Range Life: What are you going to do?

Fig Jam

First, many thanks to Constable Echelon for the excellent idea to name my golf content ”Range Life.” I love it.  It should also serve as a good alert for those of you who don’t like golf to just go ahead and skip any article with that title.

 Anyways…. Tiger won the Accenture WGC Match Play Tournament this weekend.  This makes 8 wins in his last 9 events, and 3 for 3 this year on the PGA tour.  I like this match play format because normally Woods just systematically destroys the entire field of golfers en route to a blowout victory (think ‘Tiger gangbang’).  In the match play tournaments, Woods is given the opportunity for some good ol’ fashion one-on-one destruction (more of a ‘Tiger Beatdown’) of some poor guy.    Nowhere is Tiger’s mental domination over the other players as evident as in these match play tournaments.

Take, for example, Tiger’s first round opponent this week J.B. Holmes.  A big hitter, Holmes was 3 up on Tiger with 5 holes to play.  This is a HUGE margin.  Holmes had this match in the bag…. except that he didn’t.  Tiger won 4 holes in a row, and won the match.  Afterwards, Holmes noted that Tiger played the last 5 holes in “5 or six 6 under par,” and then stated, ”What are you going to do?”  This quote perfectly sums up the attitude that the pros competing with Tiger bring to the table.  “What are you going to d0?”  It’s as if it never occurred to Holmes to go out and play the last 5 holes in 5 or 6 under as well.  Hell, he had a 3 hole lead, he could have played them in 3 under and won.  But he didn’t.  Instead, he watched Tiger come back and take the match.

In the 36 hole final against Stewart Cink, Woods birdied 14 of the 29 holes that he played, before the match ended mercifully, 8 and 7.  Jesus.  14-29 birdies???  Can’t be beat.  I’m sure it never occurred to Cink to go out and birdie 14 of 29 holes, because it’s not possible. 

It is kind of eery to watch the best players in the world, in any sport, look/act completely scared and intimidated.  Totally dejected.  Nobody in the world believes that they can beat Tiger Woods right now.  This fact got me thinking about my argument that Tiger is the greatest golfer of all-time (ie better than Nicklaus in his prime), and I couldn’t decide if it helped or hurt.  I still don’t know.  On the one hand, it seems to help because Tiger is so good, that he has won most tournaments before he even tees it up.  The best players in the world just fold like tents whenever faced with the prospect of dueling with Woods down the stretch. 

However, I think that fact also hurts my argument as well.  Jack Nicklaus, in his prime, faced players who rose to the challenge of beating him.  Often times they failed, but at least they tried.  Today’s PGA professionals could legitimately be accused of playing for second place and a paycheck.  Tiger never takes their best shot.  When he is in the field, rare is the occasion that a top 20 player rises to meet him by playing their best golf.  This is different than Nicklaus and makes Golf somewhat boring to watch in this day and age (unless you enjoy seeing professional athletes being mercilessly beaten).  

Overall, this weekend’s tournament signaled that we may be on the verge of witnessing one of the most historically significant runs by a golfer of all time.  The grand slam seems within reach, as does Byron Nelson’s amazing victory streak of 11 tournamens.  Unless Tiger derails himself, there is little chance that he will be beaten in any tournament in the near future where he is slated to play.  Nobody is playing good enough golf right now to be labeled as a ‘contender’ against Woods.