Tiger, a lot like Jack

U.S. Open
Oakmont Country Club
Oakmont, Pennsylvania
June 14-17, 2007
Defending Champion: Geoff Ogilvy

Everyone remembers Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships and Tiger Wood’s relentless pursuit to break it. After watching Tiger move up on the leader board only to come up short to finish second, like he also did at the Masters I quickly remembered how Nicklaus finished runner up 19 times, also a record. To match Jack, Tiger has a lot of disappointment to experience before eventually surpassing him as best of all time. What I clearly noticed at this year’s first two majors is how similar these two champions are in their mental approach to preparing for majors.

At major tournaments with the toughest playing conditions, Nicklaus always felt like he had an immediate edge. His reasoning was simple; most of the field eliminated themselves. Look at the scores at Oakmont this year, Winged Foot last year and US Opens since the mid 1960’s and you’ll see very similar results. With rare exception, the winning scores are near or over par, but a closer look at the entire field shows many top players posting embarrassing rounds in the high 70’s or 80’s. Finishing scores of +20 or higher are very common.

Tiger, like Jack has the knack to hang in there, grind it out and minimize the damage until there’s only a few players left standing to beat. Even when he’s way down the leader board after rounds one and two, Tiger almost always seems to get himself back into contention, heading toward the top on Sunday. I would have given great odds that he would come back to win during the final round at Oakmont.

The conditions played into Tiger’s favor but at the end the one stroke margin of victory came from the same place it usually does at the pro level, on the greens. The winning edge came from Angel Cabrera’s ability to make birdies when he had the chances verses Tiger Wood’s inability to do the same. At the end it wasn’t how many fairways, or 395 yard bombs off the tee, or greens in regulation as it was getting the ball to drop into the 4 ¼ inch cup at the right time.For those who don’t think golf is a real sport, wake up. Golf is great theatre!