Is Tiger still the best golfer in the world?

[silverbear]

I agree with this. He's the only golfer I've ever seen that can move up a leaderboard as he's struggling and hacking it around the course. Most golfers have to play their best to stay in contention. If he's playing his best, he's 7 strokes ahead.

Well, that USED to be the case, but it's apparently not any more...

Or have I missed a tournament over the last year or two where Tiger won by 7 shots or more??

 

[silverbear]

Yep.

It's kind of moot to say what his best is when no one has even seen his best in years now. I think his best is gone, or at least in deep hibernation.

He's also changing his swing (again), so he can hit some really good shots but then some absolutely awful ones. He's also not chipping or putting very well.

There, I think, is the key-- he always had a habit of spraying tee shots well wide of the fairway, but he had the ability to rescue his par, often by draining a ten foot knee-knocker...

Well, he's not making those putts like they're easy any more... so I'd say the real key to him getting back to somewhere close to what he was before is to rediscover how to roll the flat stick...

And that, my friends, is easier said than done...

 

[silverbear]

If he was 40+ I'd agree, because I think Jack only won 1 major over 40 and Fred Couples came close to winning the Masters last year. But Tiger's only 35. He is in amazing shape compared to most players on the tour now, let alone guys like Jack and Freddy. So physically, he is capable of doing what he used to do.

Not if you lose your putting stroke... there are a whole host of golfers over the years who could tell Tiger all about that... Ben Hogan comes to mind, as great as he was in his prime, he was never a really good putter... one can only imagine how many wins he could have put up if he could have figured out the short stick...

He was injured in 2008. 2009 was a comeback year, and though he had 6 wins, none were majors, and he wasn't quite right. 2010 was a lost year for him mentally and emotionally.

So by your own admission, that makes 3 consecutive years now that Tiger hasn't been himself... or to look at it another way, ever since he hurt his knee, he hasn't been able to return to form...

Given that simple fact, I don't see where you can blithely presume that he can just turn it back on... in fact, I see that as mostly wishful thinking...

I'm not sure he'll show it at the Masters, but I do think he'll get back to form this season.

And what exactly do you base that opinion on?? Do you even know how devastating it is to a golfer's game to lose his confidence on the greens?? Forget Tiger's swing problems, it's his struggles with the putter that are most likely to keep him from ever getting back to where he was...

The young Tiger looked at a 20 footer, and considered it a makeable putt... this version of Tiger looks at a 6 footer, and seems to feel the stress...

I have to tell you, a lot of golfers have faced that same struggly, and most were never the same again...

 

[silverbear]

Here's another way of asking it.

If you asked today's PGA golfers to name the best in the world and they cannot name themselves, who is it?

I guarantee you that Tiger would be the guy named most often.

Actually, I doubt that's the case... maybe a year or two ago, but not now... at this point, Tiger is ranked 7th in the world, which sounds about right to me...

 

[CowboyDan]

Silverbear, it probably is just wishful thinking on my part.....but I think his physical shape, age and experience from past accomplishments offer a pretty firm foundation for him to get back to #1.
Will he do it? Only time will tell, but he is one of the great ones of all time, and they've all hit slumps. He's not too old to get it back, IMHO.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Back to fitness and age for a minute...Phil turns 41 this year and is not near the physical specimen that Tiger is. Golf is mental. He needs to get his mind right again.

You're right about Phil, which just shows that being a workout warrior really doesn't do anything for you in golf. At least, not the way Tiger has done it. He's basically done bodybuilding workouts for a long time now, and that may make you look good on TV (and to your long string of ho action) but it really doesn't have any affect on your golf. If anything, building up his arms has probably cost him some clubhead speed.

But Bear is right: If his putter gets hot again, he can still win anytime. The question is, will it? And his swing change has affected his chipping and pitching, so where he might have had three or four feet before, he all too often has five or six feet now.

 

[UnoDallas]

I hope I never here his name again

in the winners cicle

Jack was the King an alwaya will be

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Here's another way of asking it.

If you asked today's PGA golfers to name the best in the world and they cannot name themselves, who is it?

I guarantee you that Tiger would be the guy named most often.

Not right now. No way. Not even close.

Right now they would be saying Kaymer. The guy has dominated since last August like Tiger used to dominate.

I think we start to see flashes of Tiger driving the ball like he used to off the tee. It's tough to trust those things when you first learn them. Saw some practice footage of him on the range, best his swing has looked in 7 years. Again, trust factor is important. And since he's focused more on his swing, his putting probably won't be there at this moment.






YR

 

[Yakuza Rich]

And my top 6 picks for the Masters are:

Padraig Harrington
Dustin Johnson
Martin Kaymer
Rory McIlroy
Phil Mickelson
Nick Watney







YR

 

[WV Cowboy]

Tiger has a lot of work to do.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110405/ap_on_sp_go_ne/glf_tiger_s_turmoil

 

[CowboyDan]

Nick Watney is my pick for The Masters this year.

I totally disagree with Chocolate Lab on the fitness issue. Tiger's fitness level should allow him to play better deeper into his career than any golfer before him, and most golfers now, except for some of the young bucks coming up, that learned the importance of fitness by watching Tiger's career. His fitness doesn't hurt his game, not one bit. And at 41, he'll be in a lot better shape than Phil is currently. Tiger is slumping, no doubt about it, but I think he has plenty of time to get it back and get Jack's record. I'll be sad about it, but I'll appreciate the fact that I got to see one of the best to ever play the game.

 

[WV Cowboy]

Adding this to my post above.

Woods says it's nothing more than finding his way through a new swing change. Others who know something about human failings believe it may go a lot deeper than fairways and greens.

