Am I alone in thinking Tiger never makes it back?

[Xenomorph]

And by back, I mean wins a major.

From the outside looking in, his life is completely shredded. Marriage ended in disaster. Every relationship around him seems toxic. He doesn't have a major name brand left except Nike and they've cut his pay. He has financial obligations that it seems he's struggling to meet. And worst of all, his body looks like it may never allow him to compete like he once did.

Add in the fact that golfers seem to never make it back from long falls... David Duvall, John Daly... I read the Yahoo article yesterday about him being ranked 21 in the world right now and about to free fall into the hundreds soon.

In the end, I now think Tiger will go down as the furthest fall from grace and glory of any professional athlete during their prime years.

 

[Xenomorph]

And by back, I mean wins a major.

From the outside looking in, his life is completely shredded. Marriage ended in disaster. Every relationship around him seems toxic. He doesn't have a major name brand left except Nike and they've cut his pay. He has financial obligations that it seems he's struggling to meet. And worst of all, his body looks like it may never allow him to compete like he once did.

Add in the fact that golfers seem to never make it back from long falls... David Duvall, John Daly... I read the Yahoo article yesterday about him being ranked 21 in the world right now and about to free fall into the hundreds soon.

In the end, I now think Tiger will go down as the furthest fall from grace and glory of any professional athlete during their prime years.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Duvall, head case, ...Daly, head case plus!
Yes, Tiger has issues, but I think he has intangibles that no one else can bring to the table.
$ not really a problem for Tiger.
If his knee cooperates, I expect him back, maybe not like he was, but certainly as a major factor.
So, I think he will more majors.

 

[aTotal360]

some form of vertigo. he would get dizzy and nausea when looking down at the the club head. Yes, his problems were mental, but he didn't go loco. His problem was fairly legitimate.<div>
</div><div>As for Tiger, ESPN reported that they are hearing reports of Tiger returning next week.</div>

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

hell, he barely played for what, a year and a half before the marriage stuff? I think the knee/leg injury has had much more effect than thought. He may have ruined the rest of his career winning that last major on the broken leg or whatever. The mental **** doesn't help, but he's just not healthy, and hasn't been for three years now.

 

[Dawgzilla]

Certainly not a lock that Tiger will ever win another major, but I think the odds are in his favor. The only real question is the extent of his knee/ankle injury. He hasn't really revealed how serious that is, and if it materially hampers his swing going forward then it might prevent him from every winning a major.

Tiger has two things going for him: 1) He is simply the most athletically talented golfer the world has ever seen; and 2) He is totally driven to break Nicklaus's major record, and has been since childhood.

As to #1, while the younger tour players are more talented than ever, still no one matches Tiger's pure ability in every facet of the game. Mucking around with his swing seems counter-intuitive; but, honestly, you could teach Tiger the old Moe Norman "Natural Golf" swing and he would still be the favorite to win most majors. He will get his swing his sorted out.

He is getting older, and his brain is starting to develop scar tissue. Those "must have" putts that always seemed to go in for Tiger are starting to lip out instead. His drives are all over the place. He can't seem to put 4 good rounds together. Nevertheless, in the last 9 majors he has played in, he has 6 top 10 finishes.

Comparing his drop off to Daly and Duval is silly. Daly was a one trick pony. Duvall is a bit of a mystery, but basically just another flash in the pan. Golf is full of guys who become one of the best players in the world for a couple of years, and then drop off the map. (Johnny Miller, Curtis Strange, Retief Goosen, Vijay Singh, to name a few). There is also history of some the greatest players in the world hitting slumps due to family, or burn out, or whatever, who come back: Hogan, Nicklaus, Watson, etc.

As said, it could be that Tiger's injury problems are so serious that he's done. I think he not only will come back, but that we will still see some of those famous Tiger routs where he manages to put four good rounds together in one weekend.

 

[Dawgzilla]

[No message]

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

I'd put it at 50/50 that he wins another major in his career. Jack's record is safe.

 

[memphodawg]

Dude is going through another swing change and clearly doesn't trust it on the course just yet. It took him about a year forhim to trust the work he did with Butch when they made some changesand several months withHaney. If he gets the knee back in working conditionheprobably has another majorin him. Don't think he's going to scare the **** out of everyone like he used to

Definitely wouldn't compare TW to Daly or Duvall but Daly was hardly a one trick poney. Granted he never lived up to his potential but fat boy has 2 majors which is more than most. </p>

 

[boatsnhoes]

capabilities....the dude has had like 5 knee surgeries. I am betting his knee gives out before the rest of him/ or before he can learn a new swing that takes stress off of it. mentally, I think he is in shambles.

itsthebuddismku

 

[Dawgzilla]

has a grand total of 5 PGA tour wins. The fact that 2 of those wins are majors doesn't suddenly make him a hall of fame candidate. Daly didn't drop off the golf map because he was a head case. He dropped off the golf map because he had very little talent.

Daly could hit the ball really, really far, back when pros were still using wooden drivers and balata balls. But that's all he had going for him. His win in the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick was a great story, since he was a Tour rookie and only got in the tournament when several other players dropped out. But that's where the feel-good story ends. He won at St. Andrews because that course is super easy if the wind isn't blowing and you are capable of hitting drives 350 yards or more.

