Tiger Lexicon Expands On Eve Of Chevron World Challenge
And sadly, the transcript did not reflect what he actually said, but there were witnesses!
Q. Tiger, recently you told me that last year when you came to this event you could only hit the ball one way and still were able to take it to a playoff to nearly win. With a year now under your belt and all the talk we've had about how more comfortable you are, what is your expectation level for this week in terms of going out there and winning?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, last year I was very limited in what I could do, and like I told Sean last year, I just gotta rely on my putter, and hopefully some of the pins set up and the wind sets up correctly for me because I only had that one shot at the time. But now, I feel very comfortable maneuvering the ball both ways and changing my trajs as well, so I'm excited about this week. It'll be interesting tomorrow.
That trajs was actually "trajies" or, "trajeys" or, well, you get the idea.
Ron Sirak reports on the Tiger's sitdown with the scribes and local TV sports anchormen a day before his foundation's event kicks off at Sherwood.
Doug Ferguson focuses on Tiger's comments about wind showing him where his swing is.
It wasn't the results, or even the scores, that pleased him. It was his play in blustery conditions — testing conditions in Sydney at The Lakes, even more demanding in Melbourne.
"Anybody who makes swing changes ... you get exposed in the wind," Woods said Wednesday. "I felt very comfortable in that wind, which was great."
Brian Wacker noted a rare moment of self-deprecating humor from Tiger.
Geoff
**Robert Lusetich focuses on Woods' glaringly different body language heading into the first round.
Fifteen months after starting to work with Foley — several of those months lost to injury — Woods believes he’s finally ready to return to the big stage.
“Absolutely I can sense it,” he said. “I’ve made tremendous strides.”
His friend Notah Begay III asked Woods what it felt like to be in contention at the Australian Open, where he ultimately finished third, his best result of the year.
“I told him I felt nothing,” Woods said.
“And he says, ‘Good, because you’re not supposed to. You’re supposed to be there.‘
"I said, 'Yeah, I know.'"
Reader Comments (53)
Go ahead, blast away....
Good luck to you.
"It is what it is"
"Working on the reps"
"The traj is good"
No one else speaks like this haha!
I think he is just dicking with the media!
Personally I don't see him winning anytime soon, he needs to go back to Butch to finish the job major wise.
No one except for TW knows how big that mental monkey on his back really is.
Golf is weird like that...in a way...it helps to be hugely talented and extremely thick-headed....the smart ones tend to over-analyze and over-think themselves to death after missing a green or two with a short iron. It's actually funny to watch when it's your $$$ game opponent!
"traj" = pretty sweet.
-LK
Urkel's Army of Keyboard Monkeys would be a perfect case study on this subject.
One thing that Urkel's Army constantly overlooks is the effect of age - it gets every pro golfer who has ever played and is a product of slow but irreversable physical breakdown and the fact that there is new young talent always emerging at a steady rate. Plot a chart of the number of majors won at particular ages and you will see that the number won by 36 year olds are half of that won by 35 year olds. And the number steadily declines beyond 36.
McIlroy to win the Masters. History clearly states that youth will be served.
Care to wager right now on McIlroy's 2012 Masters performance? Youth does get it's turn at the grown-ups table, however - it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be Rory ... but that's a convenient bandwagon to jump on, lol.
-LK
I have not heard a single prognosticator pick McIlroy for anything in 2012, let alone the Masters.
He has become persona incognito after Woods' stunning 3rd place finish in the Koala Klassic and a shockingly impressive 2-3 record in the Teams without Passion Cup event in Melbourne.
If you jump on the McIlroy Masters bandwagon, it's just you and me so far.
McIlroy beat a strong field at the Shanghai Masters a month ago and who is leading the Hong Kong Open as we speak.
He's not Mr. Perfect and does have some weaknesses such as late tournament shortgame and putting issues, but in terms of overall pure talent that has not had a meeting with Father Time yet, he is tops on the planet.
Also, he is the best high draw hitter alive, and with daylight between him and the next best. Augusta is built for high draw hitters. (Congressional was destroyed by his high draw).
