Yeah, I’m talking about Tiger Woods. What more can you say about the man, the athlete the warrior with the mind of a tiger. Always stalking and watching you. Make a mistake and you’re toast. Play your heart out, and you’re still toast.

If you weren’t watching the Open over the weekend, whether you’re a golfer or not, by Sunday night you were watching highlights on the news with the same intensity as a prime time cliffhanger. Tiger was battling himself first, Rocco Mediate second. Rocco wasn’t really a factor in Tiger’s game, more significant was the battle Tiger was
having playing thru the pain caused by his bad knee.

In the overall picture, it didn’t matter who Tiger was tied with - in this case it just happened to be Rocco - the story was that Tiger battled thru every hole, and came from behind to force an 18-hole playoff today. Rocco’s presence definitely made it a better competition for the television audience. Rocco also gave the bias TV commentators something to build their stupid comments on, such as Johnny Miller supposedly quoting Jack Nicklaus when he said he wondered why other golfers, when they play with Tiger, open the doors for him to win. Is he kidding? It’s like Tiger doesn’t have to hit the ball or make the putts. I’d like to see Jack, even at his prime, play these courses at 7,600 yards - and they legalized the length of these courses to cool down Tiger and his long drives. I think Jack would have retired sooner.

Rocco was good, but the long course was too much for him. Tiger’s bad left knee caused him to hit a lot of tee shots to the right. The left leg is the pivot leg on the downswing, which puts a lot of pressure and pain on that knee. The kind of pain he played through we will probably never know because he’ll never complain or tell you. After receiving the cup Bob Costas asked Tiger if the knee was a factor. Tiger simply said he was “glad that it’s over”. That’s the most he complained. He said he’s shutting down for a while.

This was a good, no make that great win for Tiger - his 14th major. And what we saw was vintage Tiger with eagles, birdies, 300+ yard drives, miracle shots out of traps, and some heart-stopping putts. Tiger was Tiger in spite of his bad knee, the commentators and the gallery - all of whom seemed to favor Rocco. Go Tiger! You are the man.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 7:34 am and is filed under Golf, Legends, competition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.