What Will Happen To Mens Golf When We Lose The Roar of Tiger?

Women's golf has its rising star and she is 17 year old Lydia Ko.  She is the Tiger of the women's game and a singular reason to tune in to see the ladies play. In the last couple of years, if you've heard a roar from viewers of men's professional golf, it was likely to be the chant of the name of the games rising star. What seemed a familiar sound was actually the crowd chanting "Rory, Rory," and not that unmistakable roar that only a Tiger can make.

Apparently, the folks at Augusta aren't confused by the roar and neither are the organizers of most tournament events these days- including that tournament organizer named Eldrick Woods.  That's right.  Even Tiger needed Tiger recently in order to insure the viability of his own charity golf tournament, so he announced himself ready to play hoping to keep his tournament viable.  Once again, a seemingly unhealthy Tiger is announcing his intention play in an upcoming tournament, but this time its the Masters.

Can Tiger recapture the days of his youth?

Some guys have the ability to move the needle in special ways. Tiger is the needle.

It might sound conspiratorial to suggest that Tiger is only playing this years Masters for the sake of tournament sponsorship and viewer ratings that increase tournament sponsorship, but the evidence seems rather clear in light of his recent health status and failed attempts to finish a decent round. Tiger's don't hunt like this.  They quietly lay in wait so as not to over exert their energy- and then they overwhelm their prey with cat like agility and speed.  The young Tiger did this with apparent ease while the old Tiger has proven to us all that nothing great is ever truly easy- the great ones just make it look that way.

Tiger could finish his stellar career tomorrow and he will rank among the best to ever do it.  Problem is, he has a chance to be the best to ever do it.  Some think he already is, however, being the best and winning the most tournaments are not always the same accomplishments. As it stands, one modern era player stands in front of Tiger and his name is Jack Nicklaus.  Up until now, Tiger has tracked Jack's path of greatness to the letter and remains on the trail to catch and surpass the greatest. Problem is, he looks to have lost the scent.

What Jack accomplished in 19 years (13 majors)  Tiger did in 11 (14 majors).  Problem is, Tiger  seems to have stalled out since reaching that first resting plateau because when Jack reached 40 years old, he still had a few good wins in the bag.  Right now Tiger Woods is 39 years old. If he follows Jacks trend of 5 major titles after 40 years of age, all will be forgotten during these years of Tiger's malaise.  What can't be forgotten is the enormous impact he still has on the game of golf, an impact that even Jack never had.

Traditionalist who yearn for golf purity may not be happy now that every Happy Gilmore and his ethnic friends have taken to the game of golf.  The decades of opening new golf courses regularly has not returned, but the tide of closing existing golf courses regularly has stemmed while the likelihood of sitting to view a golf tournament on weekend television remains very strong- so long as Tiger says he's playing.

Yeah, yeah. We all like Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler and those cats, but we can get the leader board update when they play, whereas we will sit and watch Tiger wail and flail any day of the week.  Tiger has always been an adventure to watch because he plays for big prizes only.  In the effort to insure you win and not just place, you might find yourself missing the cut in the game of golf.  Some players would love to win the tournament, but are genuinely out there to just keep hold of their tour card and make enough money to call themselves a pro. That's never been Tiger Woods, and given his unwillingness to play mediocre golf, it never will be.  Tiger would actually rather overemphasize (I didn't say fake) an injury versus remaining in a tournament that he has NO chance of winning.  That might sound pitiful from a competitive point of view, but it also might explain why Tiger is a boom or bust (mostly bust) performer right now.

What does a golf fade away look like?

Tiger is not failing for lack of introspection.  When you listen to him talk about his woes, he seems pretty clear that he is reaching the waning days of his golf years, and he must develop a fade-away to close out his career like Michael Jordan (his idol) closed out his illustrious career.  To continue in the vein of basketball, no player completes a championship run without experiencing some significant adversity.  Outside of this third quarter meltdown that Tiger is experiencing with his career, the guy would have been on his way to a route of the entire field.