There's a slim chance of me picking McIlroy for '12 Masters. VERY slim. lol ... like Furyk-slim.
However (speaking to your other point), I'm all over the place on the 'net and elsewhere regarding sports investing, and McIlroy is (at this point) basically odds-on favorite to win @ Augusta next year, not counting TW (who just dropped overall in price due to the decent Australia swing).
So - you said "McIlroy to win the Masters". Did you mean the 2012 Masters? If so - care to put some loot where currently there is a lot of flappin' gums? ;)
-LK
Speak for yourself itchy mate. There are definitely people out there picking winners (and high-finishing value picks). By the 10th hole on Sunday - all the golf "day traders" I know of have sold off their value positions and are watching the finish of the tourney in style (sitting on some profit, drinkin' a bevvy).
Plenty of ways to skin a cat.
-LK
"squeeze-cut bunter" - niiiiice. The bunting bit reminds me of watching AJ Bonar, lol.
-LK
The list of players that has won multiple majors starting at age 36 isn't long, but there is a list.
And it's a lot longer than the list of guys that has won a USGA National Championship in 6 consecutive years. It's a lot longer than the list of players who are 14 for 15 converting major wins when leading after 54 holes. It's a lot longer than the list of players who won 24 tour events including 5 majors before their 25th birthday. It's a lot longer than the list of players that won 22 tour events and 5 majors between the ages of 26 and 30. And it's a lot longer than the list of players that won 25 tour events and 4 majors between age 31 and 35.
It's probably way shorter than the list of players who have shot 80 in a major after sleeping on the lead. But it's probably longer than the list of players who have shot 80 twice within 8 months when sleeping on the lead at a major.
So I pick Tiger. Marky Mark picks Rory. What other players do the smart folks out there think really really have a legitimate chance of winning?
Anyone picking ol' 3-iron?
Easy big daddy. You're gonna make a young gun cry and rust his weapon.
-LK
The rest of them flinched from time to time.
...into a frenzy.
In the meantime, fun fact, in his 2nd US Jr. Am win Tiger beat a fella named Mark Wilson in the final. Yup, the same Mark Wilson that has 4 times as many wins as Jason Day.
If you got over your anti Tiger position you would realize how wrong you are.
He is on the way back big time and will probably have the Chevron as his first win and go on to many more including th Masters in April. At least two majors next year.
As someone once said..."If you were only a little smarter you would realize how stupid you are".
Ben Hogan
Sam Snead
Julius Boros
Gary Player
Jack Nicklaus
Ray Floyd
Nick Price
Vijay Singh
Nice list. Geezus Boros on there ... swingin' the "gut of power", lol.
@StevieW -
KJ takes his bad days in stride baby. :)
-LK
In addition:
- Paddy won his 1st within a month of turning 36, and 2 more afterward.
- Angel Cabrera won 2 starting at age 37.
- Phil won 1 at 34, 2 at 35, and 1 at 39.
There is no doubt that majors are won by players over 35 years of age. In fact, almost 23% of all majors ever played have been won by players by over 35.
At 14 majors, if 23% over Woods' major victories are still ahead of him, rounding off, he gets to 18. Now, this assumes that Woods remains healthy. For Woods to get to 19, he would have to be less susceptible to the effects of age compared to the average professional golfer over the last 150 years. However, at this stage, healthwise, he has been considerably more vulnerable to wear and tear that the average pro at similar ages.
Now, none of this factors in the mental burdens burdens he had brought on to himself.
Bottom line, objective analysis shows that in most scenarios that are favorable to Woods, he still comes up short vis-a-vis Nicklaus.
The over-confident proclamations that he is a cinch to get to 19 are the merely the hopes of the Tiger Lover Community.
Looks like we can't quite count on you. You also omitted O'Meara who won two majors at age 41.
As long as you've got Tiger Worshippers like @Fan calling me stupid, I am afraid the Keyboard Monkey handle stands.
Question - if you're Tiger, why not just skip the tour and play at Augusta from January till April? Then, just move on and play the US Open venue after that? Or, at least play them weekly...