OT; Will tiger ever win another major?
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Tiger has one shot of ever being really good again. It comes from old "advice" given by many golf teachers to students who overthink the swing: "Shut up and hit the fucking ball."
This is why Butch Harmon is such a good golf coach. I've been reading a bunch of Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, etc the past 5 years and pretty much everybody is in agreement that Harmon's "methods" basically involve taking your natural swings and then tweaking it. Contrast that to Sean Foley and others who want to completely remake your swing in their mold of what a good golf swing should look like. I've read and listened to lots of interviews that what Butch did with Tiger was just to take his God given talent and refine it a little, take the hitches out, etc. It's when Tiger started getting too smart for his own good and started believing in every new technique / training regimine / psuedo-scientific advance that his and Harmon's relationship fell out.
I personally think there's a huge hubris factor as well-- he never recovered from the divorce / scandal psychologically and his continued internal denial that he really didn't do anything wrong has rotted his karma to the core. He needs a full on Hollywood movie like bottoming out / reawakening of himself to really recapture his natural talent. He is the real life Roy Hobbs. I'm only disappointed that I think he's going to find that around age 50, and he'll put together one Nicklaus in '86 like tournament, but it'll be too late to really challenge Jack's record.
For the amateur golfers out there, this relates to you in the best possible way. If you want to really improve your golf game, find a coach that doesn't say he has to remake your swing. Most times, golfers can get improvement to the point where they'e shooting below bogey golf (breaking 90, threatening 80 which means at that pointyou can play pretty much any course and have fun) just by tweaking your natural motion. A coach that's willing to work with you instead of remake you in his image is more invested in your improvement than building his own ego.
that a lot of his swing "tweaks" over the last 5 years were to protect his right knee. I think that is the reason he started trying to play that fade off the tee, his knee could not take the impact of really driving into the ball. He is caught between two entirely different swings right now. He is getting way out ahead and the club cannot catch up. If is notable that he is still hitting the ball a ton so there is golf still in that body.
I think his swing changes the last 5 years were an *attempt* to protect his right knee without actually doing anything to protect it, and subsequently putting more stress on his back which is manifesting itself now. I think Foley was a huge mistake, and his current "coach" is more of a yes man than anything else. I really believe if he went back to Harmon honestly and not because he thought it was the right PR move, Harmon could help him get back to a natural motion that fits with his body-- that's always the least stressful swing is letting your body tell you what it can do instead of forcing your limbs to do something their not naturally inclined to do. Now what that may look like at the end of the day is a Tiger who will not be able to drive 300+ yds with ultra stiff shaft steel irons, and that may not fit the persona of what Tiger wants to be-- the ultimate golf alpha dog-- but as is pointed out below, the delta in swing yardage is so small nowadays relatively, it's more important to play target golf and be solid around the greens and putting. With Tiger's natural talent, I still think he could be today a Nick Faldo in his prime type of player, but I don't think his ego will allow it.
he will win a British (Open Championship) on a shortish course where he can tee off with iron for a lot of the day.. I would say that this year at St. Andews would be ideal if he was not such a mess right now. Tiger will have a final triumph. He won't sniff Jack's record though.
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Honestly, I don't think he will ever win another tournament. Most striking right now is his attitude. Before this year you would never see Tiger shoot an 80, but if you did you would absolutely have never seen him laughing on 18 about it. He barely stopped walking to hit that last bunker shot (the one after he almost wiffed a 3 wood). It looks like me when I'm playing badly; he doesn't care any more.
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his ability to laugh at his own failures on the golf course is a step closer to success for Tiger as opposed to a step back. His ability to just let go and play the hand that he is dealt on any given day is a step he has to take.
Golf is a very cruel game. It will kick your ass sometimes and there is nothing you can do about it. There is no mercy to be found when you don't have your game and you are not in the right place mentally. Success in golf is fleeting and transient, stretches of good and bad play can come about for no obvious reason because much of it lies in the subconcious. Golf is a game you can only play well when it is part of a rhythm in your life that extends of this course.
If Tiger is physically OK, and it looks to me that he is, his game will return when he finds some kind of harmony off the course. In 6 years he has had two kids, a very public divorce/meltdown, significant injuries, and another (very recently) failed relationship. He is 39, he can feasibly play competitively on tour I would say until he is about 45. I think it is crazy to say that he will not win another tournament. He was the number 1 player in the world less than 2 years ago.
