August 11, 2013

Another Major, Another Disappointing Result For Professional Golf's Biggest Draw

By - Lauren Dundee

Tiger Woods. The name is synonymous with greatness in golf.

However, since 2008, Tiger has been far from great. At least when majors roll around. His 4-over 40th-place finish at the PGA Championship only reiterated that fact.

Photo by: Getty Images
Woods is without question one of the greatest golfers ever. He has 79 career PGA Tour wins, the second-most all-time. Of those, 14 are major wins, second only to Jack Nicklaus. At one point, it was a foregone conclusion that Tiger would eventually catch and surpass the Golden Bear's record of 18 major titles, but now it no longer seems like a lock.

This time 4 years ago, Woods was on top of the world. He was the No. 1 ranked golfer on the planet and had a beautiful supermodel wife to boot. But things began to unravel on November 27th, 2009.

Following a minor car accident, it was revealed that Woods had been cheating on his spouse of 5 years with multiple women. He quickly became a social pariah and the butt of many late-night television jokes. Tiger took a leave from the sport and was dropped by many of his sponsors, including AT&T and Gatorade.

Losing endorsements as well as the admiration of fans wasn't all Woods lost after his infidelity. For a while, he also seemed to lose the ability to play the very game that had made him a household name. He made his return in 2010, but didn't win a championship all season for the first time in his professional career.

Tiger eventually dropped to No. 58 in the world rankings, an all-time low. He finally broke his record 107-week winless streak in December of 2011.

People have long since dismissed Woods as yet another professional athlete who was never really as genuine as he seemed to be. He remains golf's biggest draw, but many tune in now in hopes of seeing him implode rather than dominate, something Tiger did on a consistent basis his first 12 years on the tour, but has failed to do with any regularity for the better half of the last half-decade now.

Still, it is worth noting that Nicklaus didn't notch No. 15 until his 66th major tournament, and this year's PGA Championship was only Tiger's 63rd career major, so clearly he could still eventually catch and surpass Jack's hallowed mark.

But it certainly appears that the days of Tiger donning his signature red polo and striking fear into the hearts of the competition are all but over.

2 comments:

  1. I'm gonna go out on a limb right now and say that he will never win another major.

    ReplyDelete
  2. he has too continue too find his mojo and stop trying so hard

    ReplyDelete