Tiger wins, Tiger wins, Tiger wins! And everything seems as it should have been.
Tiger Woods has had quite a difficult few years, wouldn’t you agree? Or perhaps you are of the opinion that no matter what difficulties he has on the links it’s just karma, and he deserves everything he gets (or doesn’t get). Maybe you’re right. For the sake of completely amateur journalism, however, I’ll take the low road and completely ignore his, umm, indescretions. Afterall, if I had to consider morality every time I wrote about an athlete I’d have a very small sample to work with.
In the past couple of years, Tiger’s all too familiar red shirt on Sunday has not struck the same fear in his opponents as it once did. How many collapses did we see back in the day on Sunday from Tiger’s playing partner? It was as automatic as his driver.
Today belonged to Tiger. After a bit of a rocky start with a boogey on hole #2, Tiger was quite solid with few peaks and valleys. He was all business. There was a point, probably around the sixth or seventh hole, where you could tell Tiger was “feeling it”. His irons were spot-on, and he adjusted his game accordingly. He became more aggressive, despite having a small lead for much of the front nine. Add to that, he finished first overall in “Greens in Play” and “Total Driving Distance”.
But his opponent for the day, Graeme McDowell, fought him the entire way. McDowell came into the final round only one-stroke behind. He showed bravity, but when it came down to it, Tiger’s aggressive irons were the end up the lad from Northern Ireland.
Tiger Woods is the winner of the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the seventh time. He also ends a 28-month championship drought.
Today, as I watched Tiger return to form, I can’t help but have renewed interest in golf. Maybe it’s because Tiger is playing better. I used to love the fist-pumps, and his intense, yet sometimes angry, style, and secretly I need that in order to really buy into the sport. Or maybe I am looking for the return to form of the world’s greatest athlete. It’s hard to argue that through the late 90’s and spanning the entire first decade of the 21st century, Tiger was unrivalled (maybe Lance Armstrong has a little argument…nah!). Golf was never more popular then it was during Tiger’s 20-somethings.
Whether you are a Tiger Woods fan or not, he is still the face of golf.
…and that is the last word.
