First time in 5 years, I heard.
He missed the cut at last years British Open Championship.
edit: Technically, the BOC is not a PGATour Event, it is run by the Royal and Ancient Club.
Meh, he also was -11 at Masters a few weeks ago. He’s probably a bit inconsistant simply because he hasn’t played all that much over the last six months…anyone know why that is by the way (joking)? If this poor play continues through the US Open I’ll worry, but I doubt it.
Uh, he was cut in the 2005 US Open.
I think you missed an “n” in your thread title.
Make that the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot. And again, technically that is not tournament run by the PGATour. it is a USGA event.
“Tiger Woods misses the cut!!!”
maybe the knife was too blunt?..
Win.
More than anything else, the thing that made him such a truly superhuman force, that allowed him to sustain a dizzying level of dominance for an absolutely ridiculous length of time, that put him several light years above and beyond the greatest golfers that ever lived (pretty hard to avoid loaded superlatives when you’re talking about this guy), was that he NEVER stayed down. Horrible tragedy? Bum leg? Timing completely off? Shrug, wave it off, work on the problem, and casually win the next tournament in crushing fashion. How many times has he been written off? And how many times has he returned to form without losing so much as a speck of ability? (Note: 2nd number same as 1st.)
This is bad. If he quadruple-bogeyed one hole, that wouldn’t be cause for alarm (it wouldn’t even be the first time that happened). But stinking up THAT many holes, culminating in back-to-back double bogeys…wow. Something is really, really bothering him, and this goes way beyond any maritial infidelity triviality.
Even if he bounces back again (and I believe he will), will it be a perfect recovery? Even if he gets back to 95%, that’ll be enough to prevent him from winning the U.S. Open, and he’s not getting any younger.
Loved this one!
Anyone know what the crowds were like? I figured the Masters would be a controlled environment, with no heckling permitted. Did the crowd get out of hand and throw him a few zingers from the gallery?
Nothing that I heard about. Local sports talk radio had a lot of reports from the course and apparently security was very strict, and the crowds were polite.
In the article linked in the OP, a couple of small incidents:
This article said
IMO, these incidents are pretty tame and really not worthy of comment and certainly the fan that said something about “no red shirt” didn’t deserve to be escorted away.
And FTR, if I was in Charlotte I would have told him that he could go to Louisville this weekend because there are a lot of whores, er I mean horses, being rode.
His remarks seemed a tad testy afterwards. I understand he isn’t happy about missing a cut - especially at a course he usually plays well. But doesn’t bode well for the new, fan friendly Tiger…
Be interesting to see what he does next week at the TPC!
I’m going to go out on a limb and proclaim Jack’s record as being safe. Yes, everyone has permission to laugh at me if he does it, but it’s not just the pussy-chasing. Have you seen his horrendous follow throughs when he hits a bad shot? His mental approach is all borkered-the constant cursing being another example of that. I don’t think he’s going to age well, to be honest. Top golfers tend to stop winning majors past age 35 anyway (many legends like Arnie never won any at all). Right now he does have a 2 major edge on Jack at the same age, but Jack will catch him next year; the clock is indeed ticking.
Your not-all-that-bold prediction reminded me of something, John, the glory days of Takanohana. He was the most devastating, crushing, unstoppable force in sumo in 30 years. In 1996, he won four championships in a row, and it would’ve been five if a bad cold hadn’t struck at the worst possible time. He dropped off a bit in '97 but still won three tournaments, and he finished second in the other three. There were a lot of people in the business saying that his breaking the records for most championships and most wins was inevitable. Not pretty likely, not highly likely, inevitable. It was just a matter of how much.
And then, almost immediately the roof caved in. He neglected his training. He grew spoiled and arrogant. His once razor-sharp focus dulled. He suffered a rash of injuries due to improper conditioning.
He retired a shell of his former self, never sniffing either record.
That’s the thing about these reality-bending dominators: Sooner or later, the magic is is going to end. Some, like Roger Federer, remain in the upper echelon and eventually become the legends of the game. Some, like Bill Elliot, drop all the way back to the pack and resign themselves to having one brief, shining moment of greatness. And some, like Mike Tyson, get caught in an ugly, inexorable downward spiral that destroys everything that was good about them and leaves them with nothing. Right now it looks like the second scenario is most likely for Woods. He can’t power out of his mistakes forever; there will come a time when either he hits the fairway and makes the green in regulation or he’s taking a bogey or worse.
It’s a bit dismaying when someone comes so close so quickly and then fails, but at least Woods will have plenty of distinguished company there.
That fact that not even the likes of Gonzo are in here to challenge my prediction means that I’m not alone in my assessment.
As a Red Sox fan, I’m currently seeing this firsthand with David Ortiz. Fouling balls off that he used to crush, waving at crap in the dirt, bat speed so slow birds could nest in it safely. It really can turn around in a hurry, all the magic suddenly departed. Human beings basically start aging from their early 20’s onward; in sports like golf and baseball which have a rather long learning curve, a player can stave off the effects of aging by truly studying his craft (think Tony Gwynn and all the videos he watched-hit .372 at age 37). But eventually Dat ol’ Devil Time will catch up. Par for the human experience I’d say.
Interesting note about Arnold Palmer. I didn’t know that.
If Tiger is or has been using human growth hormone, and has stopped, that might be something difficult for him to come back from also.
Remember during the height of the steroid era in MLB, players were having their best years of their careers AFTER age 35. That doesn’t happen in real life without some help. And HGH, even more than steroids, supposedly give your body an amazing ability to recover from injury, and become stronger. I don’t know if they have an accurate test for HGH even to this day, and my guess is the BALCO-type labs out there are trying to create new compounds to stay one step ahead of the testing anyway.
Tiger has been tangentially linked to at least on HGH doctor. I saw a recent poll on current PGA members and about 25% think Tiger has been on some type of PED’s.
His whole life might be imploding as we speak. He’s going to go through a divorce (I assume), he’s lost most of his endorsements, he’s looked at by the golfing public in a much different light than he was last year, and if he’s no longer on PED’s (assuming he WAS on them, which I don’t know), his game is not going to get better over the next year or two. It will get worse. He will have trouble reaching Jack’s record, which is the one thing he wanted more than anything.
I am one of those people out there that only watch tourneys if Tiger is in contention over the weekend. But I’ve not followed gold very closely this year at all, and that is in large part because other than Tiger, I don’t really care about any other golfer. My interest in Tiger is no longer there. I now find myself rooting for Jack to hang onto the record of 19 majors.
I’d still bet on Tiger to pass Jack, but when you think of golfers going into the tank, you wonder if Tiger might not do the same but on a grander scale than ever before. For a year or so, Johnny Miller was close to the best player ever. And David Duval sure seemed poised on the cusp of greatness. On a much smaller scale, look at players like Ian Baker-Finch, who win a major and then find themselves unable to make a cut.
I’m truly looking forward to watching this afternoon’s Tigerless tourney. Wonder if the albino will be able to hold it together?
I wouldn’t be writing his obituary just yet. He did finish fourth at the Masters.
Two amazing performances today from the young guns. 20 year old Rory McIlroy shoots a 62 to come from making the cut on the number to winning his first Tour event. Ryo Ishikawa shoots a 58(!), the lowest score ever on the Japanese PGA tour to win his seventh title in Japan. He’s 18 years old.