Running Tiger Woods thread

Problem with your thinking is that none of those players had completely lost it at 39 and then got it back. I'm sure they all had some lulls or slumps, but I don't recall any of them just completely losing their game to the point of looking like a weekend hacker. Woods' short game right now is at the weekend hacker level.

 

None of them were fighting serious mental demons and chipping and driver yips either.

Almost every day, I see someone say something like "I know he'll be back. There is just no way his story ends like this."

To which I think: Why? Every great athletic career ends like this.

Sometimes it happens at 30, sometimes at 50. But they all sputter and cough and fall apart and we live in denial for a few years until realizing this is reality. This is age and sports and the natural progression of life. Sometimes it happens overnight, and sometimes it's a slow fade. All the fanbois out there who assume he'll fix things, that he'll return to his old form, they're actually putting a pressure on his shoulders he simply cannot handle anymore.

I think he's broken. For good. I think even Snead's tournament record is safe. I keep trying to imagine him trusting his driver in a big moment on Sunday in a major, or taking out a sand wedge on a tight lie, and I can't do it.

 

He needs to go back to Foley

 

Azinger: He's sacrificing a winning swing at the altar of the perfect swing.

 

I think his injuries are worse than what "Team Tiger" *eyeroll* is letting on. It's like an old baseball pitcher who injures his wrist. So he starts favoring the wrist, which puts more strain on te shoulder and then *BAM* the shoulder gets hurt. So to baby the wrist and shoulder we start using a little more elbow and then *BAM* that fucker's hurt.

Ultimately you end up witha bunch of body parts that don't heal and don't work right, either. Again, I go back to the 2008 U.S. Open. When most of us blow out a knee we get off of it and go see a doctor. This dipshit walked the equivalent of about 15 miles in five days, twisting it in a golf swing probably 50 times each day.

 

What's interesting about this is Haney (in his book, which is a really good read despite the negative press it got) was really disappointed when he decided to hang it up that year. Thought he should have kept playing, tried to win each major, despite writing about the total agony Woods was in after every round at Torrey.

 

The closest comparison I can think of is ARod in the playoffs batting 8th and unable to catch up to pedestrian fastballs.

 

As the leading Tiger fanboi on the site, let me wade in to the deep rough here, where we find Tiger after his latest wayward approach and, good lord, he's still in there after that horrific chip. And did he just grab his back after that flub?

Am I starting to give up hope on him catching Jack? Yes. Yes I am.

Here's one major thought change I've had past year: If -- if -- he does ever get to major number 15, I no longer think it'll open up the door to two or three more. That's what I used to think because that was the pattern. He went on streaks, in normal tournaments and in majors, after the swing changes. It happened after the relative dry spell from the 1997 Masters-1999 PGA and then the 02 U.S. Open through the 05 Masters. He'd make the change, not win much, if at all, but then when he did it all came together and victories came in bunches. And then it happened, at least in normal tournaments, a bit in 2012 and 2013. People were saying much of the same things back in 2010-11 that they're saying today (remember in 2011, when he missed the Opens, and Steiny made a dumb comment about major announcement coming? People thought he might announce his retirement. Or, hehe, admit to steroid abuse? And it was about...retaining Steinberg?). Then in 2012 he had three victories -- and those two weekend collapses after holding 36-hole leads in the majors, obviously showing he was no longer the same -- and five more in 2013. People strangely brush off those five victories in 2013. Pfffffft, big deal. He won at places he always wins, who cares? (okay, he won at The Players too, but still, we're supposed to get excited about him winning at Torrey or Doral?)

Since 1980, here are players to win 5 times in a season:
Tiger: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Vijay: 2004
Nick Price: 1994.
Tom Watson 1980.