Greatness just doesn't work like that.

Despite being undefeated, nobody will consider Floyd Mayweather the best ever if he doesn't show us his ability to overcome that moment of real adversity in his career. This is Tiger's moment of adversity and his time to prepare for his fourth quarter finale. Whether he succeeds or fails is inconsequential to each of us who are totally hooked on this show and committed to seeing it through to the final episode.  If he stinks up Augusta, we will watch until its clearly time to check back next time.  39 might be old in most professional sports, but not in golf, so Tiger has time to prove all of his doubters wrong and all of his supporters right, or vice versa- so long as he can handle the pressure of knowing that every single one of them is watching his every move.

The question that remains is not whether Tiger is only playing for the sake of television ratings and sponsorship dollars.  The question that remains is what becomes of golf without Tiger?

Rory McIlroy Joins Tiger and Jack In Rare Air. Is It Time For One Name?

Rory McIlroy just rushed from behind to shut out the lights on the last PGA major of the season.  When I say turned out the lights, I mean that literally.

Under the minimal lights that remained in the skies at Vallhalla, McIlroy took a 2 shot lead into the 18th hole with a blind tee-shot to close out the tournament.  Blind, because there was not enough light for Rory to see the fairway that he grabbed a driver to reach, and water was in play to the right. If that wasn't enough to complicate the ending for Rory, the tee-shot was anxiously taken. Rory was scheduled to sit and wait even longer as the group in front, Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler had yet to even reach their balls to take an approach.  Before they got the chance,  Mickelson and Fowler agreed to let Rory tee off since the light was nearly gone for the day.  Tournament rules typically allows for the tee-shot in the event of minimal light, but Mickelson and Fowler expected Rory to wait behind for his approach shot.  For some unusual reason, the tournament officials allowed Rory to approach before the group in front finished the hole.

This seems like a small logistical error, but it might have cost Mickelson a tournament.  Rory had just enough light to get a birdie putt within 3 feet, and finished it off along with the tournament.  Had he been forced to wait, he would have taken his putt within 5-10 minutes of less light than he ended up receiving. Even more importantly was the tee-shot that landed way too close to that water on the right I had mentioned.  Mickelson graciously declared that it didn't impact the conclusion of the tournament, but one might only wonder.  Simply allowing Rory to tee-off could have been a tactical move that the tournament officials totally impeded, especially considering the extra minute or so that Mickelson and Fowler had to wait for Rory's approach.

When the light is dim and the eyes lose depth perception, every shot becomes a different kind of guessing game.  Rory should have had a couple of tougher guesses than he ultimately got. It was his lack of second guessing himself, even when faced with the option to tee-off on 18 or save it for another day, that might have captured him a tournament.  Rory never appeared to have a second thought about playing in the dark, and he didn't hesitate to thank the twosome in front for how classy they proved to be given an opportunity to totally screw the guy in the lead who was foolishly willing to tee-off in the dark...with a 2 shot lead no less.

And boy is he in the lead.  Rory joins Tiger and Jack as the youngest players to win 4 majors (all three were 24-25 years old). He gave up a lead to start out the day, but rushed past the capable twosome that played right in front of him, and finishes this tournament having won 3 weeks in a row.  Whether Tiger makes it back to capture enough victories to move past Jack is quickly becoming a page 2 story.  Rory is securing his place in golf lore while most of the golf world is still taking bets on the Tiger thing.

In some ways, that might be what gives him the air to breath.  Everyone knows this kid is amazing, but no one seems to want to shift the camera off of Tiger for long enough to recognize what we already know.  No problem.  This young man will make sure his presence is felt even if no one cares to watch his arrival. When asked to put his amazing accomplishments into perspective he said, "It's just something I'm going to have to come to terms with".  No one really understand their own excellence, especially while its occurring.  Even Tiger is struggling to recapture the wild feline that once roared inside of him.  Your best option is to treat all of your success as simply not good enough.  When you lock your sights on all-time greatness, the last victory isn't enough anymore.

