Tiger

I now have to recant all that I’ve said in the past year about Tiger’s return to golf, that he would not only get back to his winning ways but would surpass Nicklaus’ 18 major wins. After watching what he did in this week’s WGC tournament in Akron, I and the talking heads and all the Tiger haters around the world now agree that he will probably never return to his winning ways, will never win any more majors, will very likely never again play on any Ryder Cup or Presidents cup teams, may, in fact just quietly disappear with Lindsey into one of his mansions or his mansion-like yacht. I guess that wouldn’t be so bad. But I will miss him, and the world of golf will miss him, even the haters. He has almost single-handedly raised the amount of money for which the tour players now compete, has hugely increased the number of spectators at events and the number of people watching golf on tv, has forced the young players who want to be winners to get themselves physically fit. I hope his doctors can fix his back enough that he’ll be able to play again next year. I just wish he’d stop being so infatuated with swing speed and explosiveness. I wish he’d swing at 80% and forget about distance off the tee. I wish he’d take a lesson from Steve Stricker, whose silky swing can go on for years and years. Tiger could win again with an 80% swing and not have to worry about knees and hips and backs. But for now, I guess I’ll have to switch my allegiance to the young, very fit bomber from Northern Ireland, Rory McElroy. I wonder how long Rory can continue to swing as violently as he now does. He needs to take a lesson from Tiger’s book about causing such stress on the body parts.