Don't be fooled by Tiger's boast
Don’t be fooled when Tiger Woods dismisses his chances of making the US Open next week as: ”No big deal. I’ve won tournaments like that before.”
Make no bones about it, every sinew of the world’s leading golfer will be straining to be fit enough to tee it up alongside his peers at Torrey Pines next Thursday for the US Open.
“I’ve won tournaments like that before,” is a rare boast from golf’s superstar, who is of course referring to the 13 Major championships he already has in his collection.
You don’t reach a tally as remarkable as that with a laissez faire attitude.
You reach that by being hungrier, more talented and more determined than anyone else.
All characteristics that embody the Tiger.
Can you imagine even a 75% fit Tiger Woods not competing at the year’s second grand slam, foregoing the chance to continue closing in on Jack Nicklaus’s 18 Majors?
The US Open is the only one of the big four Tiger doesn’t already have in his pocket.
The Masters and the USPGA he has won four times apiece, and even after it appeared he could only win The Open at St Andrews, he went and triumphed at Hoylake two summers ago.
No, the US Open is the Major that appears least on his enviably long cv.
He blitzed the field at Pebble Beach in the first leg of the Tiger Slam in 2000 and then kept the leading players of the time like David Duval at arms length at Bethpage two years later.
But since then it has been a case of close but no cigar for the Tiger.
He pushed Michael Campbell to the wire at Pinehurst in 05. He even threatened to make Angel Cabrera sweat last year, but not even the presence of the game’s most fearsome competitor could make the sweat beads form on the big Argentine’s forehead.
Cabrera dealt with the rampaging Woods by nonchalently lighting a cigarette.
Sandwiched in between those was the US Open of 2006 which saw Woods miss the cut, a rarity in itself, but something that owed a lot to the passing of his father just weeks before.
Woods has shown he has the shot selection and discipline to compete at a US Open, with it’s tight fairways, punishing rough and lightning fast greens.
Plus Torrey Pines in San Diego is a course he has romped to victory at no less than four times, the last coming in January.
However, the course will play a lot tougher next week, the USGA will not be keen to see a repeat of the 19-under-par total Woods achieved five months ago.
And at the back of his mind, the knee injury that has kept him off the golf course since the final round of the Masters could threaten to prolong his wait for a third US Open title.
But he’ll be there next Thursday, teeing off alongside the best players in the world, hungry and determined.
The last thing he’ll be thinking is that it’s ‘no big deal’.
Make no bones about it, every sinew of the world’s leading golfer will be straining to be fit enough to tee it up alongside his peers at Torrey Pines next Thursday for the US Open.
“I’ve won tournaments like that before,” is a rare boast from golf’s superstar, who is of course referring to the 13 Major championships he already has in his collection.
You don’t reach a tally as remarkable as that with a laissez faire attitude.
You reach that by being hungrier, more talented and more determined than anyone else.
All characteristics that embody the Tiger.
Can you imagine even a 75% fit Tiger Woods not competing at the year’s second grand slam, foregoing the chance to continue closing in on Jack Nicklaus’s 18 Majors?
The US Open is the only one of the big four Tiger doesn’t already have in his pocket.
The Masters and the USPGA he has won four times apiece, and even after it appeared he could only win The Open at St Andrews, he went and triumphed at Hoylake two summers ago.
No, the US Open is the Major that appears least on his enviably long cv.
He blitzed the field at Pebble Beach in the first leg of the Tiger Slam in 2000 and then kept the leading players of the time like David Duval at arms length at Bethpage two years later.
But since then it has been a case of close but no cigar for the Tiger.
He pushed Michael Campbell to the wire at Pinehurst in 05. He even threatened to make Angel Cabrera sweat last year, but not even the presence of the game’s most fearsome competitor could make the sweat beads form on the big Argentine’s forehead.
Cabrera dealt with the rampaging Woods by nonchalently lighting a cigarette.
Sandwiched in between those was the US Open of 2006 which saw Woods miss the cut, a rarity in itself, but something that owed a lot to the passing of his father just weeks before.
Woods has shown he has the shot selection and discipline to compete at a US Open, with it’s tight fairways, punishing rough and lightning fast greens.
Plus Torrey Pines in San Diego is a course he has romped to victory at no less than four times, the last coming in January.
However, the course will play a lot tougher next week, the USGA will not be keen to see a repeat of the 19-under-par total Woods achieved five months ago.
And at the back of his mind, the knee injury that has kept him off the golf course since the final round of the Masters could threaten to prolong his wait for a third US Open title.
But he’ll be there next Thursday, teeing off alongside the best players in the world, hungry and determined.
The last thing he’ll be thinking is that it’s ‘no big deal’.
Labels: Angel Cabrera, Masters, Open, Tiger Woods, US Open
posted by Nick Westby at 10:45 AM
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