And Tiger 2013. That included a victory in January and one in August. His game was solid throughout the year. He had the elbow thing at the U.S. Open, the back at the PGA and the rest of the year. Saturday at the British he blew a big opportunity to have lead going into Sunday on the final two holes, playing with Westwood. And The Masters, who knows what happens if his ball doesn't hit that flag on Friday but I think he goes into the weekend with the lead. And maybe he would have fallen apart, like he always has since the scandal. But I think it would have been different, because it's Augusta, where he usually contends even when playing like garbage, and because his game was in shape that early part of the year.

Point being: That's just 2 years ago. His post-scandal career gets all lumped together because he's not the same player, obviously, and because he hasn't won a major, but even post hydrant there are different sections of his career: the 2010-2011 shame tour/goodbye Hank Haney, you popsicle-craving SOB; 2012-13, 8 victories, contending in some majors. 2014 injuries. And now? Yips? Mentally destroyed? But again, two years ago he was the best player in the world while Rory was going full emo. He has bounced back from looking utterly lost, even after the scandal. So I don't think it's outrageous to think it can happen again, even with the chipping/putting/driving, etc.

Back to winning 15 and then winning no more. If he'd won The Masters in 2013, I would have thought his pattern would have followed--maybe a British later in the year, maybe the PGA. Maybe 1 win in 2014, etc. But now I think winning one more major would be so emotionally trying, not to mention physically, that I can't see him, at this stage, firing that up three more times. So maybe 15 is the ceiling now. But then again, maybe not.

I've said this many times on here. There's 1 guy whose career we should compare to Tiger's. It doesn't matter what Watson or Faldo or Mickelson or Vijay or Hogan or Palmer did after turning 35 or hitting 39 or what they won into their 40s. One player knows what it's like to mentally and physically persevere for 14 major victories. So I really don't care what anyone else thinks about winning past a certain age or after certain skills devolve. Because they didn't know what it took to win 14 in the first place. This isn't just a variation of the tired they-never-played-the-game. Golf's different. It's one guy. There are no factors like teammates or coaches (well...) or organizations or anything else. The Millers or Chamblees or Azingers or thousand other swing coaches and psychologists who think they know what makes Tiger tick today don't have any real clue, because they didn't have any real clue what it took to do what he did from 97-2008. Has Nicklaus come out and commented on Tiger's swing or his head or his emotions? I haven't seen it. Maybe he's too polite to say anything for public consumption. Of course he might say different things in private. But I also think he doesn't say anything in public because he's not like those others -- he actually knows what it takes to win 14. And 15 and beyond. Sure he's probably popping the champagne about 18 being safe, but I also think he realizes Tiger's the only one who's ever truly been like him. So he knows major championships can happen after 40. Not to everyone, obviously. And not like they did in their 20s and 30s. But for guys like him and Tiger? Yeah.

If he has the yips? Obviously he's finished. And maybe they're permanent. But is that likely? I'm not naive, I understand how it ends for athletes, all athletes. I'm watching Kobe decay in front of my eyes while sleeping under a Lakers blanket each night. But there's a difference between it ending in injury or losses and going out like Ian Baker-Finch. Thinking Tiger's not going to go out like Ian Baker-Finch is, I don't think, a sign that I'm blinded by fanboiness. I think he gets that part worked out. Maybe in two months, maybe in a year. Then he still has the putting issue. And that driver. FORE! Oh god, he just hit an 80-year-old man in the head. There goes another signed glove to the bloodied geezer.

But yes, I do think, at some point he'll have cobbled everything together -- the swing, the chips, the putting, the mind -- and can put together one more major run. 18? 19 majors? Yeah, I'm starting to give up that hope (but not totally; if he wins 1 this year, ahem, he's tied with Jack's pace...). But do I think he can win another one? Yeah. And pass Snead, maybe at the 2020 Bay Hill? Yeah.

All that said...his back's okay, right? Back injuries never linger, right? Okay, good.

 

A bit early in the day to start drinking, idn't it?

 

There's a Lombardi quote that might be fitting. Something about no one's perfect, but in the chase for perfection, you can catch excellence. Some shit like that.

 

Pete Sampras' career ended with a victory at the U.S. Open.

 

There was Ted Williams' last at-bat, too.