Saturday, August 26, 2006 9:31 PM
by Scott
4 Bogies in a Row...is it the end or the beginning?
After my Saturday morning round, I started the watching Tiger Woods demonlish the PGA Tour, it looks like 2000 all over again.
The man could simply do no wrong, Tiger can hit it behind a boulder and have a throng of admirers move it, hit it in the gallery and have a fan barehand it doing his best impersonation of Omar Visquel...and then hit it off the clubhouse roof, into the chef's power cart and somehow the ball is in bounds! It just seems that when on the golf course, good fortune is one of Tiger's greatest allies.
So this afternoon I tune in and he and Davis Love are on the third tee, Davis looks shaken and as usual Tiger can do no wrong. He short sides himself in heavy greenside rough, a tough par for the rest of the Tour, but what does Tiger do, he chips in for birdie...of course he does. What should I have expected? A bogey??
And then it happens, Eldrick gets on the train...the bogey train and takes his longest ride in over 10 years. 4 holes! As I watched him miss both the second and third par putts, I found it strangely comforting...he is human after all. His given name is Eldrick and like the rest of the world he misses 8 footers for par.
Now it is time for him to try his hand at 5 footer and I am starting to feel uncomfortable, the world could be ending as Tiger is on the train and it appears that he could have a one way ticket to the middle of the pack. He misses, and I have to turn off the television for a few minutes, I check my pulse, breathe deeply, check the foundation of my house. Everything appears to be normal...is this what the end of the world feels like?
After a couple of hours of missing 5 footers in my basement, I turn the TV back on and it is the 16th hole. Davis Love still looks nervous BUT Tiger has not made up any ground. Tiger then makes an 8 footer for par and Davis misses a 4 footer. The world has definitely righted itself, so I decide to keep watching. As they hit their approaches into 17 Tiger short sides himself in the heavy greenside rough...could it be the 5th bogey of the day??
Of course not, Tiger chips in for birdie and is only one shot off the lead, while Davis wilts like a flower. I guess it is 2000 all over again and we are about to watch Tiger rattle off his 4th straight PGA Tour victory.
We all know that Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 professional major championship victories is in jeopardy, but what about the truely untouchable record in golf?
Byron Nelson's 1945 streak of ELEVEN straight victories does Tiger have it in him to erase that record?
It sure doesn't look like Davis, Ernie or Phil will stop him and with Tiger's combination of perserverance, technical mastery, mental toughness and good fortune....what is stopping him?