Though I've never much cared for him, dating back to when he came onto the golf scene in a major, no pun intended, way, there is little doubt Eldrick Tont Woods (sometimes known as Tiger) remains a fan favorite among many. Me? I always sensed something a bit fishy/phony about him.
As it turned out, his serial infidelity to his wife, boorish behavior on the course, drug addiction, and walking off said courses with an injury (real or feigned) when he wasn't doing well, pretty much confirmed my earliest suspicions.
It seems the media wants him to win. They NEED him to win. How else to explain the wall-to-wall coverage of a guy that hasn't won squat in several years, let alone a major tournament? And BTW, he's not even in the top thirty golfers in the world. Yet the adoration is non-stop. Amazing.
Thing is, Eldrick's decade of dominance came along at just the right time -- for Tiger. Consider ---
When he first burst onto the scene, the "old guard" of Hall of Fame players were either already gone or way over the hill.
They would include such names as ---
Jack Nicklaus
Arnold Palmer
Gary Player
Raymond Floyd
Tom Watson
Tom Kite
Lee Trevino
And the late Seve Ballesteros, among others.
But when Tiger was winning seemingly everything in sight, it was BEFORE the following players had came onto the scene themselves. To wit:
Dustin Johnson
Rickey Fowler
Jordan Spieth
Jason Day
Justin Thomas
Jon Rahm
Rory McIlroy
Justin Rose
Henrik Stinson
Patrick Reed
And Brooks Koepka, among others.
In other words, Tiger's decade of dominance came at a time that was devoid of much serious competition. OK, there was Phil and Sergio.
Much has and will be made of the fact that Woods finished second in this year's recently concluded PGA (major) tournament.
And his final round six-under par 64 was impressive indeed. But he still didn't win.
The above-mentioned Koepka stared him down at crunch time and defeated him by two strokes. Koepka himself has now won back-to-back US Opens and now the PGA. Three major wins in two years is pretty impressive stuff itself.
Like the just concluded PGA tournament, the Valspar tourney played earlier this year also saw Eldrick come close, but no cigar. It's the horseshoes and hand grenades thing.
Yet if one watched or looks back at the "field" in that tourney, they would note that all the above current top players (save for Reed and Rose) didn't even bother to show up for the event. They had better things to do than enter a second class tourney.
No doubt, the legions of Tiger lemmings will say he's back. Indeed he is. Better than laying around Jupiter, Florida rehabbing another surgery. And yon groupies will surely gather steam as next year's Master's tournament in April draws near.
But Woods won't win that either. His days of cruising through mediocre at best fields are over.
This time it was Koepka. Next time it will be somebody else.
Because there's just too many really good players out there these days. And the next stud or three from somewhere around the world will show up shortly. As Tiger gets older, there will be no stopping the next wave of young guns that burst onto the scene.
So yeah, he put up a very dominant decade of golf, and won a whole bunch of tourneys, including 14 majors.
But the other guys don't fear him any more. Though they continue go give him homage, perhaps for PR reasons, they all know they can beat him if they're on their game. Two decades ago, that wasn't the case.
And Father Time is working harder on Eldrick than he is on the younger guys. Woods will drop off. The other guys will get even better.
Why, exactly, Woods continues to be a fan and media darling, in spite of all his personal flaws, would seem to be a good question.
Yet he is.
But he's still not going to win anything of note.
Way, WAY too much competition these days.
And it only takes one guy out of so many to get hot to deny him -- yet again -- at any given tournament.
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