Tiger needs win to show ‘he’s back’
Sometimes, the wrong guy wins a major golf tournament — even when the fellow holding the trophy and posing for pictures has the best overall score.
Exhibit A remains Jack Fleck over Ben Hogan in the 1955 U.S. Open. Fleck, an obscure pro from Iowa, caught Hogan, then the best player in the world and seeking a record fifth Open title, late in regulation and prevailed in a Monday playoff at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Fleshing out the story, Fleck was using Hogan-made clubs. Not that it brought him much happiness; the golfer spent his later years in Arkansas, contending that his name on the U.S. Open championship trophy was not there by mistake.
Likewise, the 147th British Open, which ended Sunday, may be remembered less for Francesco Molinari winning as for Tiger Woods not winning.
Not many sixth-place finishers upstage a major-tournament champion, but even fewer players in their 40s and with a history of back problems are in the hunt in the final round of a major. For a few moments at old Carnoustie in Scotland, where as in Opens past the world’s best golfers played into a wind tunnel, Woods had everything on his plate:
• A 15th major title would still leave him three behind Jack Nicklaus’ record total, but it would have been his first since the 2008 U.S. Open.
• The win would have been a Sinatra-like comeback as king of the mountain in a sport he once played as well as anyone not named Nicklaus.
• It would have been an implausible recovery from back problems that would have wrecked anyone else’s career.
• Woods would have received a newfound or recaptured respect from anyone who cheers for an underdog, even if his personal life went off the tracks.
Certain media members covering the Carnoustie Open became virtual cheerleaders for Woods. Speaking for my brethren, we’re all after the best story, and what could be better than Tiger Woods, at 42, reclaiming past glories.
Wearing a red shirt and a Nike cap, symbols of old, Tiger grabbed the outright lead for a spell on Sunday. And everyone on press row could foresee a Pulitzer Prize if that storyline played out.
It proved too good to be true. Woods, unlike Tom Watson against Stewart Cink on another sentimental Open Sunday, didn’t give this one away. Someone else played better.
Tiger wasn’t even low American, finishing one stroke behind fellow Yanks Kevin Kisner and Xander Schauffele at
5-under 279. Except for a thirdround 66 that gave him a late tee time Sunday, Woods stood close to, but not exactly on the dance floor with, three rounds of 71. Winner Molinari and corunners-up Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Kisner and Schauffele each had two rounds in the 60s. Woods had too many players to catch and not enough birdies.
But for someone whose comeback chances once looked as remote as Richard Nixon’s politically, Woods outplayed several American golfers currently identifiable by first names. Three shots behind the winner, another major top-10 finish in the books, Woods came closer to holding the Claret Jug than Jordan or Rickie or Phil or a bunch of others.
The temptation is to say Woods is all the way back. ESPN headlined Ian O’Connor’s online report from Carnoustie as “a major loss for Tiger that will lead to a major win.”
If not in next month’s PGA Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis, the Woods bandwagon figures to get dangerously overcrowded next year when two majors, the Masters at Augusta National and the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, are played on courses that Tiger
conquered at his 2000 peak.
But for the here and now? “Get back with me on that,” says a Little Rock man who writes knowledgeably about the sport and wonders if Tiger’s day hasn’t passed.
It bears repeating that the current young Turks of golf — McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson to name a few — were not around when Woods bestrode the golfing universe. They might be respectful of Woods, both for his ongoing comeback and for what he has contributed to golf, but are hardly intimidated.
“I mean, not the Tiger that, you know, Phil (Mickelson) and Ernie (Els) and those guys had to deal with. It’s a different version,” McIlroy said in rebuttal to the “he’s back” crowd. “But he’s right there … he’s getting himself in the mix. … He’s healthy. I wouldn’t say we’re worried about him, but he’s one of those guys that’s always in with a shot.”
“‘I wouldn’t say we’re worried about him,’” wrote ESPN’s O’Connor. “Someone might want to tape that quote to Tiger’s fridge.”
Someone like Woods who defined his career by winning major championships cannot settle for a lower standard. Joe DiMaggio quit playing baseball, he said, “because I can’t be Joe DiMaggio any longer.” Not that it will never happen, but Tiger Woods won’t be all the way back until he wins, holding the championship trophy and posing for pictures while everyone on press row dreams of a Pulitzer.