Posts tagged TigerWoods at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

I mentioned earlier that Phil Mickelson could, at some point in the future, play the European and PGA Tours as a full-time member of both. Adam Scott and Ernie Els currently do it, although I think any such move would pretty much signal Mickelson has given up any (already remote) shot of catching Tiger Woods.

John Daly, presumably, has less lofty goals than becoming the world's best golfer. For starters, he'd probably like to earn his PGA Tour card. Or maybe not:

Daly, who is without a Tour card in the USA but has a two-year exemption for the European Tour, added: "I would not rule out playing a full season in Europe because there is just so many courses on the PGA Tour where you can't hit driver like you can in Europe."

Ah, yes, because Daly has been crippled by the unfair course set-ups in the U.S. And all this time I thought it had to do with Daly's unwillingness to commit to not sucking. Butch Harmon will no doubt be shocked to hear that it had more to do with the width of the fairways on the PGA Tour than the proximity of Hooters to PGA-sanctioned events.

Seriously, Europe might be a good option for Daly. He seems to play well there, and maybe it'll give him a chance to regain his confidence. Plus, Wednesday Pro-Ams are shirts optional.

At first glance, this seems like a horrible idea, but after some thought, it makes a lot of sense: Phil Mickelson, who will never be anything more than the world's second-best player, is contemplating teeing it up on the European Tour at some point in the future.

"Phil is not considering joining the European Tour at this time, but it is an option in the future, given the global nature of professional golf," [manager Steve] Loy] said on Monday.

If Mickelson had any thoughts of wresting away the No. 1 spot from Tiger Woods, logic suggests that he'd primarily compete stateside and save himself the fatigue that goes along with frequent overseas travel. But if Mickelson -- along with the rest of us -- is willing to admit that he has no shot of supplanting Woods (not without the help of Woods' knee, anyway), he might as well get while the getting's good. Plus, unlike the PGA Tour, overseas events offer appearance fees, and for someone of Mickelson's stature, that can end up being a lot of dough.

But given that Mickelson is already set for life, money probably isn't the driving factor here; he has a sponsorship deal with Barclays Bank, the naming rights sponsor for the Scottish and Singapore Opens. And Lefty has also spoken about golf's global future, which might have something to do with his eventual plans to play more international events.

Or maybe he just wants to be No. 1 at something. Definitely one or the other.

Tiger Woods had knee surgery two days after The Masters, and things are progressing so well that the galaxy's best golfer is planning to return to tournament golf in two weeks. That would be The Memorial, Jack Nicklaus' little get-together.

There had been some speculation that Woods wouldn't return until the U.S. Open, scheduled for mid-June, but maybe watching Sergio Garcia win The Players offered a little extra motivation. Or not. During the awards ceremony, Garcia jokingly thanked Woods for not showing up, and Eldrick admitted that he thought Sergio "was just poking fun."

In any event, this is Woods' third surgery on the knee, and that has a lot to do with the swing tweaks over the years:

"That's one of the reasons why I've made changes in my swing over the years, to alleviate the stress I put on my legs," Woods said. "It has gotten better and hopefully it will continue to get better."

It'll be interesting to see the shape of Woods' game when he returns. He says he hasn't progressed past putting and chipping in the days since losing the crutches, and with just two weeks until The Memorial -- probably the next "major" after The Players -- there will be plenty of questions.

Of course, I don't think it would shock anyone if he showed up and posted a 65; at this point, it's almost expected. If he falters, well, he's got a built-in excuse: bum wheels. Which makes me think Phil Mickelson should have surgery.

Sergio Garcia is much more likable when he wins. Last summer, he blamed everybody but himself for the British Open implosion, and he's had a history of being particularly whiny about his golf game. No such problem yesterday.

Garcia made possibly the biggest putt of his non-Ryder Cup career, when he drained a seven-footer for par on the 72nd hole. He joined journeyman Paul Goydos in a playoff, and Garcia promptly stiffed his tee shot on the first hole (the "gimmicky" 17th; apparently, Ernie Els hadn't got around to blowing it up), while Goydos found the water.

So nine years after Garcia was thrust upon us at the 1999 PGA Championship, he finally gets around to winning his first major. Sure, it's not an official major, but most people consider The Players Championship the "fifth major." I'm counting it, and I'm guessing Sergio is too.

