OT - Tiger Woods returns to competitive golf this week

Submitted by trueblue262 on

Figured the board could use a little "mix up" on topics, and I feel this is one of the most interesting topics in the sports world. For somebody that dominated for so long, and now he "hopes to get back into the top 1000 in world rankings" Crazy! I must be honest.......my folowing of the PGA has gone about parrallel to Tigers game. I have always rooted for him to succeed, and I will be this weekend as well.

 

   http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/ct-tiger-woods-greenste…             

 

I Love Lamp

November 29th, 2016 at 1:37 PM ^

Tiger returns to the DL In all seriousness, he has been bitten quite hard by the injury bug. Would be nice to see him get back to even 80% of his former self. He was always a blast to watch.

ijohnb

November 29th, 2016 at 2:39 PM ^

don't think you have been paying attention.  By his very own work ethic and athleticism, Tiger revolutionized the game.  McElroy, Stenson, Speight, Johnson, these guys come up modeling their approach to the game after Tiger, and they are prodigously talented.  Unfortunately for Tiger, he is coming back to a field stacked with Tiger T-1000 Models.

In reply to by ijohnb

trueblue262

November 29th, 2016 at 2:56 PM ^

Only Jordan Speith (I'm assuming you meant Speith anyway) can even begin to sniff the dominance that Tiger had. Tiger and Phil had a bunch of these in Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Sergio, Retief Goosen.......Don't think for a second that Tiger showed up to these tournaments and had no competition. 

The field has elevated their game, but a lot of that is because of the fact that Tiger was down & out.........Think of MSU in recent years and how their success was because Michigan was down. 

TJFB

November 29th, 2016 at 3:12 PM ^

There's no question that none of the players he listed have achieved the level of dominance seen by early 2000s Tiger. I don't know if we'll see that level of dominance again in our lives. His point, which I tend to agree with and which Tiger himself has stated, is that the field has caught up. I have a hard time believing that anything less than a 100% Tiger Woods is going to win tournaments in today's PGA tour but how will we ever be able to judge that? We can't unless he goes out and proves me wrong by winning in way we haven't seen in about 10 years.

trueblue262

November 29th, 2016 at 3:54 PM ^

where I said "The field has upped their game"

They upped their game in the early 2000's too, but because of the play of Tiger, it wasn't as pronounced. Tiger is a once in a lifetime athlete, and like an ealier poster pointed out. He won 5 tournaments just 3 years ago. For any other golfer on tour, that would be a career year

TJFB

November 29th, 2016 at 4:42 PM ^

You did say that the field upped their game but it was in the context of "dominance" and you correlated it to MSU football. I dont really understand how Tiger being injured results in a larger and deeper talent pool on tour, and I thought you were simply focusing on tour wins as the only metric for quality of play.

bsand2053

November 29th, 2016 at 1:41 PM ^

I wouldn't be shocked to see him do well again.  I know he's not going back to the old Tiger Slam days, but someone that competetive and talented could very well be able to make some noise.  Hopefully his body doesn't betray him.

Gucci Mane

November 29th, 2016 at 1:42 PM ^

Never forget what the refs did to Michigan this past Saturday ! They screwed Michigan repeatedly all game long. The worst part is the big ten allowed 3 highly questionable refs to officiate the game. Don't let this go untill after we secure our rightful spot in the playoffs. I did my part; I called national CBS radio today to spread awareness of this noble cause (serious).

mGrowOld

November 29th, 2016 at 2:07 PM ^

Brian never said we couldnt talk about it - he said we couldnt make any new threads about it.  So wouldnt it be a gosh-darn shame if one of the many all-important pos-bang or what ya drinking threads morphed into a "never forget" thread instead?

Be a damn, damn shame that would.  All that important pos-banging and drinking discussion taken over by a bunch of whiny cry-babies like us who wont just forget about the game being stolen from us like the powers that be have mandated?

mGrowOld

November 29th, 2016 at 1:44 PM ^

Yes - Tiger has most definitely had a string of bad luck in that department.  Just like:

 

Tony Mandarich

Roger Clemmons

Barry Bonds

Alex Rodriguez

Lyle Alzado

Manny Ramirez

Mark McGwire

Sammy Sosa

And countless Olympic athletes bitten by that same darn string of unexplained misfortune in the injury department.  What rotten luck he's had.

Thoughts and prayers Tiger. Thoughts and prayers.

 

jmdblue

November 29th, 2016 at 2:48 PM ^

He certainly lost much of his reputation due to conjecture.  I'd say the same for the list you've provided, but there ain't much conjecture to be found in there.  Too bad.... Clemens, Bonds and ARod would likely have put up Hall-worthy numbers when clean (just not record book changing numbers).

ijohnb

November 29th, 2016 at 2:54 PM ^

think he was on steroids but not for golf.  About ten years ago Tiger started legitimately training with Navy Seals and obsessively working out.  He abused his body and was likely doping but none of that stuff would help him play better golf and would in fact work against him.  (And in fact did, he never really played good golf after he bulked up and went all Navy Seal).

ijohnb

November 29th, 2016 at 2:50 PM ^

was Tiger but I don't think it is legit.  Tiger was getting cozy with young Ms. Gretzky after the Ryder Cup also but that didn't appear to be anything more than Tiger just standing there while a young blonde swooned over him.