Posted on 09/15/2011 7:01:15 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tiger Woods may have played his way out of his own tournament.
All 18 players in the field at his Chevron World Challenge tournament in December must be ranked in the top 50 in the world.
Woods is currently ranked 46th.
Tiger's eligibility will depend how this weekend's BMW Championship shakes out.
He'll qualify for Chevon as long as he's still ranked 50 or lower on Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Tiger is a train wreck on the course. I don’t know Tiger, but the publicized events in his life would lead me to believe off the course is even worse.
Golf is a game of focus and self control with a measure of athleticism. Tiger seems to have lost a lot of the self control and focus he had.
I enjoyed seeing the excellence Tiger once brought to the game. I’m disappointed by his mistakes. I don’t hate him, and I think golf misses that dominating performer that Tiger once was.
What a shame...s/
No cars, drugs or rampant strange....go figure..
How is he going to pay his whores?
About 10 years ago, Rush Limbaugh devoted devoted an entire three-hour program to praising Woods—which angered many of his listeners who weren’t into golf or sports.
What
A
Shame.
Makes you wonder if the multitude of drug allegations surrounding him were true and are hampering his ability to play golf.
Tiger woods will never play as well, not becuase of an mental aspect of the game.
First, he needs to make a fundamental change to his swing, in order to stop damaging his knee. He has always used hard spikes and a totally ripping swing. He has never been an accurate driver, and such an agressive approach is required to make up for that. Now he uses soft spikes and cannot lock his knee before impact - a less effective swing for getting out of trouble.
Second, the rules on club grooves no longer advantage his style of play. In my opinion the PGA made a great mistake in 1976, when they allowed boxed grooves to be legal. Now, they have rounded over the edges of the grooves, which takes us closer to V grooves. The upshot is that launch angle has become very important and hitting from a poor lie with spin has become much, much more difficult.
Golf has returned, somewhat, to a game of finesse, rather than ripping power. Look at Luke Donald’s game. He has extraordinary driving accuracy. He places the drive where the second shot can be hit with the greates chance of success. His game is favored because of the shape of the grooves.
To have an idea about the beauty and finesse this game traditionally had, look at the swing of Sam Snead. Pros would stop their practice just to watch him whenever he was at the practice tee. Compare that to Tiger Wood’s swing to see what the rule change did to the game. It created a swing where this man continually damaged his knee.
It’s all about the 5 inches between your ears. (or is that pants?)
“To have an idea about the beauty and finesse this game traditionally had, look at the swing of Sam Snead. Pros would stop their practice just to watch him whenever he was at the practice tee. Compare that to Tiger Wood’s swing to see what the rule change did to the game. It created a swing where this man continually damaged his knee.”
You make some valid points, but it’s a complicated thing. First of all, I give you Arnold Palmer. The 1960s version of Tiger, (without the baggage). Arnold was a grip and ripper with an ugly swing, and great success. So, while the equipment changes matter, I don’t think the equipment produced Tiger.
Personally, I’d like to see ball/club changes so that driving distance comes down. It’s impractical to keep lengthening courses. Make the equipment so that a 300 yard drive is a big deal, not the norm.
You also bring up valid points about Tiger and the left knee. Tiger is older, and he’s abused that leg for some time now. Physically, he’s not capable of being the same golfer he once was.
From what I’ve seen of Tiger this year, it does seem to be mental as well. He’s shredded his inner circle. He didn’t have a swing coach, and seemed to be lost on what he was doing. But what struck me was the lack clutch shots. Tiger missed the putts he almost always made. Tiger flew the approaches that he stuck in the past. He just didn’t seem to have that big shot in him. In the past it was a given it would happen, the big shot, the intimidation. No one fears Tiger now.
Tiger isn’t done. He’ll win again, but he’ll never dominate like he did. That was a once-in-a-lifetime happening. Mental? Physical? Both? I vote both.
He could still get laid by 70% of female sports reporters (and 95% of the male ones).
I have a theory regarding his fall from dominance. I think he was on the juice but since he was the Golden Boy money sponge the PGA left him alone. After the bimbo eruption and his fall from grace he was no longer laying the golden eggs and was subject to drug testing like the also rans. Fearing adding insult to injury and a potential ending of his career, he quit the juice/roids/HGH and is now just a mere mortal golfer. What goes around comes around and I couldn’t be happier that both Tiger and his abusive Caddy Stevie have gotten their comeuppance.
For those of us who don't know, what the he** is a "groove" as it pertains to golf?
There are grooves cut into the metal in the face of a golf club. The fulfill a ballistic purpose - kind of like rifling that causes a bullet to twist as it leaves a gun barel. As the ball compresses against the face of the club, the grooves prevent the ball from just sliding up the face of the club.
There are exact rules the govern the width and shape of the grooves. A “V” groove forms a 45 degree angle with the face of the club. A Boxed groove forms a 90 degree angle with the face of the club.
A boxed groove is more efficient, engineeringly speaking, at causing the ball to spin - 90 degree grooves grab the ball better than 45 degree grooves. More spin, for the most part, means more controll.
Tiger flew the approaches that he stuck in the past. He just didn’t seem to have that big shot in him.
Distance controll is much more difficult when you do not get the same spin consistently from different lies. To me, this is a direct function of the different grooves, where you need to control your launch angles and moderate your clubhead speed, depending on the lie. Trevino was the master at this. Every shot he hit with the same club launched at exactly the same height. This is a skill Tiger is not so faliliar with. Not only does he need to change his basic mechanics, and fight against old habits, he needs to take a different strategic approach to each shot. He is playing a different game now.
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