The New Normal
by TwoNuse on Jan 29, 2012 11:23 PM EST
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Print"You will always define events in a manner which will validate your agreement with reality."
- Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
Tiger Woods walks, talks and looks basically the same as he did when he won the US Open by 15 strokes in the summer of 2000. He wears red on Sundays, just like he did when he won the PGA Championship by five strokes in 2006. But anyone with more than a cursory interest in professional golf knows the Tiger Woods of 2012 isn't the Tiger Woods of 2000 or 2006. 15 years of golf at the highest level has taken a physical toll, leading to multiple knee surgeries. The public airing of his multiple infidelities turned his name from one companies lavished millions to be associated with to one that matched Kim Kardashian and Jesse James as late night joke fodder.
So why would the international golf media treat the 2012 Tiger Woods like the 2006 Tiger Woods?
After Tiger fell from a tie for the lead at the end of three rounds to finish third at the Abu Dhabi Championship, thanks in part to playing partner Robert Rock shooting 70 (with the number of putts he just missed, 70 may have been the highest score possible for Rock) in comparison to a pedestrian 72 from the former world's number one, the proverbial media knives were out:
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Shipnuck refers to the aura that caused mere mortal golfers to fold like laundry when paired with Tiger in the final round. This would be the aura that Y.E. Yang seriously wounded during the 2009 PGA Championship. Or the aura Vijay Singh proved wasn't impenetrable when he briefly took the number one spot from Tiger in the fall of 2004. Chris DiMarco also took a swipe at the aura, taking Tiger to a playoff at the 2005 Masters. Funny thing about this aura, from the 1999 PGA Championship to the 2001 Masters, Tiger won 5 of the 6 available majors. Of the next 31 majors, he won 8. A spectacular number, but a major winning percentage of just over 25% is dwarfed by the previously mentioned 83%. After 2001, Tiger Woods went from incendiary golfing force to just the best golfer on the planet. And Shipnuck either didn't seem to notice or didn't care.
He isn't the only writer to ignore the last few years because they don't serve his worldview. John Strege wrote on golfdigest.com:
Is it conceivable that a man who has won 83 tournaments (71 on the PGA Tour, 12 internationally) has to rediscover how to win, notwithstanding a meaningless victory against a small field in the Chevron World Challenge in December?
Woods was the 36-hole leader of the Australian Open in November and finished third there, too. His last meaningful victory came in the Tour Championship in 2009.
Strege assumes the efforts of no other golfer matter when Woods is on the course, that the success and failure of Woods is Woods' alone. Then he hobbles his own argument (Woods is in control of his own destiny) with the fact that over two years have passed since Tiger was in the winner's circle.
In my opinion, the best Tiger Woods could do is to become one of the best golfers in the world again, one who wins multiple tournaments and regularly challenges for majors. He may even win some more majors before it is all through (by the way, he hasn't won the Masters since 2005, which feels like the year Lexi Thompson was born. He also hasn't finished lower than sixth since then, so it isn't as if he and his alleged golf skill-choking aura wasn't hanging around the top of the leader board). But like every other golfer to ever slip on a pair of spikes (most recently poor Kyle Stanley for example), Tiger is proving to the world one unwavering truth; winning is hard.
FanPosts are written by Waggle Room members. Viewpoints expressed do not necessarily reflect those of WaggleRoom.com, editor, Charles Boyer or any other writer or member.
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Tigers current A game is what you see now..
It is what it is. I’ve been saying for 2 years now that his mental game is shot ever since YE YANG took him down at Hazeltine.
Sunday it looked to me as it was Tiger that had the look of fear on his face.
He said he had complete control over the ball ? Really ?
JMHO
"pain is only weakness leaving the body" jumpn
oh no you di'in' !!
“the new normal” ?? Following Rex Hoggard down the line of the insipide cliche ? Someone pull the dagger out of my back, please !! :-D
Not sure I understand the DiMarco and Singh references – or how the media is treating Tiger like it was 2006. Yang was definitely a chink in the armor, but that was after 13 years of defying the odds. Nobody plays that well for that long…but he did.
Here’s my problem with the media’s continual analysis in a vacuum with Woods – he has overhauled his swing in the past and been written off – he has changed coaches and been written off – he had lost the #1 ranking not once, but twice (you left Duval off the list), both during swing changes, and been written off – and in every case, he came back with a vengence the next year.
Right now, Woods is having to do a bigger rebuilding job than he has ever had to do in his life. Every other time, he knew he could play and make swing changes and still play well – he was still supremely confident. Today, he is building a new swing after a significant amount of time where he couldn’t make swing changes and play and win because he couldn’t depend on his short game to make up for missed approaches or see significant putts drop from all sorts of distances and breaks.
All of that to say this – it is WAY too early to make this arrogant “new normal” declaration in the media – but it is typical. Nobody knows when or even if Woods will find that confidence again. Nobody knows if or when he will win multiple tournaments and be counted on to win at least one major a year. Nobody knows if he will get that intimidation back…though we did see in Abu Dhabi that Woods is still the center of attention. The galleries around other groups looked more like a local junior tournament was going on instead of a pro tournament with the top 4 ranked players in the field.
What happened Sunday was, in my opinion, a sign that his mental muscles aren’t completely in shape just yet. He played three solid rounds that put him in a share of the lead – the swing works and the short game is getting close. BUT – the final round is where the pressure kicks in, and he couldn’t buy a fairway or green…and he started the day 2 under after three holes.
I don’t know that there has ever been a player who has been written off as often or enthusiastically as Tiger Woods has been over his career – but I do know that every other time, he has taken great pleasure in putting those media idiots in their place.
I wish your final sentence could be stamped on the back of every media member’s hands so they could see it every time they think about coming out with some idiotic declaration that Tiger Woods is washed up. Woods may be a pain in the tuchus in the interview room, but a true journalist wouldn’t be dependent on what a player says after the round is complete. Tiger needs time to get himself and his game together. If we have learned anything from his career, it is that he loves to win, and he has done it better than just about anyone ever in sports. It has always been a mistake to underestimate what Tiger Woods is capable of doing.
Great stuff TN !
If at first you don't secede, try try again
you've been ripped off !
Yep – Michael Breed started his show tonight (The Golf Fix) saying “winning is hard”.
If at first you don't secede, try try again
Perhaps
what we’re seeing is the “old” normal. Winning is hard, but it’s always been hard. Tiger made it look easy for many years, but it wasn’t. Tiger made a lot of people forget this very simple fact. It serves as a good reminder of how special his career is.
Normal is a player winning twice in a year and it’s considered a great year. Normal is players struggling to close tournaments. Normal is parity. It’s always been this way. Tiger, Jack, and few others were outliers. They were brief moments of brilliance that should be celebrated because of the rarity.
I hope that we’ll see more of it from Tiger, (the ability is still in there somewhere). Or perhaps Rory can do it. Maybe someone new will come along and captivate us. Until then, unfortunately we’ll have to settle for “normal”.
The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
~ William Blake
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