Tiger Woods didn't win today. This is the first time this year that sentence applied to a tournament that Tiger Woods played in. Much has been said about the his winning streak, and the form and dominance that Tiger has obtained thus far this golf season. In fact, he looks so good on the course, that most Sports Writers have already mentioned the fact that "this could be the year Tiger Woods wins the grand slam." That is pretty amazing when you think about it. The first major of the year is still two weeks away, and people are already talking about Tiger winning the grand slam. You would at the least you would wait until after the first major, and then talk about the chances the winner has of winning the next three, but not with Tiger. With him the conversation starts a month before the first major.
I bring this up not because I am a big Tiger fan. I think he is an amazing golfer, but I wonder how many golf stories and shots I haven't seen or read because of the amount of coverage Tiger receives each week. I bring this up because I am amazed at how well the other PGA professionals have handled his dominance. A prime example occurred last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. On the last hole, Tiger Woods sank a 25 foot birdie putt to win. Who did he knock out of first place? Bart Bryant. What did that putt mean to Bryant? It meant that he would not have enough points to reach the top 50 and qualify for the Masters. It meant he didn't have a PGA Tour victory that would qualify him for the Masters. It was a difference of $400,000 in prize money. And the reaction of Bryant when hearing the roar of the crowd indicating Tiger had made his putt for the win? Something along the lines of "Man that guy is good." I don't know about you, but I think I would have reacted differently.
A lot has been said about Tiger Woods, but not enough has been said about those he competes with. The rest of the field has witnessed one of the most dominant players in the history of the game win 64 times in the last 11 years. That is 64 out of roughly 440 total PGA Tour events. That means Tiger has taken home more than 15% of the total possible trophies. I am not sure how many events he has played in, but it is possible he has a higher win percentage than the batting average of most major leaguers. I am surprised we haven't heard more of "If Tiger wasn't around, I would have won X number of times." Or "If it weren't for Tiger, I'd have been number 1 in the world for X weeks." Or "If Tiger wasn't so good, I'd be with Elin." It must be frustrating to continually see the same name at the top of the leaderboard Sunday night, and it is a sign of the maturity and graciousness of the other professionals on tour that we don't hear more people complain or whine about the dominance of Woods. Indeed, if Tiger wasn't around there would be a number of differences in the world of golf, and I think we should give more credit to those on the course with who continue to compete and give it their best to get in Tiger's pathway into the history books.
If Tiger wasn't around, I still wouldn't be that good.
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