Sprechen Sie Tiger?

On the first day of the Deutsche Bank Championship, Tiger Woods went out and tore it up with a 64. He followed that up with a second round 68 to check in at 10 under par. But wait a minute, though most will only speak of it in hushed tones, Tiger's had this nasty habit of late where he self-destructs on the weekends. Would it happen yet again?

Nope. Woods carded another 68 in the third round, and closed with a semi-blistering 66, for a grand total of 18 under par. Very impressive stuff.

Problem was, it still wasn't good enough to win. Louis Oosthuizen, the South African who seems to have a perpetual smile on his face, had totally blistered the same course with a 63 in the 3rd round and Woods trailed him by 6 shots going into the finale. Oosthuizen is one of those streaky golfers. There's times when he might not even make the "cut", but when he's hot, he can shoot the lights out. Still, while 6 strokes is a lot to make up in one round, if Oosthuizen faltered and Woods got on a roll, who knows?

But as golf fans well know, there was another dog in this hunt as well. That pesky Irish kid, Rory McIlroy. He'd posted 65, 65, 67 in the first 3 rounds to lead Tiger by 3 heading into the final round, while being 3 strokes behind the South African himself.

With all due respect to Louis Oosthuizen, I suspect most golf fans wanted to see Tiger and Rory dual down the stretch of a tournament. The old pro with all the hardware in his trophy case against the upcoming dashing young lad.

Despite some of his weekend play, particularly in the last few "majors", nobody wants to believe that Tiger has become a choker when the pressure is on. Up until his personal life took a nosedive a while back, his entire golf history suggests quite the opposite. On the other hand, McIlroy is a bit of an enigma. He had the 2011 Masters Tournament seemingly well in hand until a disastrous 3 hole stretch over the back nine in the final round tumbled him off the leader board on the way to shooting 80. It might fairly be said he choked. As a young man just shy of his 22nd birthday in the most prestigious golf event in the world, that could have been devastating. But it wasn't. Just two short months later, he'd be back to win the U.S. Open by a whopping 8 strokes. Sure, lots of folks have been "one-hit wonders", even the ever-entertaining John Daly won TWO majors, but the people that know best -- McIlroy's pro golf peers -- generally acknowledge him as being a supremely gifted young player. Indeed, not long ago, Rory blew away the field at the PGA Championship for his 2nd major, by another 8 strokes, eclipsing Jack Nicklaus' 32 year old record. Your truly suspects Rory learned a very valuable lesson at the 2011 Masters -- especially between his ears. Nobody knows what he may or may not go on to accomplish in golf, but anybody expecting him to choke when the pressure is on is in for a long wait. It ain't gonna happen. This dude's the real deal. He now knows if he just plays up to his abilities, he can stare down the best -- and beat them.

On a related note -- how did the Deutsche Bank Championship wind up in a suburb of Boston anyway? I thought Boston was Irish Catholic territory. The Kennedy clan must be slipping. Next thing you know, Martha's Vineyard will be called Marta's Biergarten. Careful of the ethnic stuff? Hey, forget that. I'm a full blooded kraut on my mom's side, and half on my dad's, and proud of it, so I've got a right.

Nevertheless, hurray for the Irish kid that swooped in and scooped up all those deutschmarks, excuse me, euros.

I suspect he's going to last longer than the gaskets on a Mercedes. Verstehen?

Ja. Sehr gut.