Golf
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05 Aug 13
22:13
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03 Jun 03
The terrible, terrible drought of Tiger Woods continued over the weekend, as he won the Bridgestone Invitational by a mere seven shots and earned $1,500,000. Had he won by eight and earned $1,500,001, that would have been more impressive.
With that, he limps into the 95th PGA Championship here with but one major remaining before the year goes down as a catastrophic nonfulfillment, with perhaps only five PGA Tour wins and prize money lagging at $7,659,119 (and counting).
As the jets land and bring the golfers, Woods must face an Oak Hill course where he finished tied for 39th in the 2003 PGA Championship, part of a similarly wretched year in which he won five tournaments and $6,673,413.
It could make you cry.
Since winning the 2008 U.S. Open, which he played with fewer limbs than the others just to make it fair, he has lost all 17 majors he has entered, careening to only 14 wins across the ensuing five seasons and totaling only $26,255,443 in prize money, a figure that does not even get particularly near $27,000,000.
He has regained the No. 1 ranking and held it since March, which begs the question of why, since March, he has been so miserably unable to improve upon that ranking, which has not even budged. His career victory total stands at 79, three shy of Sam Snead's record that has stood since 1965, but it's not like it's 100 or anything.
At the Bridgestone last Friday, he shot a 61 and said, "I felt in total control of my game," but that's a canard. If he had actual, total control, he would have shot 59 or even 58 instead of blowing the round to smithereens by shooting the last five holes in even par at Firestone, a notoriously easy course. His 61 matched the best round of his career, which of course means only one thing: Our bored nation has seen that already.
He said he wasn't even bummed, showing the rank complacency we all tend to suffer when we stand 4-under-par after the first three holes and shoot 61 at Firestone.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, his seven-shot win, in which he wretchedly squandered two-ninths of a nine-shot lead on the back nine on Sunday, sent his lifetime total of wins by six or more shots to 12, only 10 ahead of a second-place cluster of four golfers with two six-or-more-shot wins during Woods' career.
It's all so disappointing.
He probably won't win at Oak Hill, either, and will head through the unbearable major-less months toward Augusta as an abject failure with Player of the Year honors, and as one of only hundreds of professional golfers who has not won a major since 2008. (It's almost as if they're really hard to win.) He will go hurtling into the 2014 Masters probably with the hopelessness of more wins in the balance of this season and the beginning of the next, plus the No. 1 ranking.
Sigh.
He has won tournaments leading into major tournaments eight times now since Torrey Pines in 2008, only to see those majors turn to unrelenting debacle. He won the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial leading into the Masters and U.S. Open, but in those two majors he finished tied for 6th, something that's very easy to accomplish in golf. In the 2009 British Open, he missed the cut, dumping his cut-making record as a professional to a horrendous 48-2 at the time. (It since has reached a dreadful 60-3.) In the 2009 PGA, he saw his major record when leading after 54 holes free-fall to a grim 14-1.
He won the Arnold Palmer by five shots before the 2012 Masters, the Memorial by two before the 2012 U.S. Open, and the Arnold Palmer by two before the 2013 Masters -- but anybody could have done that. He won neither the 2012 Masters nor the 2012 U.S. Open nor the 2013 Masters, and in only one of those three events did he get a top-5 finish, with that one not the least bit impressive even though it involved the overcoming of a triple-bogey on a great approach that smacked a flagstick. In fact, his last five majors include finishes of 3rd, 4th, 6th and 11th -- somber outcomes, clearly.
Yet he soldiers on, making a whole bunch of workmanlike pars Sunday at Firestone and saying to reporters in Akron, "You know, Oak Hill is going to be a golf course where we're going to have to make a whole lot of pars, there's no doubt. If you have an opportunity to make a birdie, you'd better, because there aren't a whole lot of opportunities to make them."
Reminded that he won the 2007 Bridgestone by only eight shots (not nine), and how that led to a 2007 PGA Championship he also won by only two shots (not three), he says that has no relation to this year: "Zero. I had a totally different golf swing back then compared to now."
It's hard to see how he even gets up in the morning.
It's inspiring how he still gets out there and tries.
