Lip Service Killed Tiger’s Streak

It’s Master’s Week, the unofficial beginning of spring and start of the golf season for me. I’m tuning into ESPN and just saw Paul Azinger make a hole-in-one, on the second hole during the annual par 3 tournament.

The media buzz since the new year is all about Tiger Woods, and his run at “The Slam”. This year he actually has two tries to win it (I’ll bet you didn’t know that), because he currently holds the PGA trophy. By winning the Masters, US Open and British Open championships he’ll win the Tiger Slam, for holding all four trophies at the same time. Because he’s Tiger, they created this new Slam category, but it’s the Single Season Slam (SSS) that he’s after. The SSS is the same as the Grand Slam, which means you’ve won all four majors during the same season. Are you getting all this?

Will Tiger Woods win the Masters and win a Slam this year? What do you think? I say yes, he’ll win them both. In my article, “Is 2K08 another Y2K?” I pointed out the similarities between Tiger’s 2000 season and the current 2008 season. They’re looking more alike every week. When he won the Tiger Slam in 2000, it seemed like every putt he needed to make went in. After he closed-out the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, holing a 25-foot putt on the 18th hole, I made my prediction. They’re all dropping again this year, so lookout PGA Tour. When they’re not all dropping, they only miss by hairs. That’s the subject for this week’s story that follows. I started writing it after the CA, WGC Championship from Doral.
  

By now, we all know that Geoff Ogilvie won the CA, WGC Championship from Doral by a shot over Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen, ending Tiger’s Woods’ streak. Root for or against him, you gotta give Tiger credit for dragging the conclusion out to late Monday morning. As often as we wanted to crown Geoff Oglivy or Vijay Singh or Adam Scott the champ many times during the final round, Tiger was still there at the end at -15, before finally being officially eliminated after Furyk finished at -16. Ogilvie was on the 17th hole at -17.

As I completed previous week’s story, round two of the CA Championship was still in progress. Tiger Woods was on his 18th hole with a 20 foot down-hiller, with a lot of break for a closing birdie. Just like the week before at Bay Hill he made it look easy. That putt gave him the lead at -11 and the streak was still alive and well. In fact, I wrote that I thought he had just won the tournament.

In sports terms, lip service can be defined as someone who talks a good game, but doesn’t come through. In golf and especially professional tournaments, when the hole gives lip service, the putts don’t go in and you don’t win. It’s that simple. When everything goes in the game looks too easy. In my story “Is 2K08 another Y2K I compared the game of Tiger Woods in 2000, when he won the Tiger Slam with his game in 2008. The similarity is that when he dominates, every important putt seemed to go in. When they don’t go in they just either lip out or just miss going in.

Most sports are described as “games of inches”. As proven at Doral, putting can be measured in hairs, or blades of grass. Slice up that inch into three equal parts, then apply a part to each of Tiger’s three lip-outs on the first five holes during round three. What happens now? The putts probably go in and the streak is still alive.  Seriously, just think about how close this really was, as Ogilvy’s winning margin over Tiger was only two shots. And don’t forget the real winning shot, Ogilvy’s chip- in for par on the thirteenth hole during Monday’s final round. This shot was motoring to at least 10-20 feet past before the hole swallowed it, saving a bogey or almost certain double.

While we’re on the subject of the importance of putting, did you see what happened to Ian Poulter during round three?  Putting is tough enough, but after Poulter dropped his putter on a cart path during his back nine, he damaged it, making it illegal for play. He finished his round putting with a wedge and shot at 72, including a 25 foot par putt to end the round. 

Trivia question: Bobby Jones was the last player to win the Single Season Grand Slam.
What four tournaments made-up the Grand Slam in those days? 
 

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