Eye on the Tiger
This is great! Now that Tiger Woods has another win under his belt, everyone has restored confidence in him.
Now for the scary part. Woods has his mojo back. All of it and more. I'm talking about his big stick -- the driver. It was his most fearsome weapon ever since he burst into professional golf. He simply overpowered Augusta National with his length to win his first Masters back in 1997 (much the same way Jack Nicklaus did in the first half of his career). He refined the rest of his game as time passed and basically demoralized the world's finest golfers for a couple of years because he was not only blasting it 30, 40 and sometimes even more yards off the tee, he worked until he was one of the best chippers, bunker players and putters on tour. That's how he won the Tiger Slam -- those four consecutive major championships -- and became only the player worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as Nicklaus.
Yep. We're talking about the same Tiger that didn't look so scary just a few months back. The one all of the talking heads said was not so unbeatable after all.
During his slump in 2003 and 2004, part of the problem was that Woods was no longer among the game's biggest hitters. He stubbornly stuck to his old-technology clubs -- a 43.5-inch driver with a steel shaft and a small head, and a normal ball. He disdained the newest gear and why not? The old stuff won the Grand Slam. But as Woods's game began to slip shortly after he parted ways with instructor Butch Harmon in mid-2002, his problems were compounded by the fact that he was driving it crooked and not as long as other players.
Well, it appears he's made a believer out of them.
That makes this next prediction easier than selling Paris Hilton a $2,000 handbag: Woods is poised to dominate again next year. And by that, I mean, pretty much the way he dominated in 2000 and '01. Look, he went into this year with serious swing issues, changed his swing and still won five times, including two majors, and reasserted total control of the No. 1 spot in the world rankings.
Methinks he's definitely in the same category as Nicklaus, and I believe we'll see the day that his accomplishments on the course pale in comparison to Tiger's.
