Saturday, September 23, 2006

Beware of the wounded Tiger







Not the best weekend so far...








Watching Tiger struggle over the last two days has been almost as difficult to watch as it must be for him playing - almost. His reputation as a team player is on the line, nobody would dispute he is the best golfer of the last twenty years, but I remember many years ago Nick Faldo saying that the reason he enjoyed golf rather than team sports was that he didn't have to rely on ten other guys getting it right everytime.

Tiger Woods revels in the basic attraction of golf, it's not mano et mano, its mano v course, now he finds himself in the fourballs and foursomes of having to attack and defend when his natural instinct suggests otherwise. Ninety per cent of golf is decided over a distance of eight inches, the gap between a players ears and Tiger finds it hard having to take not only his opponents ball position into account, but also his partrners.

Woods may have won five successive tournaments this year, but he has a Ryder Cup record of seven wins, 11 losses and two halves in four previous appearances which suggests he finds the burden of teamplay a little too heavy and then perhaps so too do his playing partners.

You can see Ryder Cup Records here