Sirak Says: Tiger's great expectations, at Oakmont and beyond

[Gdmichael]

Sirak Says:

 

Tiger's great expectations, at Oakmont and beyond

 

 

GolfDigest.com

June 18, 2007

 

OAKMONT, Pa. – How do we assess the fact that Tiger Woods is now 0-for-29 when trailing after 54 holes in a major championship and 12-for-12 when he has the lead or a share of the lead going into the final round? The answer is simply this: Tiger is human, and when he's behind the eight ball he shows the same vulnerabilities as his competitors. That should make us appreciate his accomplishments even more.

 

Woods had three holes in which to make one birdie after Angel Cabrera finished Sunday in the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club to force a playoff with the Argentine, and one of those holes was a 313-yard par-4. Does the fact that Woods didn't get the job done diminish his stature in any way? Hardly. Remember, Jack Nicklaus finished second in the majors a bunch of times.

 

This U.S. Open was not so much lost by Woods as it was won by Cabrera. The sweet-swinger closed with a 69 in the final round while Woods managed a very respectable 72. The loss, however, does raise some interesting questions about Woods' immediate future. By all accounts, his wife Elin will give birth to their first child sometime between now and the British Open. The guess here is that not having won either the Masters or the U.S. Open makes it more likely Woods will skip the British Open to spend time with his wife and new child.

 

If Tiger had a great year going – a major or two in the bag – he might be more inclined to try to finish it off. But with runner-up finishes to Zach Johnson and Angel Cabrera in the first two majors, there is a greater likelihood that parenthood will interest him more than competition – at least for a little while. Don't be surprised if we don't see Tiger again until the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in August.

 

A victory at Oakmont in the U.S. Open would have completed for Woods a most impressive triple-sweep of major championships. Woods has won five events at least three time: The Masters four times and the British Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Junior Championship three times each. He has won the U.S. Open twice. In 14 of the last 17 years Woods has captured at least one of those major titles.

 

Jack Nicklaus has managed the Triple Slam in the professional majors, winning the Masters (6), PGA Championship (5), U.S. Open (4) and British Open (3) each at least three times. But Jack only won the U.S. Amateur twice and never took home the U.S. Junior title. In all, Nicklaus has 20 of the "majors" – professional and amateur -- compared to 18 by Woods, but Woods has a more equitable distribution – between two and four of each.

 

While it is true Woods is one of the greatest front runners in the history of competitive golf – be protects a lead better than anyone – it is difficult to figure out exactly why his record coming from behind is so, well, human. The simple fact is that coming from behind you frequently need the help of others in the form of mistakes, and frequently you need mistakes by several others. Both Cabrera and Jim Furyk outplayed Woods on Sunday. There is nothing he can do about that.

 

While it is true that Woods could not figure out how to birdie the short 17th hole on Sunday, it is also true that others stumbled on the treacherous little devil as well. Both Cabrera and Furyk, who tied Woods for second place, made bogeys on the hole, as did Bubba Watson who came there needing a birdie-birdie finish to catch Cabrera.

 

The truth of the matter is that Woods lost this U.S. Open on Saturday when he played a brilliant ball-striking round but needed 35 putts on his way to a 69 that felt like it should have been a 65. Some of that was just bad luck as time and again Woods left himself a short birdie putt but was above the hole from where you can never putt aggressively on Oakmont's greens.

 

With a little better effort on the greens Saturday, Woods could have put away the field and taken the kind of lead into Sunday that he never surrenders in the final round of a major. The fact that Woods finished with a bogey on Saturday and made no birdies after no. 4, despite how well he was hitting the ball, is where the tournament was lost – not on Sunday.

 

One of the reasons Woods is such a good front runner is because he usually sends out a message on Saturday that he is unbeatable. What we saw at Oakmont is that he had a chance to sent out that message, but failed to capitalize on a great day of striking the ball. If Tiger let this U.S. Open get away from him it was on Saturday when he didn't get more out of his round and not on Sunday.

 

The British Open will be played at Carnoustie which, when Paul Lawrie won there in 1999 with the help of Jean van de Velde, was set up in such as way as to make Oakmont seem like a walk in the park. Even though it has the mystique of being the place where Ben Hogan won the only British Open in which he played, it could also be a venue Woods would be willing to skip.

 

The truth of the matter is that none of us – including Tiger – knows how he will react the first time he holds his first child in his arms. With two majors down without a victory, it makes it all the more likely we won't see Woods at Carnoustie. But make no mistake about this: Being a father won't stop Tiger Woods from breaking Nicklaus' record of 18 professional major championships. It's why he plays.

 

Tiger, the father-to-be, didn't win the U.S. Open on the last Father's Day before he becomes a Dad. But he likely did remember his own father, Earl, on Sunday and the goal they devised together. Before, Tiger won majors for his father. Soon, he can win them for his child. And he will win many more of them.