During the awards ceremony, Garcia even found a sense of humor. As Bob Costas interviewed him about "what this victory means, blah, blah, blah," Garcia prefaced his response with an acknowledgment most tournament champions must have go through their head at some point (around the :35-second mark): "First of all, I want to thank Tiger for not being here."

Kind of a cool moment, but I have this vision of Woods walking past his 60-inch plasma television, catching Garcia's half-joke, and thinking, "yep, I've still got these guys right where I want them."

Tiger Woods called the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass "gimmicky" last year, and with him on the DL for another few weeks, others have stepped up the criticism of the course -- and the hole in particular -- in his absence.

Ernie Els, who, despite winning earlier this year, is still searching for his game, piped up earlier this week after carding a tidy triple-bogey 6 on the island par 3 on Thursday.

"I think they should blow it up. You can't have a major championship ..." the South African said, catching himself before he said something he might regret later.

"Everything you've worked on for 4 1/2 hours is gone in one hole. I was so angry. I felt if I got in the house at 2-under, that would have been a great score."

It's easy to point out that the spacious green in question is less than 150 yards from the tee box, and he is, you know, a professional. Of course, the green has two levels, and the wind can make it almost impossible to zero in on a yardage, which probably has a lot to do with Els' grousing.

To his credit, Els managed to finish the round with all 14 clubs. Charley Hoffman, one day later, did not. Hoffman was putting for bogey on No. 13, already 7-over, and promptly missed the two-footer. After calmly tapping in for double, he calmly fired his putter in the drink. And for five holes, he used his sand wedge and rescue club as his emergency putter. At least he had a plan.

Hat tip: Waggle Room

Tiger Woods is currently peg-legging it around Orlando, recovering from knee surgery that obviously had everything to do with him not winning The Masters. Between grueling afternoons lounging by the pool staring at his wife, and spending some QT with his daughter, Eldrick took time out of his busy rehab schedule to talk to FOX Sports Radio's Steve Czaban last week.

After some friendly banter, Czaban asked Woods why he hates Phil Mickelson.* And then the conversation turned to the network's golf coverage:

Czaban: "Do you TiVo tournaments you're in, then go back and look at them afterward, maybe take notes, notice something, listen to what the announcers are saying?"

Said Woods: "I usually have my secretary get a copy of the telecasts from the PGA Tour and I'll take a look at it just from the swing standpoint, yeah."

Czaban: "Just the swing, though. You really won't sit down and . . . "

Woods: "Listen to the commentators? No, never."

Last August, Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship for major victory No. 13. Something interesting happened on the way to the clubhouse though, something that might explain his current stint on the DL. Here's what I wrote at the time:

"[The win] seemed a formality after a [Woods] birdie on the 8th. But Eldrick looked like he tweaked his left knee after an uncharacteristic fist pump (see the action shots here) -- he hasn't really executed a full fist pump in some time, and instead, usually goes with the half-hearted wave to the gallery as he retrieves his ball out of the cup (or an awkward high-five with caddie Stevie Williams).

In fact, after the right hook (his go-to fist pump is an uppercut), Tiger was noticeably limping as he walked toward the hole [to retrieve his ball], and the next five holes were a struggle."

And today, GolfDigest's Tim Rosaforte offers this:

I'm guessing Sky Sports' Tony Wrighton laughed his ass off when he heard that two days after his second-place Masters finish, Tiger Woods went under the knife:

Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee for the second time in five years and will miss at least four weeks while he recovers. ... "He's been having a lot of trouble," swing coach Hank Haney said. "He doesn't talk about stuff like that. He doesn't want to use excuses, you know? I don't think it affected his play. It affected his practice a little bit."

During his 12-year professional career, Tiger's biggest challenger has been ... his balky knee. How demoralizing must that be for the rest of the tour? Woods expects to miss a month, which means that he won't defend his title at the Wachovia Championship, and could miss the unofficial fifth major, The Players Championship.

