Monday (Tiger Woods) edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on April 14th, 2008 – 8:51 AMBy Michael Rand
As strange as it sounds, it took a second-place finish, an expletive (and a couple of fake ones) and a permanent scowl on his part to finally sway us that Tiger Woods is the greatest athlete of this generation, and perhaps any generation. We arrived at that conclusion by really thinking about what it means to be a dominant golfer. It’s one thing to dominate tennis (looking at you, Mr. Federer) or basketball (Mr. Bryant) or pretty much any other sport. But in golf, we finally came to appreciate this weekend, you have the unique situation (unless it’s match play) of competing against every single elite player at the same time. Think about almost every other sports scenario, and it’s one team or individual at a time. Even in most track and field events, or things like gymnastics and skiing, the field is essentially narrowed along the way. In golf, all you get is the cut after two days, which eliminates the players who really don’t have a chance. Otherwise, it’s basically just a mad scramble: you against everyone. And going into the Masters, this is how at least one on-line site viewed that matchup, for betting purposes:
CURRENT 2008 MASTERS BETTING ODDS
(All Odds Subject to Change)
TIGER WOODS 7/5
FIELD (ALL OTHERS) 9/2
PHIL MICKELSON 8/1
ERNIE ELS 15/1
VIJAY SINGH 18/1
JIM FURYK 20/1
Etc.
TREVOR IMMELMAN 50/1
Yes, that’s right: Tiger Woods was a better bet than everyone else combined. It’s one thing to be favored when all you have are a few opponents to beat (a la major pro sports playoffs or even a major tennis tournament). It’s another to take on everyone at once, Kung Fu style, and be expected to vanquish them all. Someone is bound to get lucky, catch fire, find you at the wrong time, or some such thing. So as Tiger scuffled and swore and missed putts on the way to that disappointing second-place finish — the burden of expectation clearer than ever on his face and in his body language — we came to appreciate his greatness more than ever.
What else?
*Francisco Liriano: not the same. The Twins don’t need him to be special this year, but they need him to be effective. We’ll see if he can get there.
*The Yankees, led by Randy Levine and Hank Steinbrenner, have officially become the parody of themselves portrayed on “Seinfeld.” There’s no other way to describe it based on this whole buried jersey story. What a bunch of clowns.
*Keep rolling with the good karma, Wolves. Don’t listen to the naysayers. Keep winning if the wins are there. A few percentage points in the lottery don’t mean as much as doing it the right way.
*Game 3. 9 tonight. We hope you are sufficiently excited.
Fasola-link! Why baseball rules all. Or something like that.
18 Responses to "Monday (Tiger Woods) edition: Wha’ Happened?"
Tiger Woods is an extremely special athlete. All of the people wishing for him to lose will be wondering why when they get older and realize that they were able to see greatness on TV every couple weekends.
And I’m totally psyched for game 3, even if it is going to end at about 1:30 a.m. (I’m figuring OT into the equation).
I was genuinely disappointed that Tiger didn’t make a run yesterday. That I was thinking “down 5 with 5 to play…he can still do this” is probably indicative of greatness, too. After that enormously long putt fell on 13 (?) I thought for sure he’d locked in. Alas, no. Damn.
I have a hard time considering something a sport if there is no defense involved. Or if you can wear chinos and a sweater vest while playing.
That said, Tiger is otherworldly.
Brandon, aren’t the elements/course/green speeds a kind of defense?
Besides, not too many other sports have a number that you have to compete with (par). I was talking with my dad yesterday about whether golf would be easier without a certain par number on a hole and just playing total number of strokes. I mean, there’s something about a “bogey” that is extremely frustrating, where if a guy just took a 5 on a 399 yard hole without the pressure of it being a “par 4″, he might think, “Oh well, I can make that up somewhere else…” The sport is so intertwined with that idea though, that it’s actually pretty hard to imagine not having the par system.
RE: Liriano. Kinda distressing but not unexpected. Of more pressing concern is that Livan Hernandez is 3-0, despite the fact that I throw harder than him, and I am a wee little girl. I cannot account for how this is happening.
Stu: I think the thing with Livan is that he throws an 82 mph fastball, but also a 60 mph curveball, and a 72 mph slider. When the pitches have that much difference in velocity and they’re all going for strikes, it’s going to screw anyone up. Then if you get to our bullpen and they’re throwing heat, it’ll feel like it’s going 100 miles an hour.
I hope he can keep being effective. I mean, hell, he threw four straight sliders with the bases loaded and two outs. Who does that?!
Brandon is wrong, Dave MN is right, and RandBall is late to the party. They’re playing against the course and par; that is the defense, and a stout one at that. But the question of whether Tiger is the greatest athlete of our generation should have been put to bed long ago. It’s not even close, and the unique aspects of the game he plays — the way he dominates under almost any conditions — only widens the gap.
It’s funny, though, that we’re talking about how great Tiger is after he again finished second at the Masters. Immelman was amazing through three rounds, but very beatable yesterday. If Tiger had made half of the putts under 10 feet that he missed on Sunday, he would have won going away.
“Defense” meaning the ability to directly prevent your competitors from having success. I love golf and think it’s one of the world’s greatest games, just don’t exactly consider it a sport.
But, I’ll give up this argument.
Brandon - How isn’t it a sport. My personal opinion is that certain things on ESPN should not be on ESPN (Poker, Pool, Darts, Bowling, Auto Racing). But it’s really not that far from basketball…just played at a much slower pace. You’re trying to get in a ball, in to a slightly lager hole. Golf you get rewarded if you can do it from further away in the least amount of tries just like basketball. Basketball has 7′ 0″ guys blocking your shots, Golf has 30′ tall trees. Basketball has people yelling at you while you shoot, golf has fans with cellphone cameras. Basketball has out of shape or old players like Antoine Walker and Dikembe Mutombo, Golf has John Daily. The similarities are endless…
And really neither sport makes you want to pour gasoline on your eyes, which should really be the defining characteristic for all decision-making.
Dave - You clearly are not counting the WNBA in this discussion.
Before we get too excited about Livan, remember that Ramon Ortiz started last season 4-0.
Would Nascar be similar to Golf in that you are up against the hole field rather than one individual or team?
I understand that Tiger is unbelievable, outrageous, etc. etc. but why is he above criticism? Whenever he loses it is because of something he did rather than the other guys just playing well. He gets away with acting like a 3 year old baby when things get tough because he is the best? I don’t understand that.
I knew Ramon Ortiz. Ramon Ortiz was a nemesis of mine. And you, Livan Hernandez, are no Ramon Ortiz.
You are misinterpreting the “Field” bet. Field is everyone who does not get their own odds. So Tiger did not have better odds than everyone else combined. He had better odds than everyone who was not good enough to have their own odds.
correct … it was awkward phrasing. Should have said “everyone else not listed.”
The truly remarkable thing about Tiger is that he putted lousy all week and frequently sprayed the driver and still finished second — in a major championship against all the other best players int he world.
Does this mean I win?
