Tiger Woods. Is he back?

JSeahawks

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I hope so. Won his last tournament, and has a2 shot lead going into the last round tomorrow. If he wins he'll be back to being the #1 ranked player in the world.

I hope to see him win a Major or two this year. Golf's so much better when he's winning.
 

Rat

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Maybe. People kept saying he was back last year, then he'd fade on the weekends at majors, which was something that was unthinkable during his peak. We know he can win any of the regular events, but with Tiger, it has never been about anything other than the majors.

He is starting to get the fear factor back though. It's hard to see him not winning tomorrow, even with just having a two-shot league and eight guys within three shots of him, and some of those guys being pretty good players (particularly Fowler, Rose, and Haas).

He'll probably never be quite was he was in 2000-2008, but has any athlete in any sport ever set the bar higher than he did during that time?

I've never been a huge fan of his, but I do think it'd be pretty cool to see him at #1 again, if he does win tomorrow. I hope we get to see a Tiger-Rory showdown at a major sometime soon. We were always promised a Tiger-Phil showdown someday, but that never happened.
 

HawKnPeppa

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Tech Worlds":13bfqobb said:
It's all the power of the P.

Enter Lindsay Vonn.

As long as Lindsey is letting him maintain his side hoes, I'd say he's back.
 

chris98251

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He's back? Well he may be back to doing a blonde. We'll see if he can still play golf at the high level now that he has had his knees and other things repaired.
 

GCrow

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I really hate this argument. Is he back? Well if he wins today he'll have won 6 out of the past 20 tournaments he's been in. And yes obviously he hasn't won a major recently but that run is pretty impressive.

Also he won't, nor will anyone else ever be "back" to the form he had in early 2000's where he always dominated.
 

drdiags

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I think he missed his chance to pass Jack for number of majors won. It seems to get harder for the golfer over 40 to win many majors and his down cycle puts him at a disadvantage.

He is no longer a mental hurdle for his competition, most of it fed by the constant bombarding of media questions to his challengers about his invincibility. That edge is gone. He is now just seen as human as the next guy.
 

The Radish

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drdiags":39u7i74o said:
I think he missed his chance to pass Jack for number of majors won. It seems to get harder for the golfer over 40 to win many majors and his down cycle puts him at a disadvantage.

He is no longer a mental hurdle for his competition, most of it fed by the constant bombarding of media questions to his challengers about his invincibility. That edge is gone. He is now just seen as human as the next guy.

It looks that way to me too but even Jack won some majors at an older age. I had hoped Tiger would win 5 more to get past Jack and the white man clique there is in pro golf.

:les:
 

chris98251

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He isn't that old, if he finds his groove he can rattle off a string pretty quickly as long as his private life is in order and he doesn't get distracted. The edge he had and lost has yet to resurface, the look in his eye of daring anyone to run at him. He gets his game in order and that attitude back and he can make a run.
 

drdiags

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chris98251":1bz8ss04 said:
He isn't that old, if he finds his groove he can rattle off a string pretty quickly as long as his private life is in order and he doesn't get distracted. The edge he had and lost has yet to resurface, the look in his eye of daring anyone to run at him. He gets his game in order and that attitude back and he can make a run.

37 yrs old. He isn't the young, brash phenom either.

And to Radish's point. I though Jack won a couple of times past 40 but obviously not at the rate he did prior to reaching 40.

I still say he doesn't beat the record. But there is about 13 years before he hits the Seniors. If we are all still kicking when he hangs it up, then we can re-visit the prediction (chances of that is very much near nil). For now, each has his own idea on how this all may turn out.
 

JesterHawk

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I always thought it was hilarious when Tiger 'lost it'. I wonder how many tour pros would have killed to have a few years like his 'down years'.

"Oh man, Tiger only won 2 tournaments this year, he's lost it."

But, back to the point of this thread, it certainly seems like he has his groove back. The Arnie Palmer Invitational isn't a fair measuring stick though, he just owns that course.
 

Happypuppy

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Woods will never be the player he was. He is just too banged up with major back and knee problems. He will I suspect have good runs at times. But, from '97 to '00 he was the the best that has ever played. The chip he made on 18 at the Masters is the best shot I have seen.
 

