Tag: Tiger Woods

The Masters Was an Instant Classic and I’m Happy for Tiger Woods, But My Wallet is Not

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Joey B previewed The Masters last week and boy was this year’s event a doozy. That was a full four days of entertainment. From watching in between meetings at work on Thursday and Friday to sitting my ass on the couch all day Saturday and then waking up early on Sunday to watch the last 5 or so hours. It was an instant classic.

The Masters was awesome last year too with Patrick Reed swooping in and snatching the green jacket like an 80’s movie villain. Just an emotionless robot looking rich kid with ice in his veins. Reed finished at a just ridiculous -15 to win the event. I watched last year at my house and then at the bar before heading in for a Celtics playoff game and it was thrilling. So I figured 2019 would have a tough time topping what was such a great event last year.

Really all you’re hoping for is that Tiger is in contention come Sunday. I know a lot of people say that, but it’s true. Whether thats a reflection on the absolute void of exciting and entertaining personalities in golf is a valid question. Either way though, Tiger is must see TV when he’s within reach of victory. Going into Sunday he was just 2 strokes back and there was about 6 or 7 guys all within 3 strokes so it was going to be a battle. Add in the fact that they pushed everyone’s tee time up on Sunday because of an incoming storm and it was Tiger time before I even had my morning coffee. It was too early the perfect time to crack that first Sunday morning Bud Latte too.

Tiger looked like a man on a mission, but a couple of gimme putts he missed had me thinking he just wasn’t going to have enough in the tank.

The legend of Tiger has faded a bit in recent years, or so I thought. Less and less do we see guys just wilting under the mere presence of Tiger on their six. Well lucky for us the guy Tiger was chasing, Francesco Molinari, is exactly who he was paired up with on Sunday morning. So every time Francesco tee’d off, Tiger was staring a fucking hole in the guy’s back. And Molinari could *feel* that.

With a two stroke lead he started to melt when he put his first shot in the water on No. 12. Even Tiger’s caddy, Joe LaCava, was shocked:

LaCava said that Tiger was all business after Molinari, inexplicably, put his tee ball in Rae’s Creek. For LaCava, it wasn’t something he saw coming. Molinari, who’s so steady it’s borderline infuriating, wasn’t a player you’d peg as a candidate to drop a ball in the water on the back nine of a major.

“[Molinari]’s one of those guys, he’s not going to go away,” said Lacava. “I was a little surprised he hit it in there. I was thinking this is a perfect 8 iron for him, it’s probably a smash 9 iron for us. I actually thought he was going to hit not to two feet, but 15 feet left. I was very surprised. Things definitely changed.”

The cameras cut to Tiger and you can see his eyes come to life.

It’s like when Eminem gives the mic to Papa Doc in the final rap battle and he slowly realizes that Papa Doc just doesn’t have anything left.

After that it was a wrap. Tiger slowly but surely chipped away at Molinari’s lead before just having to two putt on 18 to win The Masters. No problem.

It was an incredible scene to watch and say what you will about his past transgressions, but I love a good comeback story. People thought his career was over, his back was in shambles and here he was putting for his fifth green jacket.

It means so much more to him these days too. I first saw it at the PGA Championship last year where he narrowly lost to Brooks Koepka and he walked off and hugged his kids and looked like he was about to cry, but in a good way. Like he was beaming with pride because all though he didn’t win, he was healthy, he played his balls off, and his kids saw it.

He was a fucking legend back in the day, a complete force of nature, but his kids were too young to see that. Tiger even said it in one of his interviews Sunday, for the longest time he was just “the YouTube golfer” to his kids. So for him to be dominant and winning majors in front of his kids who are now old enough to understand and appreciate what they’re seeing is a huge change for Tiger. And now the chase of Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors is back on.

It wasn’t all gumdrops and rainbows though as the price of admission for me seeing Tiger return to his former glory was a shit ton of my own money. I had Brooks Koepka at +2,500 and Xander Schauffele as my longshot at +4,000 to win The Masters. Both of them finished ONE stroke behind Tiger. That hurt. Xander was a guy I bet on solely because of how confident my barber was in telling me to do so just a few weeks ago. So I thought well I’ll feel like a real schmuck if I ignore this divine intervention and Xander goes on to win. Welp, my guy was gunning for it late and missed a couple of putts, but would have at least gotten into a playoff or even won it outright if not for Tiger. Tiger picked a great day to pull a vintage performance out of his ass.

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.

Tiger vs. Phil For $10M is the Golf Event America Needs Right Now

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I don’t watch golf on television and I haven’t picked up a club in four years, but I would 1000% watch this. I would watch every single minute, every single stroke. I might even pay to watch this. This has to happen.

This wouldn’t be a sports event. This would be an all-time great reality television event. Remember when Phil Mickelson hit the hospitality tent on the 18th hole at Winged Foot? Can you imagine if he imploded like that with ten million bucks on the line? You’d tell that story to your kids and your grand kids like it was the Bill Buckner game.

“Why don’t we just bypass all the ancillary stuff of a tournament and just go head-to-head and just have kind of a high-stakes, winner-take-all match,” Mickelson said. “Now, I don’t know if he wants a piece of me, but I just think it would be something that would be really fun for us to do, and I think there would be a lot of interest in it if we just went straight to the final round.”

Amen, brother. Let’s skip the first three days that are full of nobodies, and all the other bullshit of a real tournament, and get to the good stuff. About 70 strokes and three hours between you and ten million bucks. Let’s see what ya got.

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The big question for me is where the money will be come from. Obviously I’d like to see Phil and Tiger each put up $10 million of their own money. If the winning score is 70, each stroke is worth about $143,000. If a missed putt cost me an extra stroke and about $143,000 I’d lose my mind.

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Even better, I’d love to see the ridiculous shots attempted if somebody got down early and really had to play catch up. Go big or go home.

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But I wonder if the $10 million prize will come from sponsors and television networks. If ESPN paid for this match and put it on ESPN+, the new subscriptions would practically pay for the whole thing. It would still be fun to see Tiger and Phil go at it for $10 million, but not as fun as one of them having to sell a house if they can’t get out of a sand trap.

Let’s hope Tiger and Phil can hammer out the details soon. This would make for great Sunday viewing while I wait for the NFL to come back in September.