Doggy-Dog World

I just dashed off and sent a letter in response to a column by Selena Roberts called "Tiger, Tiger, Burning Out" in the October 5 issue of Sports Illustrated. Let me know if you disagree or agree with me.

Dear Selena Roberts,

You don’t seem to know Jack about professional golf or golfers, especially Tiger. You called his six wins this year “whistle stops?” Let’s see what those whistles were: the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, The Memorial, the AT & T National, the Buick Open, the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, the BMW Championship. All of them against fields with most of the top forty golfers in the world. The U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee is a whistle stop, the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro is a whistle stop, the Legends Reno-Tahoe Open is a whistle stop. Tiger doesn’t play in them; Vijay Singh, the meat hunter, does.

Tiger is thirty-three, the age when most good golfers are only then beginning their strongest years. You said that Tiger is no longer “menacing.” Ask any of his fellow competitors, and they’ll all agree, he’s still menacing. You said he has “fragile knees.” You make him sound like he’s made of glass. He could probably crack walnuts between those fragile knees.

I’m predicting that by age forty, Tiger will have won three more green jackets, three more Opens, two more U.S. Opens, and two more PGA’s. And that’s a conservative estimate. If he decides to play beyond forty, he could wind up with a total of thirty majors. I hope I live long enough to see that happen. I hope I live long enough to hear you eat your words.