Here comes Tiger. Just when you thought you could stick a fork in Tiger after posting a +18 in Akron last week he is back on the prowl. That’s golf one minute you are extremely humbled and well the next week if you’re Tiger Woods you always have a shot and at 5 strokes behind the leader Matt Kuchar after two completed rounds at Whistling Straights he is well within striking distance.
Tiger is tied for 21st place; Twenty golfers between him and the 15th major of his career. The key is five strokes as 17 of the twenty golfers ahead of him have never posted a win at one of the majors. Saturday’s and Sunday’s the course begins to play tougher and nowhere is it tougher than this week at Whistling Straights as the winds start to pick up howling off Lake Michigan and the rains have subsided allowing for the course to harden and the ball is not sticking into the green but rolling off the back and who better to face these conditions than the most mentally hardened golfer on the face of the earth, Tiger Woods. Five strokes is nothing as shooting par in round three will probably cut half of the field out on Saturday in Tiger’s pursuit of the final pairing for Sunday.
Right now the 13-1 bet on Tiger Woods, the highest odds for Tiger in a major since he was in his teens is looking very solid. After all he got all of his bad shots out of his system in Akron last week. Also once Tiger was out of contention last week at Firestone Country Club his playing partner on Sunday Anthony Kim defended Tiger’s ballooning Sunday score as many spectators assumed Tiger was mailing it in and giving up. Not at all this is Tiger Woods, world’s greatest golfer. Tiger was testing out the arsenal of shots he has in his bag. He wasn’t thinking about Firestone or its 18th hole monster. Only thing on Tiger’s mind was this week and the man’s game is put together to win majors, not rubber tire sponsorships. If you noticed Tiger’s ballooned scores were more a product of lack of concentration on the greens last week than the shots he took envisioning what he would need to do this week.
Tiger is right where he wants to be. When has Tiger ever taken a lot of chances in rounds one or two? So far 75% of his scores have been par; only 4 bogeys and 7 birdies. Two of the bogeys were on his first seven holes of the tournament. Since then he has played five under. So he is gaining momentum. Tiger knows that most players will shoot themselves out of the majors with the tighter fairways, longer roughs and harder, faster greens. Your Firestone Country Club games does not equate to what Major planners have in mind as the game is so much different.
If all goes according to plan for Tiger who reads like a book in majors with his course management he will take his chances today but he will take the most calculated chances. He will rely on some of those shots he tested at Firestone last week and apply them to Whistling Straights. Of the 20 players ahead of Tiger half of them will shoot themselves off the leader board due to major inexperience. The leader Kuchar who has been brilliant so far with a 67 and 69 in the first two rounds will start to feel the pressure of being a leader at a major and play tighter today and be lucky to score an even par 71 bringing him back to the pack if not relinquishing his lead. Kuchar has played in 20 majors and missed the cut 13 times with his best finish a 6th and this year’s US Open. Back one stroke is Nick Watney who is more formidable with two top ten finishes in the major this year at the Masters and British Open’s with 7th place finishes. Both players will be facing the toughest conditions of the tournament in the last group of the day on Saturday. By the end of the day looking at the leader board only Jim Furyk might be far enough ahead of Tiger as he is currently 3 strokes ahead of Tiger and does have the experience of winning a major to deal with the tough afternoon conditions and post a score that could stretch the lead on Tiger.
By tomorrow I expect Tiger will be in one of the final 5 groups of the day. It’s tough to make predictions in golf because of the changes in weather can severely alter the outcome of a tournament but no other player is more equipped to deal with adverse conditions than Tiger Woods and with only 5 strokes separating him at the half way point of the year’s final major he is a probably the most serious threat on the board and at 13-1 the best bet to win this year’s PGA. This will make Corey Pavin's decision to put Tiger on the Ryder Cup team all the easier and save face for Jim Gray.
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