Who can doubt that the entire game of golf is stuck in a whirlpool, dangerously threatening to swirl down the drain of insignificance? What’s the catalyst that can wake the game up? As nice a guy as he seems to be, it is unlikely that Graeme McDowell as US Open champion is compelling enough to put a charge into the game. Phil Mickelson winning another Masters helps, with brilliant shots such as the recovery on the 13th at Augusta. But the heart and soul of golf is in it’s immortals. It’s in the blood spilled by Ben Hogan. It’s in the immense concentration and course management mastery of Jack Nicklaus. It’s in the pants-hitching thumb-your-nose swagger of a Arnie Palmer. And until this year, nothing could match the over-whelming will to win that Tiger brought to the course.
He could win without his best. He could bury you with his best. He could win with a leg broken and a knee shattered. He was the embodiment of a slogan. He could “Just Do It”.
But this is 2010, the aftermath of the Tiger that was captured and caged by a scandal and a marriage falling apart. The debates about his mental state are endless, and his post-round interviews have been telling about his degree of frustration. Short clipped answers with a tinge of rage lurking behind the closed door of his true feelings. The US Open coming on top of the Masters, both top ten finishes and yet both abject failures are creating a new slogan; “Just Fall Short”.
What scares most of us about the US Open was that the entire field tried to give him the opening he needed. This was the prime opportunity for him t
o charge from behind while Dustin Johnson and Graeme McDowell faltered from the lead. Let’s not forget that McDowell won the US Open firing a mediocre three over par 74 on the final day. This was a day meant to be taken. Instead it was a trophy that was handed over in submission. The US Open was won by nobody. The US Open was a tournament that was lost by everyone but McDowell.
The simple fact is that the game and the business of golf need Tiger to regain his form, if not his former dominance. The PGA Tour is having sponsor trouble regardless of their protests to the contrary. The St. Jude in Memphis is the latest sponsor casualty, and the Skins Game is teetering on the edge of becoming a low rent affair. Financial service firms, once the mainstay of the PGA Tour, are making the expected migration away from Tour sponsorships that we all predicted when Barney Frank attacked the franchise.
Tiger is the only player with enough broad-based interest to draw new spectators and new sponsors back to the game. The only way he can do that is to get back into the winners circle. And it cannot happen too soon.
The AT&T National this week at Aronimink Golf Club in Newton Square, PA would be the place to start. Last year Tiger won here. This year he comes in to the tournament with huge doubts surrounding him. But if horses have courses, and Tiger is to go into the British Open at St. Andrews with enough confidence to win there, he must win here first.
I think this is it. This is where the Tiger train gets back on the rails. I am going to make a call that Tiger wins the AT&T this week. In fact, I think he might very well win in a walk. Just remember, you heard it here first.
If I am right, this will raise the interest in the British Open back to the regular level of fever pitched excitement. Those in charge of the business of golf better hope so. The business of the game needs Tiger, and it needs Tiger to actually be Tiger.