"He's got experience coming back from technical problems, but he doesn't have experience coming back from shame," said Sharon Chirban, a Harvard sports psychologist who coaches athletes in her private practice. "Until the shame is managed, he will never come back to the level of play he had before."

"This has nothing to with his swing," Chirban said. "He's an emotional work in progress and the strategies he's used before are not going to fix his failings now. You fix it by continuing to work on understanding what led him to the behavior that caused shame and that's an ongoing process."

"It's an underlying psychological issue and he's trying to find ways to cope with it. It's hard," said Soroya Bacchus, a Los Angeles psychiatrist who specializes in addiction. "You have somebody who was a sex addict who is trying to stop that behavior and at the same time find ways to learn new behaviors. How do you focus and still try to play?"

 

[CowboyDan]

I agree with that a lot more. It's mental, golf is mental, that's where his problems mainly lie. The good news for Tiger fans is he's the most mentally strong player on tour, maybe in all of sports.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

Adding this to my post above.

Woods says it's nothing more than finding his way through a new swing change. Others who know something about human failings believe it may go a lot deeper than fairways and greens.

"He's got experience coming back from technical problems, but he doesn't have experience coming back from shame," said Sharon Chirban, a Harvard sports psychologist who coaches athletes in her private practice. "Until the shame is managed, he will never come back to the level of play he had before."

"This has nothing to with his swing," Chirban said. "He's an emotional work in progress and the strategies he's used before are not going to fix his failings now. You fix it by continuing to work on understanding what led him to the behavior that caused shame and that's an ongoing process."

"It's an underlying psychological issue and he's trying to find ways to cope with it. It's hard," said Soroya Bacchus, a Los Angeles psychiatrist who specializes in addiction. "You have somebody who was a sex addict who is trying to stop that behavior and at the same time find ways to learn new behaviors. How do you focus and still try to play?"

I totally disagree with her. I think the way for him to round back into form is to go back to what he was doing when he was dominant. That means hooking up with lots of chicks and embracing that his image was the lie and what was exposed was the real Tiger Woods.

 

[tomson75]

Nope...and I, for one, and thankful for it.

 

[JIMMYBUFFETT]

As of today Tiger is not the best in the world, and won't be after the weekend either. He'll be competitive in the Masters, but probably finish somewhere in the late teens.

Nick Watney is probably the best in the world right now, though a bit of a lesser known golfer. He's got total game and hits the ball high. You can't compete in todays majors with a low ball trajectory. He's accurate off the tee, has a fantastic short game, and really handles the majors well.

In this tournament it's all about Mickelson. He owns Augusta, and it seems to be the only place he can handle mentally. 1st, 5th, 5th, 24th, 1st, 10th, 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, and 7th since 2000 is about as good of a majors record as you'll ever see.

For this weekend the guys to watch are Mickelson, Watney, Kuchar, Kim, Mahan, Snedeker, Stricker, and...Fred Couples. I'm telling you, keep an eye on the old man.

As for Tiger, he's fine. There isn't a thing wrong with his swing, and it's as fundamentally sound as any I've ever seen in 15 years as a class A-1, A-4, and A-6 PGA professional. Tiger's issue right now is all about feel, and has little to do with confidence and technique. The swing doesn't feel right, the putter doesn't feel right, and he just doesn't feel right on the course. It happens to ALL golfers, but all golfers aren't Tiger Woods. Tiger is the PGA equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys, and everything he does is amplified. Lots of pros struggle with dips like this in their career - Jim Furyk, Adam Scott, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and Geoff Ogilvy are guys just off the top of my head that have suffered through similar situations without 1/2 the fan fair.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

In the here and now, no. He's not the best. Could he be again? It's possible but the biggest problem, IMO, is that the field is no longer in awe of him. Used to be that he had the field beaten before the match ever started. Now, I don't think that's the case. Lots of talented young players who grew up watching Tiger. They set him as the standard and now they are in the PGA and they are doing the kinds of things they watched Tiger do and it's not awe inspiring to them. That, IMO, will be the hardest thing to overcome for Tiger.

 

[CowboyDan]

In the here and now, no. He's not the best. Could he be again? It's possible but the biggest problem, IMO, is that the field is no longer in awe of him. Used to be that he had the field beaten before the match ever started. Now, I don't think that's the case. Lots of talented young players who grew up watching Tiger. They set him as the standard and now they are in the PGA and they are doing the kinds of things they watched Tiger do and it's not awe inspiring to them. That, IMO, will be the hardest thing to overcome for Tiger.

If he's in the final group on Sunday, he has the mental advantage over anyone he is paired with, including Lefty.
Please be Ian Poulterray: ‘I don’t think [Tiger] will finish in the top 5′

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I agree with that a lot more. It's mental, golf is mental, that's where his problems mainly lie. The good news for Tiger fans is he's the most mentally strong player on tour, maybe in all of sports.

I don't feel like the mental game in golf is *that* important. While it wasn't as bad as the cheating scandal, I would imagine that when he was cheating on his wife, it was distracting. Yet, he still dominated.

The golf ball really doesn't know if it's Tiger Woods or James Woods hitting it or if you're 1000% confident or 0% confident or how distracted you are. There's a focus element, but it's not *that* important...otherwise incredibly brilliant, confident and focused people would be winning Majors and every Tour player would spend the majority of the time speaking to a psychologist instead of practicing on the range.







YR

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

If he's in the final group on Sunday, he has the mental advantage over anyone he is paired with, including Lefty.
Please be Ian Poulterray: ‘I don’t think [Tiger] will finish in the top 5′

I don't agree with this.