Assuming everything goes well, Tiger hopes to return for Jack Nicklaus' tournament, the Memorial, on May 29. Which is just two weeks before the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

The bad news: that's not a lot of time to prepare for a major, particularly one that requires precision tee shots. (Especially when second shots out of shin-high rough can be taxing on recently repaired knees.) The good news: Tiger owns Torrey Pines and has cleaned up there in recent years, winning the Buick Invitational on six occasions.

In the meantime, Woods will have to sit around the house and stare at Elin for five weeks. Tough break.

Before the Masters, Tiger Woods was listed at even odds to win. Those are absolutely incredible odds -- in sporting events that involve dozens of competitors it's almost unheard of for one athlete to be considered to have a 50-50 chance of winning it.

As it turns out, he didn't win. So what has that done to his odds for the next major?

Not much. The odds at Bodog still have Woods as a substantial favorite to win the U.S. Open, although not quite at even odds. Woods is listed as a 5-4 favorite to win; next is Phil Mickelson, listed at 10-1, and no one else is at better than 20-1.

Richard Gardner, the sports book manager at Bodog, explains what the odds say about the public perceptions of Woods:

"Bodoglife.com had Tiger as a 3/2 favorite for the US Open but has already moved him to 5/4 after his loss at the Masters. We are expecting to see more action than ever on Tiger at the US Open because of his surprising Masters result. Considering his closest competitor is currently Phil Mickelson at 10-1 odds, we expect Tiger to continue his dominance over Torrey Pines and the rest of the golfing world at the US Open."

There's also the little matter of how many majors Woods will win in 2008. Before the Masters, the odds of him winning all four were 9-1. Now the odds of him winning the remaining three are 7-1.

During the third round of The Masters, I noticed that Tiger Woods' caddie, Steve Williams, wasn't wearing a hat. Not a big deal, really; plenty of golfers -- and those tasked with carrying their bags -- prefer the look, but it seemed out of place at Augusta National because, well, it's out of place at Augusta National.

[Williams] incurred the wrath of Masters officials on Saturday when he worked part of the third round without wearing the official green tournament cap. According to other caddies, Steve Williams was approached by an official on the back nine and instructed to put the cap back on, after going hatless for several holes...

Ah, yes, a tradition unlike any other. One caddie, who in no way could be jealous of Williams' good fortune, had some thoughts on the matter:

"If I've got to wear the cap, everybody's got to wear the cap," said one caddie, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Every caddie has heard about what he did and nobody approves of it. Some of these people forget they're just a caddie. "It should be an honor to come to The Masters. If you don't want to wear a hat, don't come. Believe it or not, the tournament will still go on without you."

Duly noted, anonymous angry guy.

Okay, so maybe Sunday at The Masters wasn't all that exciting. It was windy, the course was playing like the U.S. Open, and just about everybody with a remote chance to make a run at third-round leader (and eventual champion) Trevor Immelman played over-par golf.

Worst of all -- for CBS, anyway -- is that Tiger Woods was never really in danger of making a run. He started the day six strokes off the lead, and eventually lost by three shots because Immelman had a "Greg Norman" moment on the 16th.

Despite the missing "The Masters starts on the back nine on Sunday" drama, CBS' Jim Nantz did his best to beat viewers over the head with over-the-top sentimentality, and the silly Little Bill "Hello, Friends" salutations were enough to make you reconsider ESPN's decision to have Chris Berman sit this one out.

Unsurprisingly, CBS tried to manufacture some Woodsian drama yesterday, presumably because that's what most of us expected (from Woods and CBS):

Predictably, CBS focused largely on Tiger Woods on Sunday. Don't touch that remote, Ian Baker-Finch suggested, with Woods on the 12th green Sunday, because "Tiger, ominously lurking, is just five strokes behind." Like TV's treatment of Michael Jordan, Woods can always be the story.

Obviously, it didn't happen, but ESPN did great numbers with its Par-3 Contest-Thursday-Friday coverage, and according to USA Today, "CBS' third-round Masters coverage drew a 6.1 overnight rating, translating to 6.1% of households in 56 urban TV markets - equal with last year."

Pretty impressive considering that Tiger last won a green jacket in 2005. The takeaway, I suppose, is this: Woods doesn't have to win it to boost ratings, he just has to "lurk." Duly noted.

