Ok, maybe it was a bit lucky, but the eagle Tiger just made at 11 was typical Tiger. Out of gnarly rough, nothing but the bottom of the cup. Now everyone knows he’s on the move (unless they are deaf).
I’d say Tiger has his game back. 
People were saying Tiger had lost it for good just a few months ago. My eyes almost rolled into the next county.
Unbelievable shot at 18. This is vintage Tiger - 65 on the final day and tear the heart out of your closest competitors on the back nine.
He hit 18 fairways in a row. Even Tiger can appreciate hitting from the short grass. Best round of the day.
The people saying he wasn’t his old self were insane. Before this tournament he had one victory and something like 5 top tens…that’s a pretty good season, and it’s an INCREDIBLE season coming off of knee surgery. Add this win in, and it’s pretty clear he’s just fine. 67 Tour wins by age 33. Scary.
Here, it was less than a month ago. I didn’t even comment 'cause I thought it was crazy.
Actually ,it is an ongoing thread. Similar ones have gone on for a couple years. It was until lately that I found flaws in his game, mental and physical. He was not hitting fairways. In fact he sometimes missed by a mile. Years earlier he was able to save the holes. That was becoming rarer. That was topped off by crappy putting. Even his chipping was down.
Today he made another ridiculous chip on 11. The last 2 holes were great. Is he back? He sure put a scare into the competition.
First I said he woudln’t last to age 40. Then I thought that he’d make a run at Nicklaus’ major record, but it’d be a massive struggle. Now I’m terrified at predicting if his swing will suffer it he gets shot in the arms several dozen times. Tiger has become The Athlete That Will Not Die. At this point it would not surprise me in the slightest if he won a tournament coming off of a 9-month cancer treatment at age 65. By 4 strokes.
Y’know what, think about it for a second. Forget all the 13-stroke Masters drubbings, the come-back-from-outer-space matches, the 200-yard sand shots over water to within two inches of the hole, or clutch putting normally associated with cheat devices. What makes him the most unbelievable golfer of all time ever is that there is never, ever any decline.
Every other great has had a decline in abiliites, sometimes a precipitous one, and there’s was never any mistaking it. We saw it happen to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. We saw it happen to Jerry Rice, Brett Favre, and Bruce Smith. And Mike Tyson. And Ken Shamrock. Hell, Michael Jordan, who’s been consensus voted greatest basketball player ever about 8 or 9 times by now, was a parody of his former self when he left. And injuries can accelerate this decline like a top fuel dragster. Grant Hill, one of the most electrifying players of his generation suffered an ankle injury…one lousy little ankle injury…and his superstar days were over, just like that. Knee injuries turned Terrell Davis from a freight train into a has-been virtually overnight. Need I even mention truly calamitous cases like Bo Jackson?
Golfers come and go. Some lose their cards, others lose their focus, others finally have bad habits catch up to them. Athletes fade, decline, get old, get banged up, and die. And Tiger just keeps going and going and going. Hell, compared to that, a Tiger Slam is downright mundane.
When Tiger tries those outrageous chips, they go in. He does not bounce off the flag. He does not just slip by or come up 3 inches short. The damn things go in. When he went over on 11 ,he blew the tourney. He was looking at a par on a par 5. Two more strokes and everything is different. But it went in. How does he keep doing that? Everybody just shrugs and thinks, “thats Tiger”.
Z-z-z-z-z.
Of course, it saved me some TV watching on Sunday. When I turned it on with an hour to go, and saw him birdie 17, I was able to turn the TV off and do other things.
As a result of which you missed hi where he finished a foot from the cup, after hitting his 3-iron over 250 yards off the tee.
You also missed Davis Love’s two birdie putts back-to-back of 40’ plus. And numerous other well executed golf shots. But since you don’t seem to like Tiger Woods, I guess that’s all ok. :dubious:
I don’t know what this says. The impossible becomes possible, and it’s happened so many times before. We should be numb to it, but we aren’t.