Enough of the Tiger Woods Slump Stuff

I know sports writers nowadays are paid to be controversial.  Otherwise, there is no explanation for how guys like Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith ever have jobs.  But, their style of bloviating opinions without facts seems generally reserved for the four major sports  Lately, though, we're getting a new slew of useless columns about a Tiger slump.  And, frankly, it's getting annoying.

Former print journo and now Fanhouse columnist - I guess they're not ok with being called bloggers like the rest of us - Terence Moore has a column on the site entitled "Please, Tiger, Make Us Believe Again."

Terence starts off on the wrong foot.

Is Tiger finished?  I mean, as a great player.  Hey, I'm just asking, because everybody else is. Folks only are doing so from the shadows, because they fear getting embarrassed by another miraculous something from Woods during the next few weeks or months along his way to becoming not only the most prolific golfer not of our time but of all time.

What is that?  First, a bunch of golf writers are wondering if Tiger will ever be the same.  Devil Ball Golf had a piece yesterday.  That piece was thoughtful.

Second, has Terence even bothered to look at Tiger's stats from this season?  A win in six starts and a top ten finish in even stroke play event.  That's pretty damn great for a pro golfer.  He has a 16% winning percentage this season.  That only looks poor compared to a career PGA Tour winning percentage of 29.2%.  No one has ever won at that kind of clip against this kind of competition. 

It took Jack Nicklaus 11 more years to win 13 more times than Tiger has right now.  To become the "most prolific golfer" ever, Woods has to win once per year for the next decade or so and every third win has to be a major.  That basically equates to repeating his 1998 or 2004 seasons in a Groundhog Day-esque loop until he finally wakes up and his career is over.

Moore starts the blame game with a suggestion that Tiger married too soon.  He married five seasons ago.  To any person who doesn't follow golf regularly, have you noticed a difference before this year?  No?  I guess the old Swedish model ball and chain isn't a problem.

Sure, blame Tiger's wife.

The guy is coming off of major knee surgery where he was out of action for 8 months.  Tiger may not play more than 18 events per season anymore, but even he cannot shake off that kind of rust in just six events.  He has clearly made some swing changes to accomodate his finally-healthy knee.  He bulked up some during the layoff.  The timing is clearly off, but not by all that much.  It's not anything that a good month off cannot fix in time for the US Open at Bethpage - where he will be defending champion on two legs this season.

Terence, do me a favor and don't write about golf again with that kind of ridiculous speculation.  If you need some pointers on how to write a Tiger column, consider reading the legendary Art Spander's take on Tiger's progress.  It is rationale, filled with facts, and a good read.