Golf Digest and Golf Magazine are the two monthly magazines covering golf that happen to have the largest circulations. Other monthlies such as Links or Golf Monthly or Golf & Leisure have nowhere near the amount of subscribers as the other two journals.
Both magazines arrived in my mailbox earlier this week on the very same day as they usually do. It”s the April edition of both magazines and the front cover for Golf Magazine and Golf Digest have sidebars featuring previews of the up-and-coming first major championship of the year, the Masters. Amazingly, both magazines have Tiger Woods on their front covers and both of them feature articles and interviews with Sean Foley, Woods” current swing guru.
I find all of this somewhat surreal. After all, we”re talking about someone who won his most recent grand slam title in June of 2008 at the United States Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, had nothing less than a mediocre 2010 season when he won just under $1.3 million and finished 68th on the money list, and who started his 2011 season with questionable golf mechanics and a current ranking on tour of 139th in earnings at the quarter mark of the calendar season.
Nonetheless, Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods, and he remains the most recognizable athlete in the world today as well as the engine that drives the popularity of professional golf. Fans of the game keep waiting for him to break out of his yearlong slump and casual sports fans only turn on golf when he is playing and working his way up the leaderboard during the weekend. Still, we are long removed from the 2000 season when Woods captured nine PGA Tour events, found the winner”s circle at three of the four majors, won a World Golf Championship, won the World Cup with David Duval, and came in first at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.
From 1996 when Woods won his third consecutive U.S. Amateur title and then turned professional and won twice during an abbreviated campaign, through 2009 when he won six tour events, pocketed $10.5 million and finished first on the money list for the ninth time, he has been the dominant force in the world of professional golf.
Sometimes Woods won by nothing short of obscene margins of victory. He won the ”97 Masters by 12 strokes, the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots, took home the claret jug at St. Andrews in 2000 with an eight-stroke margin of victory, and won his second British Open title by five strokes at St. Andrews in 2005. Jack Nicklaus, the holder of 18 major titles, won the 1965 Masters by nine shots and the 1980 PGA by seven, but as good as he was, he never beat up the rest of the field in the same way Tiger Woods did in his heyday.
So, are we to presume that Woods is in the midst of a dry spell, similar to what Nicklaus experienced from 1967 through 1970 following the death of his father, or are we to ascertain that Tigers Woods, at age 35, is on the downhill side of his career, somewhat like the way Nicklaus struggled from the moment of his 17th major title at the PGA Championship in 1980 until he won his 18th and final grand slam event at the Masters in April of 1986? Will Sean Foley be able to get Woods back on track so that he returns to the top of his game, or are we watching a relatively young golfer burn out too soon, kind of like the way Mickey Mantle”s career with the Yankees ended well before its time? And exactly how clear is Woods” mind, now that he has been a tabloid star who is divorced and without the endorsement dollars he was banking in 2009?
There are a handful of things to consider before we give Tiger Woods the thumbs up or the thumbs down on his golfing career. First of all, Tiger may very well be an old 35-year-old in the world of professional golf. His run on golf”s center stage from 1996 through 2009 lasted for 14 years, far longer than the time frames of Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Lee Trevino. Only Nicklaus was atop the game for a longer period of time when he ruled the game for 19 years from 1962 through 1980. While Woods” contemporaries such as Phil Mickelson were playing college golf through age 22, Woods was playing a competitive and international scheduled as a teenager. The same was true of Palmer and Nicklaus. Woods seems to be a very old 35 years old in golfer years.
Tiger had the best short game in golf during his halcyon years. He seemingly made every putt when a tournament was on the line. His chipping and wedge game were nothing short of brilliant, and he was capable of hitting one miracle shot after another when he most needed them at golf”s biggest moments. Were it not for his short game brilliance, Woods would more than likely have 10 major titles and Rocco Mediate, Chris DiMarco Bobby May and Sergio Garcia would have captured that elusive first career major. Statistically speaking, Woods” putting and short games are nowhere close to what they used to be. On top of that, he misses more greens in regulation than he ever did before, putting more pressure on his wedges and chipping. His nerves don”t seem to be as good as they once were and the pressure on his putter, especially from the 5- and 6-foot range, is greater than it ever was. Nowadays, he has to play his best just to keep up with Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer and the others.
Lastly, Tiger Woods has gone under the knife on three separate occasions to surgically repair his damaged left knee. The left knee prevents him from practicing as much as he did a decade ago and his swing uncertainties bring a greater doubt into his game. He simply can”t pound more balls nor can he add to his tournament schedule to bring his game around.
Yet it was just last week that Jack Nicklaus went on the record and contended that he believed that Woods would break his mark of 18 major championships. Something tells me that Nicklaus is wrong on this one. Winning five majors when you”ve reached the age of 35 may not be all that doable. Plus, Woods has always relied on swing gurus and he might have changed his swing one time too many. Only time will tell although I think we”ve seen the last of Tiger Woods” ability to dominate the game of golf.
