Tag: Tiger

Despite Struggles from the Tee, Tiger Woods Just Missed Winning the PGA Championship Yesterday

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With a huge run in the final round of the PGA Championship yesterday, Tiger Woods finished at -14, which was good for second place, two strokes behind the champ, Brooks Koepka. I keep finding myself saying, if only Tiger could have straightened out his driver he would have won the 100th PGA Championship yesterday. But thats really not the case. Sure he was putting himself in shitty positions all day, hitting exactly zero fairways on the front 9, but he also was hitting absolute circus shots all day to keep nailing birdie after birdie.

In fact the only thing he could have done differently was have a couple putts that rimmed out, fall his way. If those two drop then Tiger at the very worst forces a playoff with Koepka.

But, don’t try and tell Tiger that.

He had massive struggles from the tee all day and mental errors that the old Tiger never had. Old Tiger was ice. He was a robot.

This ain’t old Tiger. This is new Tiger.

An aging veteran, a golfer dealing with massive back injuries fending off young guys that grew up idolizing him. But thats what makes Tiger so much fun to watch these days. He’s human. There’s nothing I love more than a good comeback story.

So yea, I am rooting for him to put it all together. I think a lot of people are too. Watching the PGA Championship yesterday is probably the loudest I’ve ever heard a golf course. The place was electric and going wild like Happy Gilmore was strolling the greens.

So, despite failing to win another major, Tiger looked like a force at times and you can tell he’s still working out some kinks in his game. Its only a matter of time until he puts it all together and snatches another major. And it’s probably going to happen sooner rather than later.

So, I think its only appropriate here to quote the American classic John Wick:

P.S. – Hey Google, get your shit together. You know goddamn well I’m not looking for pictures of jungle cats.

I Was Sweating Tiger Woods Hard at the British Open. The Comeback Story is Coming

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The British Open crowned a first time champion on Sunday, Francesco Molinari, in what was, as my girl described it, “surprisingly entertaining.” And thats exactly what it was. On Saturday Tiger had clawed his way back into contention climbing from 29th all the way into the top 10. So when Tiger walked out onto the links for the first time on Sunday morning in the *collar-less* red henley I was SWEATING.

Pure style. Pure swagger. An absolute game changer. Hell even Nike was going back and forth with me on Twitter, they know when they have a monster on their hands.

As rough as the entire course was at Carnoustie I loved it because it made golf harder for everyone, which makes me feel better because I am not good at golf.

Now say what you will about Tiger the person, but Tiger the player? Golf is hands down better when he’s playing well and in contention. And man was he in contention. Tiger climbed all the way up from the basement with a monster 66 on Saturday and continued rolling on Sunday to eventually take a share of the lead on Sunday afternoon. It looked like Tiger was going to threaten to snatch his first major since 2010.

He was playing cocky too. He wasn’t playing it safe, he saw a field crumbling around him and knew he’d have to take some chances if he wanted to steal a win. Mickelson was playing out the string, Rory was making a charge but up and down, Speith was forcing his way out of contention with a brutal short game and a drop after hitting it into a goddamn bush. So Tiger saw his chance. Tiger was playing so well that he should have been cocky, but that might have been his downfall.

After crushing it all day, he suddenly imploded with a double bogey on 11 and a bogey on 12 that sealed his fate. Tiger landed in some rough patches and some bunkers and rather than two hit it and play it safe he opted for the Happy Gilmore approach to try and win it now.

Didn’t quite work out the way he had planned, as he bogeyed and double bogeyed, sinking any chance he had of winning. Thats where the flashbacks of old Tiger vanished.

Not to mention that heathen in the gallery on 18.

I am far from an old school golf purist, but with that being said, I want that dude’s head. More so than the lady who brought her baby in a carriage to the front row of the gallery. You gotta be a special breed of dickhead to go all the way out to the British Open just to yell in Tiger’s backswing on 18.

Now Tiger would have had to essentially eagle it to even force a playoff, but still what the fuck dude? Take that shit to a public course, not the 18th tee at the British goddamn Open.

So Francesco went on to win his first major ever. I cant say I’m familiar with his work, but its hard not to root for a guy who was doing this not too long ago.

Never stop grinding.

I know there has been a lot of hate directed at Tiger the last few years because he can come off as a phony at times, but I don’t know man I just love the redemption story. Winning a shit ton of majors when you’re young is awesome, but being the old guy, the last samurai, the old wily vet, playing with nothing but grit and balls trying to grind out a victory is way more entertaining to me. You can just tell it means more to him than it ever did before, despite having put 20+ years into the sport already. Just look at this quote from Tiger about what he said to his kids after he came off the 18th green.

“I know that they know how much this championship means to me and how much it feels good to be back playing again. I’ve won a lot of golf tournaments, but they don’t remember any of them.

“The only thing they’ve seen is my struggles and the pain I was going through.”

As Bodhi says in one of my all-time favorite movies Point Break:

I’m rooting for old Tiger to pull one out and it looks like he’s closer than he’s been in a long time.

God damn I love golf.