The Masters didn't go quite the way Tiger Woods was hoping, and as a result, he swore at himself. A lot. And it was audible to TV viewers. Here's an example of him calling himself, "dumb a--":

Woods also dropped a loud F-bomb that got on TV today when he hit an errant tee shot. He's been doing a lot of that the last four days, and it's been interesting the way he swears at himself, even addressing himself by name when he does it.

I'm personally not the least bit offended by the occasional bad word coming out of the mouth of the occasional golfer, but I am offended by the way people around golf in general and Augusta National in particular try to hold themselves up as somehow morally superior to the rest of the sports world. The truth is, these guys are just pro athletes engaged in competition, and sometimes pro athletes engaged in competition let loose with the profanity.

Previously on FanHouse:
Is Tiger Woods the PGA's Most-Fined Golfer?
Tiger Woods Will Break Your Neck If You Snap a Photo in His Backswing
CBS Broadcasts Audible F-Word From Genteel Augusta
Vijay Singh Was More Profane Than Stuart Appleby

When Tiger Woods made the turn at even par, 5-under for the tournament, I wondered if 8-under would be enough to challenge the seemingly unshakable Trevor Immelman, 11-under at the time.

Turns out, 8-under would've put Eldrick in a playoff with Immelman, who had all four wheels come off at the par-3 16th. Looking a lot like Greg Norman in 1996, Immelman dumped his tee shot into the pond fronting the green and made double-bogey. What looked like an insurmountable six-shot lead was suddenly reduced to three when Woods, after missing just about every putt he looked at all week, drained an eight-footer on the18th.

Immelman limped through 17, saving par on a nice up-and-down from the bunker. He then striped his tee shot on the 18th -- and let out a visible sigh, as if to say, "I think I've endured the worst of it" -- only to reach his ball and find it sitting in divot. No worries, however; Immelman mustered the focus for one more shot, stiffing his approach to some 10 feet. Two putts later, you got your 2008 Masters champion.

An hour ago, I was all set to write that the old sports saying about winning everywhere but on the scoreboard didn't apply this week given Immelman's dominant performance. I suppose it still applies, even if the 72nd Masters champ was only dominant through 69 holes. It turned out to be more than enough.

And with that, folks, we have our first "Tiger roar" of the day. After an uninspired opening nine to start Sunday's round, and a bogey on No. 10, Tiger Woods, following a ho-hum second shot to the 505-yard, par-4 11, rolled in an 80-footer for birdie. Looked pretty effortless, actually.

For somebody who, in the words of David Feherty, has all the money in the world but can't buy a putt this week, that was impressive. No. 11 is one of the toughest holes on the course and the start of Amen Corner, and if Woods can get through this three-hole stretch at 2-under, it could be on.

Behind him, Brandt Snedeker (or, as Brandel Chamblee's son calls him, "Brandon Sneakers") is unofficially out of it (he went out in 39 and is currently just one up on Woods), and Immelman has been inconsistent after blowing a relatively easy birdie chance on No. 7.

There's a possibility Woods is 7-under as he walks to the 16th tee, and 17th is passably birdiable. Will 8-under be enough, though? I"m still not convinced.

Tiger Woods is some two hours into Sunday's round, and as he heads to the back nine, he finds himself six shots off the lead. Eldrick stumbled his way to even par on the first nine holes, and at 5-under, he's still looking up at Trevor Immelman and Brandt Snedeker, today's final pair.

After a rocky start to his Sunday round, Immelman recovered nicely, although he yipped a great birdie chance on No. 7. Still, with Snedeker at 2-over today, Immelman just needs to par out, and put pressure on the handful of players with a sliver of a chance to make a run.

As for Woods, his week can be summarized in two words: unlucky and frustrating. Of course, this applies to virtually everybody in the field, but most fans don't care why Stephen Ames finished the weekend at 8-over.

That said, when you're talking about the world No. 1 there's always a chance. Or that's the perception, anyway. I guess, but all nine more holes of even par guarantees is that the Grand Slam talk will be over after the first major.

On the other hand, if Woods is going to make a move, it'll probably take a 4-under effort coming in. Given the conditions and the way he's played this week, I don't see it happening.

Plus, Immelman, who hasn't even thought about cracking a smile all week, is currently the best golfer on the course.