthâÂ?¦with his irons! While the rest of the world is hitting the ball 300 yards off the tee, Tiger just continues to chip away at the fairway and out-golf his opponents. In Tiger’s credit, he was very much spurned for seemingly winning tournaments because he could hit the ball further than anybody else. But now that everybody else is hitting the ball further than him, the results remain the same.
When the media interviewed the “contenders” for the PGA championship after the 3rd round was completed, many of them questioned Tiger’s ability to protect every lead that he has going into the final day of a major tournament. Many of them just simply played the odds, or so it would seem with their quotes, as they uttered things like, “Well, he can’t always win when he has the lead after Saturday,” or “One of these days somebody is going to come from behind and beat him on a Sunday, why can’t it bethis time?” Well, will somebody please show me how the odds apply to this man? Because I don’t think they do.
Luke Donald came out to the final tee-time, paired with Tiger, and had a share of the lead, but no sooner than the two started did Tiger immediately intimidate his way into a 3 shot lead in just the first 6 holes. The competition wilts at just the mere presence of Tiger. His dominating body structure (compared to the other golfers), his glaring daze, and his fierce competitive attitude, all seem to be apart of an aura that the people around him just cannot seem to overcome. And even when golfers are not paired with him, the people playing in front of him are pressured into taking risky shots, sinking all of their putts, and making every green-in-regulation, because they have no confidence in the fact that they can just play their own game and actually win the tournament. All the while, Tiger is missing fairways, hitting the ball into bunkers, and damn near chunking the ball out-of-bounds. And if you don’t believe Tiger is human, just look at his performance yesterday, because it was far from perfect. But unlike the rest, Tiger knows that if he takes on everyone else, swing for swing, he is going to win out-right every time. He knows that with each individual swing of the club, his attitude and his mental toughness has prepared him to make the best swing at a higher rate than any other golfer in the world. So when he vaults the ball into the sand, Tiger knows that he will just have to make the best bunker shot of the day. But if that happens to anyone else playing in front of him, they just wither away at the challenge and watch Tiger gain another stroke on them and the rest of competition.
If I had to put my life on it, I would probably bet that Tiger will lose a major tournament in which he went into the final 18 with the lead one of these days. But that maroon shirt just seems to scare the competition away, and couple that with the fact that he is one of the most clutch athletes in the world, I really don’t know why I would ever bet against this man. After all, he has only proven that he is the most feared man on the tour, and if he is within 3 or 4 shots after the second round of any major, the whispers of Tiger winning the tournament seem to turn into fact. And if that’s the state of golf that we are headed for going into next year’s majors, then I may not bet my life, but I’ll put all my money on Tiger Woods and his aura.
