Is Tiger back?

[JezzE]

What like alot of people banded around last year when he had no wins without injury or marital problems?
So with most wins of the year so far and being number 1 on the FedEx he still hasn't found form yet?
Just asking.

My question was a more general one rather than specifically referring to Tiger who quite clearly has returned to form this year!

I was merely trying to suggest that loss of form doesn't always have a happy ending, much though the 'form is temporary, class is permanent' adage would have you believe otherwise...

 

[pokerjoke]

Tiger is back,but not to his previous best,in fact i dont think
he will ever get his dominance back.
He will be in contention most comps as per usual.
However the field has closed the gap,they have upped there
game.
But once again Tiger showed down the home stretch he knows
how to close out a tournament.
Anybody going toe to toe with Tiger at the end of a tournament
had better be on their A game.

 

[Imurg]

When you're like Tiger and at a level where your career is judged in terms of Majors won then my view is he needs to win another to be 'back'
that said I think it's good to see him winning

This is my view...

As we've seen this year, any Journeyman USPGA Pro can win a Tour Event but you need something more to win a Major.
As Tiger's record is judged on Majors - as is virtually everyone elses - then to be "back" he needs to add to his tally.
It is good for golf to have him contending and winning again but he needs to recapture a Major.....

 

[bobmac]

How many of the worlds top 10 were playing this week?
It's a bit like winning your club championship when the A team are away playing somewhere else that day

 

[Aztecs27]

How many of the worlds top 10 were playing this week?
It's a bit like winning your club championship when the A team are away playing somewhere else that day

Apparently, even though Tiger is "the best in the world" and is automatically going to win 5 more majors, it doesn't matter that only 1 (from memory) of the world's top 10 was playing this week because a win is a win.

Double standards and all that. I hold the same view as Mike and 'Murg. You're Tiger Woods; win a major, then we'll talk.

 

[CMAC]

Don't care

the 'dont cares' wont click the thread though as they dont care.

I never thought he was away, just off form for awhile understandably.
He is by a country mile the best golfer out there and the most interesting and exciting to watch.

 

[shewy]

I put not there yet as I think he still has huge issues with his driving.
On a shorter course where he can hit his stinger irons or 3 wood off the tee then he will certainly threaten,so I expect him to do well at the open maybe even win it.
Where I can't see him contneding is the longer tracks where driver is required,so the Masters,US open and possibly the USPGA may be a tough one to crack unless he gets his driving sorted.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

How many of the worlds top 10 were playing this week?
It's a bit like winning your club championship when the A team are away playing somewhere else that day

I was wondering how long it would take before that one was rolled out Just because the top ten are playing doesn't mean they will play well.

Tiger won Memorial with half the top 10 in the field but had the same comment thrown at him because the ones that played didn't play well. Webb Simpson won the US Open when the world numbers 1 & 2 missed the cut. What's the difference between missing the cut and not playing at all? At the end of the day, all these players are capable of putting together 4 good rounds, granted the top ten in the world do itmore often but they don't always do it so why do people get so hung up on them being in the field. What people seem to be saying is winning a tournament in which the top 10 players in the world play but play poorly is better than winning a tornament that they don't play in at all when in all reality it makes no difference.

Golf is an individual sport and Donald didn't miss the US Open cut because Webb Simpson played well and Webb didn't go head to head with Westwood down the stretch and beat him. That's not to take anything away from him by the way.

If winning was so easy in these fields, why has Donald only won 5 times in 227 starts when Tiger has won 3 of his last 7 starts. If Luke had played & won last night we wouldn't be talking about the strength of yhe field we'd be saying how great he was

 

[FairwayDodger]

I said yes. The field in any PGA event know he's once again the guy to beat.

But I can agree that until he wins another major (which he will) that the doubters will remain.

