June 16th, 2010 - Rekindling Perfection
Whacking a round ball with a club traveling 125 mph should never lead to perfect results. But ten years ago, over the course of four days, it pretty much did.
It was the last time Tiger Woods appeared at a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and it was the greatest anyone has played the game, ever.
He won by 15-strokes. He finished 12-under on the same course the rest of the best players in the game couldn?t even break par. That single performance set or tied nine Open scoring records and broke the 138-year-old mark set by Old Tom Morris for largest margin of victory in a major championship.
In the long history of the game, no one had ever seen anything like it.
Now, a decade later, Woods returns to the scene of the sublime, but he?s a different guy. A guy neither we, nor he recognizes. Two weeks ago at The Memorial, he said about his dominating performance that he?d, ?Just found something. I can't remember what the key is. I should remember. I need to remember. But it was just one of those weeks where I just found that one key, and off I went.?
For Tiger that year was the summit of his career. Untouchable on the course, off it he was signing mega-deals worth tens of millions of dollars, and hooking up with his future wife, model Elin Nordegren.
It was all there in front of him, and at the time Jack Nicklaus said his record of 18 majors going bye-bye was a ?foregone conclusion.? Except he mentioned two possible speed bumps in that inevitability road: That Woods would remain healthy and that he had a stable family life.
As for the family bit, who knew it would be possible to make John Daly?s life-long display of screwing up look tame? Tiger managed it in just six short months. Adding to it this week is the report about a supposed lovechild with yet another porn star.
Add in questions about an abused body from over practicing and overtraining, (or rumored doping), and injuries from a drug-induced car crash, he enters a place where he once was acknowledged as the slam-dunk favorite to an extreme long shot. He barely made PGATour.com?s Top-10 in their power ranking.
He?s messy ? and that is something Woods never was. Previously viewed as invulnerable to his competition, now he?s tripping all over his Superman cape and scaring precisely nobody.
He hasn?t won a major since he had knee reconstruction surgery. He lost a Sunday lead in last year?s PGA Championship to a guy no one had ever heard of previously outside of South Korea. He was overshadowed at the Masters, his first tournament back from his self-inflicted exile by a Tiger-esque performance by archrival Phil Mickelson. He missed the cut at Quail Hollow, withdrew from The Players Championship with a neck injury and then had his coach quit on him. Most recently he finished just inside the top-20 at The Memorial, a tournament he has owned, winning it four times previously, which was highlighted by whacking three fans outside the ropes on Sunday.
His stats are more Woody Austin that Tiger Woods. He?s 104th in driving distance, 163rd in driving accuracy, 189th in total driving (combination of distance and accuracy), 85th in greens in regulation, 41st in scoring average and 111th on the money list.
But if ever there was a place where he should feel comfortable, it?s at Pebble Beach, a course he first played when he was 11. For the past two weeks he?s put himself through a ?mini-training camp? saying, ?When you get off, you've got to retrace your steps. You've got to go back and take it step by step.?
So what can we expect this weekend? That younger Tiger who set a record that most likely will never even be sniffed at? Or that guy we?ve recently had to get used to? That indifferent looking mystery man who has no idea where the ball is going off his clubface?
It will be neither.
That young Tiger is gone, replaced by a man 20 lbs heavier, 10 years older, though apparently no wiser.
As for this most recent Tiger, he?s also going to be the thing of the past.
Woods is back playing golf with regularity and as he insisted at his press conference on Tuesday afternoon, ?enjoying playing the game again.?
If that?s so, he?s on the road to recovery, on the course at least. He says he?s ?about half way there? compared to how he was playing 10 years ago.
And if that?s so, that will be enough for this weekend.
Cheers ? Gavin McDougald ? AKA Couch
Whacking a round ball with a club traveling 125 mph should never lead to perfect results. But ten years ago, over the course of four days, it pretty much did.
It was the last time Tiger Woods appeared at a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, and it was the greatest anyone has played the game, ever.
He won by 15-strokes. He finished 12-under on the same course the rest of the best players in the game couldn?t even break par. That single performance set or tied nine Open scoring records and broke the 138-year-old mark set by Old Tom Morris for largest margin of victory in a major championship.
In the long history of the game, no one had ever seen anything like it.
Now, a decade later, Woods returns to the scene of the sublime, but he?s a different guy. A guy neither we, nor he recognizes. Two weeks ago at The Memorial, he said about his dominating performance that he?d, ?Just found something. I can't remember what the key is. I should remember. I need to remember. But it was just one of those weeks where I just found that one key, and off I went.?
For Tiger that year was the summit of his career. Untouchable on the course, off it he was signing mega-deals worth tens of millions of dollars, and hooking up with his future wife, model Elin Nordegren.
It was all there in front of him, and at the time Jack Nicklaus said his record of 18 majors going bye-bye was a ?foregone conclusion.? Except he mentioned two possible speed bumps in that inevitability road: That Woods would remain healthy and that he had a stable family life.
As for the family bit, who knew it would be possible to make John Daly?s life-long display of screwing up look tame? Tiger managed it in just six short months. Adding to it this week is the report about a supposed lovechild with yet another porn star.
Add in questions about an abused body from over practicing and overtraining, (or rumored doping), and injuries from a drug-induced car crash, he enters a place where he once was acknowledged as the slam-dunk favorite to an extreme long shot. He barely made PGATour.com?s Top-10 in their power ranking.
He?s messy ? and that is something Woods never was. Previously viewed as invulnerable to his competition, now he?s tripping all over his Superman cape and scaring precisely nobody.
He hasn?t won a major since he had knee reconstruction surgery. He lost a Sunday lead in last year?s PGA Championship to a guy no one had ever heard of previously outside of South Korea. He was overshadowed at the Masters, his first tournament back from his self-inflicted exile by a Tiger-esque performance by archrival Phil Mickelson. He missed the cut at Quail Hollow, withdrew from The Players Championship with a neck injury and then had his coach quit on him. Most recently he finished just inside the top-20 at The Memorial, a tournament he has owned, winning it four times previously, which was highlighted by whacking three fans outside the ropes on Sunday.
His stats are more Woody Austin that Tiger Woods. He?s 104th in driving distance, 163rd in driving accuracy, 189th in total driving (combination of distance and accuracy), 85th in greens in regulation, 41st in scoring average and 111th on the money list.
But if ever there was a place where he should feel comfortable, it?s at Pebble Beach, a course he first played when he was 11. For the past two weeks he?s put himself through a ?mini-training camp? saying, ?When you get off, you've got to retrace your steps. You've got to go back and take it step by step.?
So what can we expect this weekend? That younger Tiger who set a record that most likely will never even be sniffed at? Or that guy we?ve recently had to get used to? That indifferent looking mystery man who has no idea where the ball is going off his clubface?
It will be neither.
That young Tiger is gone, replaced by a man 20 lbs heavier, 10 years older, though apparently no wiser.
As for this most recent Tiger, he?s also going to be the thing of the past.
Woods is back playing golf with regularity and as he insisted at his press conference on Tuesday afternoon, ?enjoying playing the game again.?
If that?s so, he?s on the road to recovery, on the course at least. He says he?s ?about half way there? compared to how he was playing 10 years ago.
And if that?s so, that will be enough for this weekend.
Cheers ? Gavin McDougald ? AKA Couch
