ART SPANDER
E-MAIL ART
PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | This
isn’t the old Tiger Woods. This is the
Tiger Woods who teases and frustrates. This is the Tiger Woods who
gets himself into position to win but
doesn’t win, in fact in the AT&T Pebble
Beach Pro-Am doesn’t even finish in
the top 10.
This isn’t the old Tiger Woods, and
maybe it’s time to wonder if it ever will
be. All he had in front of him Sunday
were Charlie Wi and Ken Duke, journeymen without a victory in their years
on Tour. All he had in front of him was
the opportunity to prove he can still rip
in a putt and rip the guts out of tournament, the way he used to do, the way
we expected him to do.
Maybe it’s time to reassess our
expectations.
We know what Woods has endured
the past couple of years, the accident,
the disclosures, the knee problems,
the coaching changes. We know he’s
older – if at 36, not that old – and there
are doubts where there used to be
confidence.
Yet, his optimism and our thoughts
made it appear Tiger was right there,
a putt, a good bounce away from a
breakthrough, from his first PGA Tour
tournament win in the U.S. since September 2009.
It was a circus Sunday at Pebble,
Tiger and Phil Mickelson together,
fans packing the fairways, waiting,
hoping, cheering. Mickelson
responded. Tiger faded. That’s not the
way it used to be. Perhaps it’s the way
it’s going to be.
question
worthy of
the value
system in
the country. But,
unquestionably, Tiger lost
respect, and
now he continues to lose
tournaments.
This was
the first time in
10 years Woods
played the AT&T, with
its celebrities and course
rotation and occasional
bad weather. The fans, so
many drawn by the antics
of Bill Murray or the
presence of Nick Saban,
often have no sense of
golf etiquette, but they
were careful not to disrupt
Woods and his amateur
partner, Dallas Cowboys
quarterback Tony Romo.
Tiger responded well, and
after a round each at Spy-
glass Hill, Monterey Peninsula
and Pebble, he was, as he said,
“where I wanted to be.”
He didn’t quite end up nowhere,
but by his standards tumbling to a
tie for 15th must seem almost the
same. l
