Stop panicking about Tiger Woods losing!
Posted by squingy on August 18, 2009
You may find this surprising because I don’t pander to the big name sports stars (i.e. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tom Brady, etc.), but I like Tiger Woods. I am impressed that he continues to work to get better even when he is golf’s #1 player and I like that he minds his own business. You see him on CBS on Saturday and Sunday performing at the highest level possible, and then you don’t hear anything from or about him for until next week. When he’s on, I really enjoy watching him play golf.
That said, watching Tiger play yesterday was excruciating. He just wasn’t himself and nothing he did on the course really worked. He had little success in hitting draws and fades, his approach shots were off, and he missed several putts that he should have hit. It was frustrating to watch everything go awry.
But you know what’s more excruciating? Having to listen to all the sports people speculate about whether Tiger is declining. While watching ESPN today, one could have gotten the idea that Tiger blew a ten shot lead on the last hole. Now people are asking, “Did Tiger Woods choke? Is he really the best golfer?” Look, the man is now 15 for 16 in tournaments he’s led after 54 holes. 15 for 16, and people are calling his whole career into question. Everyone made a big deal about him being 15 for 15 with tournament leads after the 3rd round and discounted everyone who might be paired with him on the final day. Then he loses and it’s the end of the world. Except it really isn’t the end of the world.
All this panic seems a little bit excessive to me, especially when considering that Tiger didn’t exactly give that tournament away. Y.E. Yang played a really good tournament and did what he had to do in the final round to win. He drove the ball well, he hit good approaches, and he hit his putts. It’s not exactly like he was a duffer hacking his way through 18 holes and Tiger gave him the win. He played a good round and Tiger didn’t. Why should I be panicking that Tiger got beat by someone who played a better round than him ON ONE OCCASION? This is ONE TIME that he’s lost in the final round, compared to 15 times that he hasn’t. Seriously, what’s the big deal?