 

[Aztecs27]

If winning was so easy in these fields, why has Donald only won 5 times in 227 starts when Tiger has won 3 of his last 7 starts. If Luke had played & won last night we wouldn't be talking about the strength of yhe field we'd be saying how great he was

Yes, but the difference is, Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods. By the Tiger fans' reckoning, he is the next coming of Christ (exaggerating for dramatic effect ), so by their (your) standards, he should be winning every event he enters, with his eyes closed because he's "the best golfer ever". Webb Simpson (and Luke Donald) are NOT Tiger Woods, and in theory, should find it more difficult to win, even with a weaker field and when the world's top golfers miss the cut. And when they do win, it's a "great" win for them.

Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods, so winning in a tournament with 1 of the world's top ten and no one except a Journeyman threatening him, it's not that impressive.

As I said, you can't have the double standards, say he's the best golfer ever and hold him in higher regard than every one else on tour in one breath and then get all defensive when people say "well, if he's the best golfer ever, why isn't he winning by 8+ shots EVERY week and winning tournaments like majors and the high profile events that all the world's top golfers enter?"

When he wins a major, and decimates the field by 6 or more shots every week like he used to, then people will accept it.

Either way, he's still exciting to watch. That shot at 12 last night was awesome!

 

[Dodger]

I didn't realise to be the Best in the World you have to win events by big margins.

 

[smange]

How many of the worlds top 10 were playing this week?
It's a bit like winning your club championship when the A team are away playing somewhere else that day

I do believe a couple of them were being pumped in their own backyard by a lot of low ranking players.

 

[Aztecs27]

I didn't realise to be the Best in the World you have to win events by big margins.

You don't but the way people go on about Tiger, you'd think that he should be playing on his own tour as the rest of the Tour Professionals aren't even worthy of walking the same course as him.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

You don't but the way people go on about Tiger, you'd think that he should be playing on his own tour as the rest of the Tour Professionals aren't even worthy of walking the same course as him.

To be fair, the Tiger supporters think he does well to win in any event, appreciating how difficult it is to ein. The people who say he only won in a weak field are the ones making the reference that the rest of the field aren't good enough

 

[chris661]

I would like to see anybody else win three times in a year then have this discussion about weak fields or whatever. With the nature of the game now to win once a year is an achievement let alone 3 times in a year yet its not because Tiger is any good but because the fields are crap Thankfully I am not playing the crap golfers from this week in a effort to fed myself.

 

[bobmac]

It's like a bunch of vegetarians and butchers argueing the toss...neither will change their mind.
Which is fair enough, I just get tired reading posts from people who give me their opinion as FACT.

 

[Aztecs27]

I would like to see anybody else win three times in a year then have this discussion about weak fields or whatever. With the nature of the game now to win once a year is an achievement let alone 3 times in a year yet its not because Tiger is any good but because the fields are crap Thankfully I am not playing the crap golfers from this week in a effort to fed myself.

3 wins is a great achievement, but he simply can't be regarded as back to his best until he wins a major. The question was "is Tiger back?" He's back playing golf, and he's back winning, but he's not back winning the big events that everyone thought he'd win whenever he was in the field. He used to win smaller events on the PGA tour for fun and it was expected and NOT news. Now, because he went a way for a year because he messed up his marriage and his knee, and he's winning those events again, he's now the next coming of...er..Tiger Woods.

The same argument would be on the table had Rory won the same "small" events and was started to be heralded as "The next Tiger" again. You'd get the usual Rory bashers giving it the whole "Er...it wasn't a world class field" argument.

When (if?) he wins his next major, he's back to his best.

 

[Aztecs27]

It's like a bunch of vegetarians and butchers argueing the toss...neither will change their mind.
Which is fair enough, I just get tired reading posts from people who give me their opinion as FACT.

This is the best post in this thread.

 

[Dodger]

This is the best post in this thread.

Irony overload.

 

[bobmac]

This is the best post in this thread.

Irony overload.

He meant to say 'in his opinion'