Tiger Fails to Roar Back
Just days after coming off his worst career performance, finishing 79th in an 80 man field after shooting 18-over par, Tiger Woods was forced to immediately look ahead to the fast approaching PGA Championship. For one of the first times in his career, it seemed like a long shot to say the least that Woods will win his 15th major championship, much less any tournament in the near future, which would bring his professional win total up to 97. While his personal life bottomed out months ago in a well documented public scandal, Bridgestone represented, at least hopefully represented, the low point in his on-course performance. Tiger followed up with one more forgettable encore in the last major of the year, finishing tied for 28th place.
When he took the tee at Whistling Straits, for the first time in a long time someone other than Woods was actually favored to win a tournament in which Woods was in the field, in terms of actual betting odds. In Las Vegas, gamblers found Mickelson listed as the 12-1 favorite to win the tournament. Woods was tied as the runner up with young Irishman Rory McIlroy, given a 15-1 chance. In a tournament that featured north of 150 players, such odds might have been considered reasonably good, but considering that prior to Woods’ forgettable showing at Bridgestone Woods odds to win were 6-1, the disparity between the two figures paints a graver picture. Despite all of his domestic troubles and sporadic play since his brief leave of absence from the Tour, there were still a large contingent of golf fans who expected Tiger to challenge for the trophy, if not win the weekend, every time he took the tee. In this sense, Bridgestone represented a remarkably tangible turning point in Tiger Woods career, an unscheduled stop on the Tiger Woods bandwagon where it appears a lot of believers finally chose to take the exit. Will Tiger make it back to his elite status, filling his once preordained destiny as the greatest golfer of all-time. It’s certainly still possible, though the PGA Championship did little, if any, to provide a sense of optimism.