Hope you didn’t turn in to the tourney late today, cause you woulda missed el Tigre.
What are they talking about a “new” swing? How many new swings has this guy gone through? Fun leaderboard - especially so with Tiger doing nothing right.
With all these youngsters out there, I’ma wondering if Tiger is no longer the lock to beat Jack that I had previously thought.
Meh, he’s been back for less than a year. Considering how talented he is and how hard he works, if he doesn’t win a major for the next five years, I’m still not willing to call him finished. He’s what, 35? He still has 15 years as a pro.
His time as a competitor for winning is rapidly fading. You don’t win many championships in your late 40s. He is down to about 5 to 7 years and he is dropping like a rock.
You don’t think that with the focus on fitness that professional golfers have now compared to years past changes that a little bit?
I agree with you. However, this might be the most talent-rich pool of golfers ever. It won’t be easy.
He pissed away a year plus when he should have been at his prime. I’ve never liked the guy, but 5 years ago I would have bet the house that he would be a lock to beat Jack. I’d still bet he wins at least 1 major out of the next 8, but they are going to be getting tougher and tougher.
These young guys haven’t faced the unbeatable Tiger, and (I hope) may be less likely to fade than guys over the past 5-10 years. And the guys who have already been out there have had a taste of winning, and (I hope) will find ways to resist simply going back to the days of Tiger winning 50% of his starts as the filed falls back to him on Sunday.
And yes, Tiger is still the biggest draw. But he no longer owns EVERY promotional deal, and may feel the strain of pretending to be a decent human being. The golf world no longer revolves around Tiger.
Maybe Tiger is a cicada. He helped to elevate the world of golf and put it in a completely better and higher place all by himself. He’s outlived (the first step in) his usefulness. Honestly, I think Tiger coming back for a year or so to dominate again would be a great story and cause the younger golfers to have to elevate to try and beat him again (kind of what happened to Mark O’Meara in 1998 after working, playing, and training with Tiger).
Watching him the last year, I’m just constantly surprised at how his whole game seems to have gone in the can. I didn’t have a chance to watch him this weekend, but when I have watched him over the last few months, he’s been less than mediocre off the tee, his iron play is decidedly mortal, his short game has faded, and his putting seems worse, though I’m not sure the stats bear that out.
I keep thinking he is going to bounce back, but I can’t help thinking that we are still witnessing the most total collapse of any huge sports star, ever. And I want the old Tiger to come back.
The Tiger sycophants were ‘amped up’ coming into this week after his 2nd place finish in the Tiger Invitational in early December. (FTR, an 18 player tournament).
Then they notched the ‘amp’ to 11 after he opened up with 69-69 and well within striking distance going into the third round. then the weekend. And then proceeds to shoot 74-75, beating only 17 of the 79 players who made the cut.
IMO, His new swing, courtesy of Sean Foley, is not the right swing for him and he should abandon as soon as possible. He will have his good rounds when his short game is sharp but his days of consistently being near or at the top of the leaderboard are over with this swing.
He is now #3 in the World Rankings and not even within ‘striking distance’ of either #1 or #2 right now. He can get within striking distance at Dubai
He will begin to fall quickly in the ranking in the next few weeks unless he plays very well. He could be passed by three players this upcoming week, and I believe he will be out of the top 10 by the Masters.
On any given weekend, he might get hot and show signs of his old form. But as each week goes by, he’s developing new, bad habits and thoughts which I would think make it tougher to simply turn a switch and revert to a prior state.
I wonder how much of his prior success was due to the fact that in his mind he was unbeatable. He KNEW he could pull of any shot, and KNEW he could beat any other golfer. I’m not sure he ever mailed it in. Even when he had a poor tourney he tended to grind away and would still end up in the top 10.
Perhaps we could put Sunday down as simply an “off” tourney. But his body language in all aspects of his game just seemed so subdued. When things used to go poorly, he used to get mad. This weekend it seemed like after just about every tee shot he would sort of deflate.
Believe me, from my own game I know how hard it is to stay positive when you don’t know where your shots are going. But he just so different from his prior competitiveness. I’m just wondering how he gets that back?
It does change things. It makes things worse for a 40±year-old when much of the field is concentrating on fitness, and much of that field is significantly younger than him.
This. In my experience, the difference between a good athlete and a great one is between the ears. Tiger in his prime knew, without question, that he was going to win, that his next shot was going to be his best shot. And everyone else knew it too – the entire tour was afraid of him and that gave him a huge advantage on Sunday. Since driving his car into a tree, Tiger simply doesn’t seem to have that supreme confidence in himself that carries him through every hole and the competition have stopped worrying about him. It’s a completely different dynamic on the tour now which will make his run at Jack far more difficult than it otherwise might have been.
It’s not just that TIGER thought he was invincible. It’s that the REST of the field thought so, too. Even guys as good as Mickelson, Singh and Els went into a tournamnet KNOWING “My best game won’t be good enough. I’ve got no chance if Tiger is anywhere close to peak form.” We regularly saw excellent golfers self-destruct or take reckless chances, because they were convinced that “par isn’t good enough- I’ve GOT to birdie this hole, because Tiger will.”
Nobody thinks that way now. It’s NOT that Tiger stinks. It’s NOT that he’s washed up. It’s NOT that he can’t possibly win more tournaments. It’s that the rest of the field isn’t going to melt down just because Tiger’s in contention.
One more point- even though golf is not like football or basketball, it’s still a sport, and it’s still an athletic competition, and a 35 year old man with knee problems is NOT young.
If Roger Federer (who used to be as dominant in his sport as Tiger was in his) were 35, NOBODY would say “Ah, he’s fine, he can be a champion for the next 10 years easy.” That so many people DO say that about Tiger indictes that people just don’t take golf seriously.
But the record shows that golfers start fading in their mid to late thirties, just as athletes in other sports do. Don’t be fooled by the occasional 50 year old who makes a run at a major. Golf is NOT an “old man’s game.” Not at the elite level, anyway.
Five years ago, the rest of the field KNEW Tiger was going to sink every big putt. Now, they say, “Let’s SEE you do it, Eldrick.”
I think you’re taking this point too far. The top money winners last year were 32, 40, 41, 26, 43, and 40. If Tiger is as good as Ernie or Stricker, he has several more great years possible. It’s just he’s a broken golfer now.
So, Tiger needs 4 more to tie Jack.
I believe Jack got his last 4 when he was older than Tiger is now, so it can be done. But each year that passes without him winning one makes it that much tougher.
Who knows - perhaps he will run the table this year. But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Compared to tennis, golf IS an old man’s game. (Of course, compared to tennis, everything but gymnastics is an old man’s game; in tennis, an insanely talented and driven fitness freak can play at the top levels into his early 30s; it’s happened twice that I can think of.)
He just needs 5 or 6 more women to screw and he will be back to normal.
I’m guessing it the meds he’s been on ever since he screwed his life up.
Woods was paired with a rookie, Brendan Steele, for the final round. Steele said Tiger mailed it in.
No. He is not the only one in shape any more. He is competing with lots of excellent physical specimens.