The Written Word
for June 27, 2001

Has the bubble burst? Is Tiger Woods finished? Or, if not finished, has he been taken down a few pegs? Has he, as stated by the Sunday London Tines, been proved to be a mere mortal?

Much has been made of Tiger’s mediocre showing in the US Open where three nobodies wound up three putting the 18^th to see which nobodies would qualify for the playoff. Then Woods followed with a terrible, for him, performance in the Buick Open which was an important event to him because Buick sponsors him. In the Buick, after an opening 75 he was lucky not to miss the cut

Along with these early obituaries comes the huzzah that young Sergio Garcia, 4 years younger than Woods, is the new power in golf.

Not so fast, I would counter. Yes, Woods is human and I have no doubt that the pressure of trying to capture his fifth major in a row got to him. Little wonder – after all he was established as even money by some bookies, no worse than 4-1 by Ladbrokes in the UK. These are astonishing odds given the number of hugely qualified players in the field plus the fact that the course was not especially suited to Tiger’s style.

Tiger Woods, by his own admission is tired. He is doing what I wish I could do when I’m tired – going fishing. But far from being finished, I expect him to win at least one of the remaining majors this year.

I think Garcia is a hell of a player and hugely exciting. He will win lots more tournaments and I think he will win a major one day soon. But I have two doubts.

The first one is temperamental. Is he like his senior countryman Seve Ballesteros in that he is great when things are going well but not so hot when they’re not? This is where Tiger has such an edge on his opponents. He’s a bearcat when he’s behind and he snaps back well from disaster. Take his 40-30 start in the ’97 Masters as but one example. In fact Tiger’s personality is so strong and his mental game so overwhelming that he has sent good players like Colin Montgomerie, Davis Love III, Paul Azinger, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and David Duval into huge slumps. Indeed Els, a great swinger and two time US Open champion admits that he’s not playing well for mental reasons that directly relate to one T. Woods.

The second one is technical. Garcia has a monumental hitch in his swing at the top when he starts down. Now there have been a lot of funny swings in golf but the only truly bad swing to win a lot of majors belonged to Arnold Palmer and in fact until he aged a bit his arc wasn’t that bad. But the fact that Arnie’s bad swing caught up to him relatively early in his career and ensured that he had no senior career to speak of indicates that to be at the very top, your swing has to be sound.

The trouble with a bad swing, even if it becomes repetitive like Jim Furyk’s, is that it’s apt to let you down in the heavy going. It’s in fact a front runner’s swing.

Make no mistake about it – Garcia is a very fine player and no doubt is #2 in the world.

But #1 is Eldrick "Tiger" Woods and he will be for some time to come.