It's raining haymakers, courtesy of Tiger Woods
For those of you who play fanatasy golf, you probably didn't have a difficult time choosing Tiger Woods to be in the lineup. I know I didn't. After the first and second rounds of this week's Arnold Palmer Invitational, I was 50% worried that he wasn't going to win and 50% sure that he was going to win. The only reason why I was as much as 50% sure that he was going to win was because I've seen him do it before. But you never know...he could have a "bad" round, or someone else could put on a clinic and break the course record - a million different scenarios can play out in any tournament, but the surest thing to bet on these days is Tiger, no matter what.
At the end of the first round, Fred Couples had fired an early 65 to take the lead at -5. Tiger was E with a 70. Five shots isn't a whole lot to make up over the course of four rounds, but it's a decent amount. Many players shot good scores on Thursday.
The next day Vijay Singh went berserk and ended up being the leader after the second round at -9. Tiger shot a -2 68, 7 shots back.
It appeared to me at this point that two things were going to happen. First, that Tiger wasn't going to win this tournament. Other players kept on shooting low scores and there was a large gap between -2 and -9. He hadn't won here in 4 years and the defending champion Singh appeared to be playing VERY well. Second, that all of the other players, somehow, in some way, would come crashing down in spectacular fashion, therefore paving the way for another Tiger victory. I missed the entire third round but when I logged on to check the scores what I saw was both surprising and not surprising at all - Tiger Woods tied for a 1st place -6 score along with 4 other players.
Somehow, that -9 number posted by Vijay vanished as well as any other players' hopes of winning. When everyone else was having a hard time dealing with the swirling winds, Tiger goes on to shoot a -4 66 to place him tied for 1st place. Ridiculous 4-iron cut shots to within 3 feet of the pin and other insane shenanigans allowed Tiger to take full advantage of his incredible talents while others folded like a house of cards on a windy day. After 3 rounds if Tiger is leading or tied for the lead, he is 42-3 for tournament wins. Stunning.
I feel bad for Bart Bryant. He was the only dude to shoot 4 rounds in the 60's, the first time in 20 years that's happened at this tournament. He stuck shot after shot after shot all day long, but to show you what kind of stuff you have to deal with when playing Tiger, consider this: Tiger ended up 3-putting the 10th hole from about 7 feet. That's nuts. There's a better chance of snow in July than a 3-putt from Tiger from 7 feet. The score was tied at -8 for about 5 minutes, when all of a sudden Bryant 3-putted the 11th for a bogey. Bryant played his heart out and was left watching Tiger finish out the round in the scoring booth. A 5-iron to within 24 feet is what Tiger served up. Tiger needed to make the putt to win outright. Afer careful analyzation, Tiger stood over the put and pulled the trigger.
How many of you were thinking, "Yeah, this is falling in..." ?
How many of you were surprised when it happened? EVERYONE was surprised! It's a 24 foot downhill bender for the win! Yet at the same time, NO ONE WAS SURPIRISED! How is that even possible?!?
From the scoring booth, Bryant chuckled while eating his candy bar and just shook his head. There isn't much these guys can do, they're basically at Tiger's mercy.
Even if you don't follow golf, even if you don't know the history of the game, please understand that what we're seeing here in watching Tiger Woods is something so extraordinary and incredible that I highly doubt anyone will ever come along and repeat or surpass him. He's taking down legend after legend, record after record, each time he steps on the course. The PGA Tour's slogan "These guys are good" is 100% true, but when Tiger is involved he just seems to make everyone else seem totally insignificant.
The beatdowns will continue. These tournaments are clearly marathons and not sprints, and Tiger keeps on proving this to us time and time again.