The 19^th Hole

January 29, 2006

Is There Shame in Winning?

At Torrey Pines on Sunday, Tiger Woods was in the final group and expected to win his 47^th career PGA Tour event in the Buick Invitational.  Unfortunately for Tiger, he had his B-minus game on Sunday.  Arguably, he played some of his poorest golf of the week on the day when they hand out the big, fake checks.  It was not exactly demonstrable of the seemingly impeccable timing shown throughout his 20s on the Tour.

Fortunately for Woods, though, everyone else who was remotely near contention also brought their B (or C) games to the course.  For what seemed like an hour stretch on Sunday, I cannot recall seeing one well-executed shot on the TV coverage.  I actually even agreed with Bobby Clampett about the poor play at one point – and I HATE that guy.

Phil, Sergio, and others fell by the wayside and collectively decided that they did not want to win the tournament.  Enter two challengers to Woods – Nathan Green and Jose Maria Olazabal. 

With a timely hole out eagle, Green propelled himself to a solo lead with a few holes to play.  He promptly went on to make a couple of bogies down the stretch to finish at -10.  When Olazabal made a wonderful birdie with an aggressive play of the last hole, we were guaranteed at least some kind of playoff.  From what looked like a potential 10 person playoff at one point, there emerged maybe three to make the real playoff.

The stage then cleared for Woods.  I’ll spare you the details – he made a clutch putt to get in the playoff.  You could almost feel that air of inevitability.

In the playoff, Woods stood by while the other two faltered.  Nathan Green bogeyed the first playoff hole, and watched as Olazabal whizzed by a 4 footer on the next hole.  Not exactly pretty by any standards, but they don’t dock you prize money for style points.

As Olazabal missed the putt and in his press conference afterward, Woods seemed almost guilty that he won.  But why?  It’s not as though Olazabal and Green each got his with cars before the playoff started.  Tiger didn’t yell out “Stamos!” while each of them was putting.  It just turned out that out of three players who really had nothing left late on Sunday, Woods had the most. 

I should add that is usually the case, so Woods should be used to that by now.  In his career, he is 12-1 in playoffs.  His only loss was to Billy Mayfair, of all people, in his slump season of 1998 in Los Angeles.  So, in crunch time, most players just lock up and fold anyway.  Sometimes Tiger just overwhelms his opponents with his play, and sometimes the competition just steps aside for him.

Regardless of how he wins, Tiger has won 47 times on the PGA Tour.  He should not feel guilty about any one of those victories.  Not that I have won even once on the PGA Tour, but you’re not supposed to feel guilty over one shot.  Over the course of the week, Woods (and everyone who made the cut) hit some 280 shots.  Any one of those shots could have hypothetically determined the eventual winner and loser of the event.

Had Woods actually played to anywhere near his talent level on Sunday, he never would have had to see Olazabal miss that putt.  Hell, he would have already been in his car on the way to the airport if he had played decently on Sunday.  Then again, if everyone else didn’t crumble like Woods did, it could have been Phil and Sergio in the place of Jose Maria and Nathan Green.

Golf is a funny game and pressure makes strange things happen.  But, over the course of his career, when it comes time to write the checks on 47 different occasions, Woods has reminded everyone of just who the champion is.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19^th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  You can also get The 19^th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here Feedburner.com - The 19th Hole Golf Show.  Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.

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