Bad Weather, Worse Putting Derail Tiger Woods in Round Two
It wasn’t a bad day by most standards. It wasn’t even a bad day by Tiger Woods’ standards. However, after shooting a 68 at Monterey Peninsula Country Club on Friday afternoon, one thing was blatantly apparent. It was a round that could have been much better, and quite frankly, it should have been much better.
It wasn’t too long ago that Tiger Woods was dominating, and it was an even shorter time ago when Tiger had to battle to make cuts. Now Woods has found some sort of not-so-happy medium where he has a swing that he’s clearly more comfortable with, but for whatever reason it hasn’t all quite clicked. Tiger’s putting is one of the main causes for concern.
When Tiger was on, Woods was an assassin with the flat-blade. He buried opponents and silenced threats by burying 20-footers and letting the roar of the crowd serve as an alarm to all challengers. You don’t stand a chance. Pack your bags, buckle your seat-belts and drive home safely, each cheer would seem to subtly exclaim.
Now, putts seem content to dance on the lip or dart away from the edge. The pace, the rhythm, and the stroke are the same, but the ball seems reluctant to fall. It’s as if gravity is consorting against Woods.
The most frightening part is the notion that it could be something less complex and infinitely more plausible than that. It could be a mental thing. After an injury and his notorious family problems, Tiger has gone from finishing tournaments and opponents to not even being able to finish holes in the figurative sense.
On Friday, Tiger watched birdie after birdie scurry by the cup on his way to a 33-putt round. Sure Tiger was playing his first competition round at MPCC, but this is an area that Tiger is extremely familiar with and these are the types of putting surfaces that he built his reputation on. The ball breaks towards the ocean and a million other secrets should constantly dance through Tiger’s head. Yet, the ball still refuses to go in the hole. It’s a foreign feeling for a man who’s suppose to have local knowledge.
Tiger carded a 68 on Friday, and that’s something that people would like you to think was solid as they preface their opinion with modifying phrases like, “all things considered.” In truth, all things considered, the old Tiger Woods would have been seething in his post-round interview, downright pissed even. New Tiger, on the other hand, jokes about a stinger he suffered on the eighth hole.
I understand that Tiger Woods has some serious P.R. issues that he has to address, but if there’s one thing we all know, it’s that winning often cures whatever it is that ails you. Whether or not that’s right or wrong is certainly up for debate, but it’s true. We don’t want to turn on our television tomorrow and see Tiger kissing ass with Roger Maltbie after a mediocre round that essentially eliminates him from competition (he’s already six strokes back.) We want the guy who gets fired up and looks like he’s ready to sucker-punch Jimmy Roberts in his post-round presser.
A 33-putt round is something that happens in the world of golf, but it should raise a few questions for every professional golfer. For Tiger Woods, the question is: Does he still have that mental edge?
If he doesn’t, there still may be time for him to find it, but I wouldn’t recommend he searches at too leisurely a pace. Tiger is 36, and if he’s gonna catch Jack before it’s all said an done he had better dig deep, and dig deep soon. Why put off for tomorrow what you could do today? Or, in Tiger’s case, why put off for later what you could do tomorrow?
Saturday may not make or break Tiger Woods as a man, but I’d love to see some resemblance of the carnivore who once dominated this tour. I want to see a tiger.
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