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View Full Version : No majors. No wins. Tiger Woods has seen more red than he's worn!



KIDWCKED
07-23-2010, 10:35 PM
c/p from espn by Johnette Howard.
The expectation last weekend that Tiger Woods would chase down surprise British Open leader Louis Oosthuizen over the last two days at St. Andrews defied reason or recent evidence. After Woods shot a first-round 67 and hung on for a wind-blown second round of 73, everyone was waiting for Woods to take off after Oosthuizen on Saturday, same as they waited for Woods to reel in Dustin Johnson on the last day of this year's U.S. Open, same as they figured Woods would somehow rally to the top of the leaderboard on the final day of this year's Masters. But the takedowns never came. Honestly, we should have known they wouldn't.



In the 11 years that Woods dominated golf (the swing change in 2004 and knee injury in 2008 cut out some time), he has been the greatest front-runner the sport has ever seen. Every major championship that Woods has won -- all 14 of them -- came after he started with the lead on Sunday. Overall, only six of Woods' 71 PGA Tour career titles have come when he was trailing by three shots or more entering the final round. So Woods' MO is pretty established: He has never been a dramatic comeback artist. Woods can win tournaments going away, win on one good leg, win while coddling a lead like some wet nurse protecting a swaddled baby, or win by managing the course and managing himself to eke out a win when he's just a shot or two back. He used to intimidate opponents just by showing up.


But ask Woods to find something within himself and rally to win when he's stuck in a prohibitive hole? Oddly, that's hardly ever happened. Which makes you wonder...


How does that career-long trait extrapolate to Woods' chances of reviving his post-scandal career?


It's an interesting question because it's not a factor that most handicappers are taking into account in their rush to downgrade Woods' chances of recapturing his past dominance or overtaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors after his 23rd-place finish at St. Andrew's.


The left knee that Woods has had surgically repaired four times always gets mentioned as a concern. So do the actuarial charts that show most golfers, even the greats, rarely win majors after the age of 36. The notable exceptions were Nicklaus and Gary Player, with four apiece.