I'm afraid I have to end with tears for Tiger
With that, he limps into the 95th PGA Championship here with but one major remaining before the year goes down as a catastrophic nonfulfillment, with perhaps only five PGA Tour wins and prize money lagging at $7,659,119 (and counting).
As the jets land and bring the golfers, Woods must face an Oak Hill course where he finished tied for 39th in the 2003 PGA Championship, part of a similarly wretched year in which he won five tournaments and $6,673,413.
It could make you cry.
Since winning the 2008 U.S. Open, which he played with fewer limbs than the others just to make it fair, he has lost all 17 majors he has entered, careening to only 14 wins across the ensuing five seasons and totaling only $26,255,443 in prize money, a figure that does not even get particularly near $27,000,000.
He has regained the No. 1 ranking and held it since March, which begs the question of why, since March, he has been so miserably unable to improve upon that ranking, which has not even budged. His career victory total stands at 79, three shy of Sam Snead's record that has stood since 1965, but it's not like it's 100 or anything.
At the Bridgestone last Friday, he shot a 61 and said, "I felt in total control of my game," but that's a canard. If he had actual, total control, he would have shot 59 or even 58 instead of blowing the round to smithereens by shooting the last five holes in even par at Firestone, a notoriously easy course. His 61 matched the best round of his career, which of course means only one thing: Our bored nation has seen that already.
He said he wasn't even bummed, showing the rank complacency we all tend to suffer when we stand 4-under-par after the first three holes and shoot 61 at Firestone.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, his seven-shot win, in which he wretchedly squandered two-ninths of a nine-shot lead on the back nine on Sunday, sent his lifetime total of wins by six or more shots to 12, only 10 ahead of a second-place cluster of four golfers with two six-or-more-shot wins during Woods' career.
It's all so disappointing.
He probably won't win at Oak Hill, either, and will head through the unbearable major-less months toward Augusta as an abject failure with Player of the Year honors, and as one of only hundreds of professional golfers who has not won a major since 2008. (It's almost as if they're really hard to win.) He will go hurtling into the 2014 Masters probably with the hopelessness of more wins in the balance of this season and the beginning of the next, plus the No. 1 ranking.
Sigh.
He has won tournaments leading into major tournaments eight times now since Torrey Pines in 2008, only to see those majors turn to unrelenting debacle. He won the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial leading into the Masters and U.S. Open, but in those two majors he finished tied for 6th, something that's very easy to accomplish in golf. In the 2009 British Open, he missed the cut, dumping his cut-making record as a professional to a horrendous 48-2 at the time. (It since has reached a dreadful 60-3.) In the 2009 PGA, he saw his major record when leading after 54 holes free-fall to a grim 14-1.
He won the Arnold Palmer by five shots before the 2012 Masters, the Memorial by two before the 2012 U.S. Open, and the Arnold Palmer by two before the 2013 Masters -- but anybody could have done that. He won neither the 2012 Masters nor the 2012 U.S. Open nor the 2013 Masters, and in only one of those three events did he get a top-5 finish, with that one not the least bit impressive even though it involved the overcoming of a triple-bogey on a great approach that smacked a flagstick. In fact, his last five majors include finishes of 3rd, 4th, 6th and 11th -- somber outcomes, clearly.
Yet he soldiers on, making a whole bunch of workmanlike pars Sunday at Firestone and saying to reporters in Akron, "You know, Oak Hill is going to be a golf course where we're going to have to make a whole lot of pars, there's no doubt. If you have an opportunity to make a birdie, you'd better, because there aren't a whole lot of opportunities to make them."
Reminded that he won the 2007 Bridgestone by only eight shots (not nine), and how that led to a 2007 PGA Championship he also won by only two shots (not three), he says that has no relation to this year: "Zero. I had a totally different golf swing back then compared to now."
It's hard to see how he even gets up in the morning.
It's inspiring how he still gets out there and tries.
I'm afraid I have to end with tears for Tiger
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Replies: 17
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tiger has a mental block in the majors...........think about it, he hasnt even come close
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my point exactly .......... he's only won 14 majors !