Scottemojo

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I respect the opinions of you all, but if you think Tiger will never intimidate again or dominate the sport, you are nuts. He is back. And the guys on tour are intimidated.

Boiling a guy's game down to simple stats is difficult in most sports, but in golf there are two that intimidate the hell out of everyone on the course. Proximity to the pin in regulation and putting. When Tiger stunk, so did his scoring irons and putter. Now he is back at the top of both categories. Back when Tiger was killing it, he was at the top of those categories. Swing changes take time and thousands of reps to get from your short clubs and into your driver, Tiger is still struggling with the driver some, but it will happen.

Also, for the first time in 4 years, Tiger is working the ball consistently both directions. (insert ball joke) (and insert joke) I don't care about Tiger's age, he has always been one of the most fitness oriented guys on tour and that will extend his career.
 

drdiags

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Just call me nuts then. Hope those who say he can eclipse Jack's record are correct. I will continue to have my doubts.
 

Scottemojo

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drdiags":37ozl95h said:
Just call me nuts then. Hope those who say he can eclipse Jack's record are correct. I will continue to have my doubts.

You aren't nuts. Him being back on his game and winning 5 more majors don't have to coincide. I don't buy into the notion that the only thing that matters is 5 more majors.
 

drdiags

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Scottemojo":21luj99m said:
drdiags":21luj99m said:
Just call me nuts then. Hope those who say he can eclipse Jack's record are correct. I will continue to have my doubts.

You aren't nuts. Him being back on his game and winning 5 more majors don't have to coincide. I don't buy into the notion that the only thing that matters is 5 more majors.

True. To be competitive into his late 40's is what I would expect. Winning majors are like winning SB titles. But I think that record was what helped drive him in his youth. He may be mere mortal now and accept that winning one here and there is still pretty good stuff.

I like a good story. Man rises to the ultimate, stumbles for a moment only to recoup some of his magic and excel again.

For awhile it was looking to me like he was going to go the route of David Duvall.
 

Rat

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drdiags":3bgyzsgb said:
For awhile it was looking to me like he was going to go the route of David Duvall.
Duval is a pretty extreme example. There are very, very few athletes in any sport who fell as far off the proverbial cliff as he did. For some reason, Mark Prior is the first name that comes to my mind, although his peak wasn't as great as Duval's. Even at Tiger's worst, he was still in a tier of golfers like Steve Stricker, Nick Watney, Zach Johnson, etc, which might not be among the elite, but are still top 20ish.

Tiger doesn't need to win US Opens by 15 strokes to be considered "back", but I won't say he's truly back until he regains that fear factor in majors that he lost when YE Yang punked him out on Sunday at the 2009 PGA Championship. Maybe that's unfair, but Tiger has made his entire career about the majors, so that's really on him. In three of the four majors last year, he put himself in contention on Friday, and then faded on the weekend. When he was the best golfer in the world (I can't say unequivocally that he is right now, #1 in the OWGR or not), weekends at majors were when he was the most unstoppable.

My guess is that he wins one major this year; I'll say the British Open, and has two other major top 10s. There are only a few golfers I dislike enough to actually root for Tiger in a duel (Bubba Watson, Scott McCarron, and Spencer Levin might be the only ones), but I agree that the sport is more interesting when Tiger is great. If he can get his major mojo back, we could be in for some really fun tournaments between he and Rory McIlroy. I don't think it'll be long before Matteo Manassero and maybe Ryo Ishikawa are mentioned in that same breath as well.
 

NoChops

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Its still March. He has as many wins this year as he had has in the last three. His putter is alive and his short game is looking pretty dang good too. His misses are now misses and not the WTF? is that in the parking lot? shots off the tee.

Jack won 4 majors from Tigers age on, including a Masters at 46. Depending on where the Open(s) plays for the next decade, Tiger could win a whole bunch more. He will always compete at Agusta, St. Andrews, Torrey, Pebble, Medinah.

While he was working on the "big swing" his short game and putting kinda left him. It looks to be back, and if he putts the way he has been this yea in GA in a couple of weeks and doesn't start spraying the driver all over again, I'd go so far as to say he wins two majors this year alone.

Rory has boinked...he took the millions and switched every club in his bag when he should have stuck to his game.
 
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