Tiger Woods Didn't Choke. He Got Beaten At His Own Game.

Choke is a pretty strong word in sports.  Tiger is a pretty phenomenal athlete and an equally strong word in sports.  Perhaps it is the combined strength of the phrase "Tiger choked" that is keeping so many people from uttering it this morning in the wake of YE Yang's historic PGA Championship win.

My good buddy Geoff sent me a text message yesterday morning saying, "Tiger's gonna choke."

Seeing as though his favorite golfer is Mark Calcavecchia, I was hardly stunned. But, I had to ask a follow up. 

"To YE Yang?"

No, he told me that Padraig Harrington would do it.  Well, Harrington did not.  Consecutive Sunday scorecards that feature a snowman on it don't usually yield major titles.

Perhaps, though, I shouldn't have scoffed at the notion.  After all, each of the prior three majors in 2009 are equally noteworthy for the players that failed to win as those that went home with the trophy and the big check.  Following the tremendous sadness of Tom Watson not being able to best Stewart Cink, it seemed like Tiger Woods was going to break the cycle and end this season of majors with a resounding win to restore order to the golf world.

Now, though, I am shocked that the laws of gravity still apply, that the grass is green, and that Bill O'Reilly hasn't been promoted overnight to lead anchor of ABC World News.  A Rolex watch is jealous of how precise Woods is when he is in the lead.  The guy does not miss.  Well, he didn't miss until Sunday.

This column, though, is not going to call what Tiger did a choke.  That does an incredible disservice to what YE Yang accomplished by staring down Tiger, shooting 70, and architecting what is one of the greatest approach shots in major championship history.  Shaun Micheel's 7 iron to the 72nd hole at Oak Hill in '03 almost seems pedestrian by comparison to the 3 hybrid heard around the world.

YE Yang won the PGA Championship.  Tiger Woods did not choke.  Rather, he did something worse than choke.  He was beaten at his own game.

Remember the Tiger Woods that won the '97 Masters by a dozen, the 2000 US Open by a stunning 15, and then later that year reached -20 in the Open Championship at St. Andrew's?  That guy no longer exists.  At some point between walking off with the Claret Jug at the Old Course and the playoff win against Rocco Mediate at Torrey, Tiger changed his approach to winning.  Instead of taking his mother Tida's approach and stepping on the field's collective throat, Woods released a little pressure.

Sure, Woods has continued to win majors at a torrid pace since that 2000 campaign.  But, he seemed to do so in different ways.  Not all of the wins were not Roman-style public killings in the Colosseum.  Some were more dramatic. 

Names like Chris DiMarco and Rocco Mediate come to mind.  Woods would allow his competition to have a glimmer of hope before slamming the door on them and the tournament.  In a way, those two wins were almost more devastating for the field.  Woods would give them a taste of the manna from the promised land and then relegate them back to the desert for another forty years.

It was almost as though Woods knew when he could flame on and off that suit that makes him untouchable on the golf course.  Then, on Sunday, he tried to fire up the same power and it failed.  Woods could not will himself into the upper stratosphere.  He was confused by wind all day.  Woods putted poorly and missed with the flatstick in situations where fans and journalists salivated - conditioned by Woods' smattering of timely moments.  Then, when the bell rang, Woods failed to deliver.  We were left wanting more.  Pavlov's discovery was a powerful one.

As it turned out, YE Yang was more than happy to pick up where Tiger could not deliver.  Yang was collected, but aggressive.  His approach shot to 16 was clearly a push, but not a borderline shank.  Yang knew what he was doing in risking it against Lake Hazeltine.  Were he to stick the landing, Kerri Strug would have nothing on him.  While he did not convert the birdie, he secured his lead and left it to chance on the final two holes. 

The only place where Yang appeared to lose his killer instinct was the 71st hole.  Perhaps it dawned on him that he was just five or six shots away from becoming a historic figure - infamous or not, depending on the circle in which his name was uttered.  The tentative birdie putt that would have secured the win led to a three putt bogey and a dramatic final hole.

Yang regained his composure and his courage for the final hole.  Landing his tee shot just into the first cut of rough on the left hand side of the hole, Yang was to go first while facing an approach shot to an elevated green behind a tree in his way.  Like a stone cold killer - the term used to describe Woods so often - Yang delivered the fatal blow.  He barely blinked.

Woods was stunned.  The apothecary had given him the wrong potion.  It was poison, not the antidote.  He was done for and Yang was left standing in a duel for the ages.  Hell froze at Hazeltine. 

Now Woods will have until next April to lick his wounds.  He will have new life at Augusta.  Hopefully, too, Woods will have complete confidence in his post-rehabilitation swing that has produced five PGA Tour wins this season - all coming in the squeaker style of victory. 

Perhaps Hazeltine - Woods' Waterloo - will serve as the inspiration needed to cause Tiger to be introspective about his course strategy.  While it may be impressive that Woods has learned to win in every which way, surely he will look to bring back the skill behind the method that created his legend in the first place.