Yeah the wife took the golf skills with her along with half his cash during the divorce.... Either that or she beat the skills out of him with a golf club.
Since he has tried everything, but nothing is working, why not get a Perkins waitress to be his caddy. Maybe then he will have his head back in the game.
"Here's to the finely tuned athelete on the verge of greatness."
He needs some slum busters real bad.
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If he goes back to plowing the porn stars and whatnot, then he'll get that mojo back. He should've never gotten married a la Derek Jeter.
edit: He's completely lost his confidence IMO. He's not the same threatening, confident mofo that dominated golf. All the other issues, his swing etc. are a product of his confidence being murdered.
He's the Barry Bonds of golf IMO.
not a normal for golf, but it sure wouldn't surprise me. also, it seems too that since his wife wacked him a few times with the clubs and crashed his car he hasn't been worth spit.
when we used to live out west a friend of mine who was himself 1 or 2 handicap golfer went to see tiger play at torrey pines. he reported about how tiger was such an exceptionally unpleasant person and his language and club throwing would make a sailor blush. not a golfer, but i was totally unaware of that side of his game/persona. the media had so completely covered for him. i guess the wheels had to come off at some point.
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If nothing else Woods was juicing to overcome injuries and to prevent others. His violent swing always meant he would be subject to injuries most golfers couldn't fathom.
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It's similar to why McGwire took the PED's. It wasn't necessarily that he was intentionally bulking up, but with his original frame, the PED's helped him recover from injuries and build muscle mass to cover up for degredation in his tendons. I'm guessing that if its true that Tiger took PED's, it was as much to cover up for injuries as it was to build muscle mass. Although based on some of the stories I read as well, Ol' Eldrick had a mighty big chip on his shoulder that he wanted to be considered as much of an athlete as the team sports guys; "getting big" might have been the process his fulfilled that mental checkmark.
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In addition to the recovery time, the increased strength to hit out of the rough would help. It's similiar to baseball. The HGH/roids isn't going to make your swing better but instead of a deep fly ball to left center being an out, it's now a home run. In golf f you can get an extra 15-20 yds out of your swing that's huge.
Ive heard similar stories... The meltdown couldnt have happened to a more ungrateful guy.
I doubt he wins another major. His mojo is gone.
You think every athlete with above average muscle mass does steroids.
If Tiger wasn't using steroids, then Michigan didn't hire Jim Harbaugh to be it's football coach and Lance Armstrong still has his testicles. I remember back in the early 2000's conversing with a guy who said that Barry Bond's bulk was natural and he in no way was using. I just laughed at him told him he needs to get his head out of the sand and realize that pro athletes will do anything to get an advantage. Steroids is part of sports period. If you aren't taking, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage. I frankily have no problem with athletes taking roids. It should be out in the open and legal. Any athlete using has to report what they are taking and their cycle. Any athlete who falsifies or lies about their usage will be banned for life. Steroids in sports is a fact of life. We should embrace and accept it.
He needs to try to make a cut before he starts thinking about winning a tourney.
Early on he really damaged his body with his violent swing, which is why he has tinkered with his swing for the last 15 years. He was trying to find his authentic swing, a swing that wouldn't over stress his knees and back. Too late, the damage had already been done. But wait, maybe some snakeoil can make things better, and then the PGA started testing.
Now with a body wracked with injuries and contract obligations, it is little wonder that that he doesn't take the game as serious as he once did.
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Many of you make compelling points, is it PED's or lack thereof, who knows. To me it seems mental, he can't get out of his own head right now to see things more clearly.
He's only 39, he still has the better part of a decade to do some things, maybe he never will do anything more than win a few PGA events, I think he still has a chance to win a few majors or at least be competitive in quite a few more.
Time heals all, he was # 1 just 2 years ago right?
It's pretty sad.
He'll win a couple more tourneys maybe another major or two, but Jack's record is looking more and more safe.
I've always maintained that he would just all of the sudden sort of find it. Days like today shrink that confidence. Supposedly he has amazing range sessions but it's still not translating to the course at all. A sports psychologist would really do him wonders because I think every problem he has is upstairs.
to play competitively more than he does. You can hit golf balls until your hands bleed on the range but it does not simulate playing the game. If he wants to win again he should be playing every week. You know the tournaments where it is like "The Kraft Fat Free Ranch Invitational" and the leaderboard consists of J.B. Holmes and Retief Goosen. He should be playing in all of those tournaments if his health allows. I think playing is the only way he really gets out of this.