Postscript:  Rory most likely wins the Player of the Year award from this 3 weeks of excellence.  To start the year, Henrik Stenson, who also had a chance down the stretch of this tournament, was on a Player of the Year run himself.  Closing out this tournament would have reignited Stenson's name in that conversation for sure.

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Rickie Fowler, who also had a chance to capture a season ending victory (for majors) might have had the best season ever for a player who didn't win a single tournament.
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Mickelson said that he is finding his game and I believe him.  If the Ryder Cup team needs an elder statesman, Phil is ready to play.
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In Rory's podium interview, it appears that he would have chosen to play the next day if he didn't get a chance to tee-off when he did. Thanks again Rickie and Phil. This stress was too much to carry into another day, and I didn't even play.

Sergio Gets Hot En Route To Eleven (11) One-Putts (In-A-Row)

So, in my desperation to shave a few strokes off of my golf game, I have gone deeper into the analysis of data to  focus on fine tuning my failures into success.

Good golfers already know what my impressionable mind has just uncovered on paper.  Once you have improved your GIR (Greens In Regulation), you now have a fair shot at being mediocre in golf. It is rare for even mediocre golfers to bogey a hole and not 3 putt as well.  In other words, the key to golf is the putter.  I am learning to accept that par is a fabulous score on most days, especially when it comes with a fair amount of legitimate birdie opportunities. Scrambling to save par is the pathway to bogeys or worse.  Inside of these options that golf presents lies the ever important 2 putt.  Sadly the wisest golf decision one can pursue is also one that many golfers rarely embrace. The 2-Putt mentality becomes the equivalent of passing ahead for a better shot, but in the lonely world of golf, half court buzzer beaters are constantly tempting the fool hearty.

In honor of the putter, Sergio Garcia, and the death of the 3 putt, I have switched back to my putter that looks more like the one Sergio used to sink 11 one-putts in a row en route to a second place finish at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational tournament this past weekend.  You heard me.  ELEVEN.

While you digest the absurdity of 11 one-putts in a row, the more important question might be, why did I switch putters in the first place?  Because I stink at putting and I am uncomfortable in this pungent condition, so I tried something new....or old....or different.  Typically I am on in regulation, so the issue has clearly been identified as an inability to sink the free throw (I find these exercises to be somewhat similar).  However, getting on and getting close to the pin are distinctly separate worlds in the final scoring analysis. Simply "getting on" was the reason I switched to my long distance putter in the first place.  The extra weight offered an extra "bang" if you will, that my Sergio style putter wasn't giving me on those 60 footers I always had left for birdie.

This line of rationale was tragically flawed because no one needs a 60 foot (or longer) putter in the bag.  What you need is a much better approach shot.....or a 2 putt plan to finish that 60 footer with minimal damage (aka, maintaining par). For a long time, I had neither skills within my game, but backyard golf will give you a wicked chip game.  What I learned is that it is he who seeketh to drop 60 footers that invented the 3 putt.   On occasion, the long ones fall, but getting a sinkable second putt should ALWAYS be the ultimate mission for the average hack.

With all of that in context, did Sergio approach the pin perfectly 11 times in a row to accomplish this feat?  No.  He had a variation of everything golf offers, but time after time his line and speed proved perfect.  What allows a player to achieve such a feat and then return to the pack of normalcy that defines us as human?  Hard to say, but easy to answer.  Sergio certainly played well  the rest of the tournament, but his 11 1-putts may have been the only reason he salvaged second place in the end, as Rory McIlroy rushed from behind to win the tournament.  Was  11 in a row sheer luck?  Where is the line between great play and great luck? Only hard workers can answer the question because they are the only ones performing consistently enough to analyze the data.

......and their report?  Hard work has its own guarantee of luck.  Its the flip side to all of the failure that hard work guarantees as well. 11 in a row might be lucky, but it never comes to someone who hasn't putt in the work (golf pun intended...of course).

Way to go Sergio.  Keep up the hard work.