 

[RebelBruiser]

All this talk about his life being in shambles I think is much less of an issue for Tiger than it would be for other golfers.

He's always been mentally tough, and I think he'll be able to block out the distractions and get back to his focus on the game. The question is going to be if his body allows it.

I think he's going to have to develop a much different swing most likely, but if he really wants to do it, and I think he can, then I think he has the ability to still win, even if he has to make drastic swing changes.

For my money, even though it may have ruined his career, winning a 91 hole US Open on a torn ACL is still the greatest feat I've ever seen in golf.

 

[DAWG61]

think Tiger will be back I think he wins 10 more majors before he turns 50. The greatest golfer and competitor ever is about to remind everyone once again how great he is. Oh and John Daly in his prime and sober could beat anyone in the world at 18 holes of golf on any course. To say he wasn't that talented is just ignorant.

 

[memphodawg]

Never said Daly should be a hall of fame candidate. No way he should. But to say he has very little talent andonly won becasue he could hit farther than most is completely ignorant at best. You don't win majors on driving alone. BTW, he won with steel headed drivers. Dude is lazy and won't practice except for pick up games around town. At least that is how he was when I was a club pro in the Memphis area. I assume he's probably the same now.

 

[VirgilCain]

.

 

[bulliegolfer]

At least I hope he doesn't. He might put it all together for one week and win one more, but I just don't see him getting over his knee problems and winning multiple majors from here.

 

[VirgilCain]

I don't remember who or what I was watching, but they basically said Tiger's knee injury was caused by the way he swings. They showed his swing in slow motion and focused in on how much stress was put on his knee during his swing. Obviously, no golf swing is capable of doing significant damage during a single swing (unless your golf game is Charles Barkely-esque) but a little stressed repeated thousands of times could slowly deteriorate the knee into a major problem.

Anyways, the take-away message was that unless he changes his swing, then it will (his current swing) will continue to deteriorate his knee so it will be a reoccurring problem. They didn't say anything about time-tables so, as far as I know, a "reoccurring problem" could mean the next occurrence is 10-15 years down the road when Tiger is done with highly competitive golf.

Another question I wished they had addressed was if Tiger's swing was directly responsible for how good he was. Meaning, could he still hit 17-ing bombs off the tee without putting that kind of stress on his knee.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

THEY said he would have back problems...including Jack..... Jack also said he had a hell of a game.(which was correct).
I don't think THEY know ****.</p>

 

[mjt36]

I think he's being punished by God...

 

[Stuttgart]

But Daly is immensely talented, but unfortunately also lazy and a bit of a head case. Tiger once told Daly, reportedly, that if he had as much talent as Daly then he wouldn't have to practice so much.

 

[thatsbaseball]

juicing to enhance hisperformnace or to recover between tournaments..........he was juicing.

 

[gravedigger]

each and every ***** that said he wouldnt will NEVER admit it.

They'll act like they knew it all along.

Reason........when he just plays within himself he's STILL better than everyone else. No, he doesnt beat people like he did at the 1997 masters or the 2000 us open, but he will still come back, and win.

He is the best golfer who ever lived. end of story.

 

[BoDawg.sixpack]

What is your prediction on the number of wins, and which tournaments?

 

[Dawgzilla]

You guys really need to open your eyes.

When I say Daly had little talent, its obviously relative. Everyone on the PGA tour has amazing talent, and to win even one tournament puts you in rare company. I am confident he can impress the locals, and whenever he was able to put everything together he was quite the force.....and he managed to do that exactly 5 times in his entire life.

But when you really look at Daly, yeah, all he ever was was a guy who could hit the ball really far. He never could putt for ****, and his short game was never anything to brag about. During the prime of his career, he was usually ranked #1 for driving distance, and in the top 10 for total driving, total number of Eagles, and average score on par 5's. He seldom cracked the top 100 in any other category.

Winning a golf major doesn't suddenly mean you are an exceptional golfer amongst other Tour Pros. Just ask Rich Beem, Zach Johnson, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel, Steve Jones, Larry Mize, etc. etc. Winning a second major, of course, puts you into the rarefied company of Sandy Lyle, Dave Stockton, Hubert Green, Fuzzy Zoeller, Mark O'Meara....Not exactly guys you would ever have drafted for your fantasy team.

I have nothing against Daly, really, I just thought it was funny to compare his situation to Tiger's. Yeah, I'm sure Boozin' and Carousin' held him back a bit, but he was never going to go that far anyway.

 

[fishwater99]

Tiger will never win another major, period... He is already having cash flow problems and just had to go to Japan for some appearance fees.... He would have to totally change his swing to reduce the stress he puts on his knee and that would be almost impossible to do. I am sure he is on the juice in a major way to rehab that knee and will take an extended time to "recover".

 

[bulliegolfer]

juicing to enhance hisperformnace or to recover between tournaments..........he was juicing.

His Canadian doc has admitted to HGH smuggling into the USA. Odds are high Tiger juiced.

 

[Xenomorph]

when it comes to Tiger using Anthony Galea: The level of sketch is strong with this one.