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hasnt come close in 5 years ballbag
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very good, I enjoyed that
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The USPGA is probably the best opportunity for Woods to win another major - usually the courses are set up less severely so that a winning score of between -6 to -12 is eminently achievable and may play to the strength of Woods - that said every major that goes by without him winning makes it that much more difficult to achieve his ultimate aim of beating the great record of Nicklaus
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Excellent opening post
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Can safely say that if he dont get the job done this week then Jacks record is safe, on the back of last week will never have a better chance of breaking his major hoodoo.
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I dont fancy him this week but you can never write off the greatest sportsman whose ever lived
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Mental block in majors.
Do me a favour. Eg.He did have a mental stumble being too accurate with that 3rd shot to the 15th at Augusta to be fair I suppose  |
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bananaoasis 06 Aug 13 13:01
Can safely say that if he dont get the job done this week then Jacks record is safe Really Woods is 37, so health permitting he has somewhere between 20 and 30 majors left to get the job done. After his barren spell 09-11 he won 3 times and tour last year and has won 5 times this year in 11 starts including beating the world's best in 2 WGC events and the Players. As a work in progress there is clearly improvement his putting and short game have come on leaps and bounds. Last week for example was like the Tiger of old when in trouble he escaped with par. He may not win this week but starts the overwhelming favourite. He may not have his best stuff this week, get unlucky or be beaten by a better man but the idea that not winning this week means he has no chance of breaking Jack's record is nonsense. If he doesn't win this week he will simply have one less in the bag than if he does. |
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curious cat
that write up is without doubt the best read i have ever seen congratulations on your astonishing humour loved it |
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I agree Mighty Whites apart from the fact that I think it'll be closer to 40 majors he'll have left. It's not if but when with Tiger!
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Does anyone have to hand the most majors won by someone after the age of 40 - I doubt it will be many more than 2, maybe 3
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AGE 48
Julius Boros, 1968 PGA Championship, Pecan Valley AGE 46 Jack Nicklaus, 1986 Masters, Augusta National Old Tom Morris, 1867 British Open, Prestwick AGE 45 Hale Irwin, 1990 U.S. Open, Medinah Jerry Barber, 1961 PGA Championship, Olympia Fields AGE 44 Lee Trevino, 1984 PGA Championship, Shoal Creek Robert De Vicenzo, 1967 British Open, Royal Liverpool Harry Vardon, 1914 British Open, Prestwick AGE 43 Phil Mickelson 2013 British Open Muirfield Ben Crenshaw, 1995 Masters, Augusta National Raymond Floyd, 1986 U.S. Open, Shinnecock Hills Julius Boros, 1963 U.S. Open, The Country Club Ted Ray, 1920 U.S. Open, Inverness Old Tom Morris, 1864 British Open, Prestwick AGE 42 Payne Stewart, 1999 U.S. Open, Pinehurst No. 2 Tom Kite, 1992 U.S. Open, Pebble Beach Gary Player, 1978 Masters, Augusta National Tommy Bolt, 1958 U.S. Open, Southern Hills J.H. Taylor, 1913 British Open, Royal Liverpool Willie Park Sr., 1875 British Open, Prestwick AGE 41 Vijay Singh, 2004 PGA Championship, Whistling Straits Mark O’Meara, 1998 British Open, Royal Birkdale Mark O’Meara, 1998 Masters, Augusta National Sam Snead, 1954 Masters, Augusta National Henry Cotton, 1948 British Open, Muirfield Harry Vardon, 1911 British Open, Royal St. George’s Old Tom Morris, 1862 British Open, Prestwick AGE 40 Jack Nicklaus, 1980 PGA Championship, Oak Hill Jack Nicklaus, 1980 U.S. Open, Baltusrol Ben Hogan, 1953 British Open, Carnoustie Ben Hogan, 1953 U.S. Open, Oakmont Ben Hogan, 1953 Masters, Augusta National James Braid, 1910 British Open, St. Andrews Old Tom Morris, 1861 British Open, Prestwick |
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Nicklaus and O'meara won two in a year in their 40s. Hogan won 3 in a year.
I think going forward there will be more majors won by players in their 40s. Just look at how many wins the likes of Vijay, Stricker or Kenny Perry had in their 40s. Players are fitter and stronger than ever before. Mickelson at 43 has had arguably the best summer of his career. |
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cheers mighty whites
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Nice write up C-C
I suppose he has a squeak of a chance, as long as he is in front after 54 holes of course. |