What a thrill to watch old Tiger
Sunday’s riveting show in Scotland did nothing to change our instinct here: Tiger Woods will win again on the PGA Tour, but he won’t win another major championship.
Too many good players, too many punishing courses, too many chances for this version of Woods to make the types of costly mistakes he made on the back nine at Carnoustie.
Still, the more salient point: Sports is about entertainment, and Woods planting himself in contention at a major — the British Open, golf ’s most historic tournament — was wildly, relentlessly, refreshingly entertaining.
We’ll take more of that, absolutely.
Television viewers soaked it up. Sunday’s final round on NBC earned a 5.0 overnight rating, tied for the highestrated Open final round since Woods completed the career Grand Slam at St. Andrews in 2000. NBC’s ratings for the week climbed 38 percent compared with last year, when Jordan Spieth won.
Woods remains the king of golf on TV.
He’s not the king of golf anymore — no wins in five years, no major titles in 10 — but his name on the leaderboard still awakens echoes of past glory. Spieth, who started play Sunday tied for the lead, accidentally glanced at the board at one point and noticed Woods alone at the top.
Spieth muttered in frustration at first, but he later acknowledged grappling with Woods at a major is “what you dream about.”
This made the Open’s home stretch even more compelling. A cast of disparate characters joined Woods in the fray, from young major champs Spieth and Rory McIlroy to rising star Xander Schauffele, old hand Justin Rose and eventual winner Francesco Molinari.
They offered a mix of familiarity and freshness, and Woods provided a layer of gravity and electricity.
“It was great just to be part of it and hear the roars (with) Tiger back in the mix, everything,” McIlroy told reporters afterward. He continued, “For a while, I thought Tiger was going to win. My mind-set was to go spoil the party. It was really cool.”
Woods’ latest comeback clearly differs from his previous attempts to shed lingering back issues. He has four topsix finishes in 12 starts this season, after collecting one top-10 in 11 starts in 2015 and making only one start in 2016 and ’17 combined.
His performance this year reminds us of his transcendent skills on the course.
Sunday’s showing also illustrated the ever-so-thin margin for error at major championships. In his prime, Woods played shrewdly and cautiously in majors, winning as much by avoiding mistakes as by hitting mind-blowing shots.
So it was striking to see him unravel on No. 11, one hole after he pulled off a difficult shot from a fairway bunker. This time, Woods’ greenside flop shot seemed risky and foolish — and it led to double bogey, knocking him out of the lead.
As NBC analyst Johnny Miller perceptively put it, “Golf seduces you into trying things you have no business trying.” This is the new version of Tiger at age 42, still capable of crazy-good rounds but also prone to missteps he once avoided.
That’s why it’s pointless to debate whether Woods is “back.” He won’t ever return to the Tiger of 1999-2002 or 200508, when he stockpiled majors at a preposterous rate. That’s not realistic.
But what he has done this year is remarkable in its own way, returning from four back surgeries to challenge for the Claret Jug. He’ll probably put himself in contention again at a major, maybe even in June in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
It’s fair to remain skeptical he will pocket No. 15, but it’s also invigorating to watch him try. U.S. Amateur on tap: Before America’s national championship returns to Pebble in less than 11 months, America’s oldest championship returns there in less than three weeks.
The U.S. Amateur will be held Aug. 13-19, with stroke play at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill and then match play at Pebble. It’s quite the endurance test, with a field of 312 players narrowing to 64 for match play; the champion must win six times to earn the Havemeyer Trophy.
That storied piece of hardware includes the name of every winner dating to 1895, a snapshot of golf history — from Bobby Jones to Francis Ouimet, Lawson Little to Harvie Ward, Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson to Woods.
Nicklaus won one of his two Amateur titles at Pebble Beach in 1961. He dominated, taking his semifinal match 9 and 8 and the final 8 and 6. Kidd chases birdies: An Oakland company, 18Birdies, landed a notable investor recently: native son Jason Kidd, who will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in September.
Kidd learned about 18Birdies when he played with founder/CEO Eddy Lau during last year’s celebrity-amateur event before the American Century Championship near South Lake Tahoe. The company created a smartphone app that tracks scores and stats and connects golfers with friends, among other features.
As for his game, Kidd, a 7-handicap who lives in Arizona, said during a visit to the Bay Area this month, “The course has won a lot. It has a great record against me.”