The 19^th Hole

May 7, 2007

Maximum Efficiency

Tiger Woods has played in a grand total of six events this season on the PGA Tour.  Out of the number played to date – nineteen in total – Woods has been involved in just about one-third.  For the sake of the rest of the players on Tour, it’s probably a good thing that Woods has decided to take a very light schedule thus far in the early season.  That’s because with his victory at Quail Hollow in the Wachovia Championship, Woods improves his ridiculous 2007 winning percentage to fifty percent. 

You read that right.  El Tigre was a coin flip favorite to win a hypothetical event has plays so far this season.  Tiger’s career winning percentage that hovers around 28% was beyond remarkable.  What Woods is doing this season is simply out of sight though.

Up until this weekend, a number of Tour observers would have told you that Vijay Singh is the PGA Tour’s best player in the 2007 season.  He had two victories to date and three top 10s in twelve events.  Singh led the FedEx Cup standings and was a close second to Woods on the Tour’s money list.  He has been in top form all season and it has been on display almost every week of the season in fields of all kinds.  It could be easily said that Singh is the best and most consistent performer this season.

That is, up until this weekend at Quail Hollow.  Tiger Woods again proved to the world that there is no need to doubt that he is the best player on Tour and in the universe.  He increased his winning percentage on the season to 50% which is even more remarkable than his career winning percentage that hovers around 28%.

The most impressive part of Woods’ performance though had nothing to do with this being his 57^th career PGA Tour win, his third in six starts, or that he took charge of the FedEx Cup standings for the first time.  It had everything to do with how he did it and not what he accomplished as a result.

You see, Woods clearly is ailing.  You could see it on his approach to the last at Quail Hollow when he was flexing his knee.  There is something wrong with the powerful Woods frame that generates 125 mph swing speeds and precision accuracy.  Who knows for how long this has been a problem, but it has simply become apparent as a result of the Wachovia.

Regardless of how long it has been going on, whatever is afflicting Woods is definitely impacting his golf game.  Accuracy off of the tee with a driver is worse than the coin flip that could determine if he is victorious.  Woods knows this and has resorted to playing golf now like he did at Hoylake last year in the Open Championship.  Rather than play for absurd distance, Woods plays for accuracy with irons and fairway woods off of the tee to get into the fairway.  Woods made lots of birdies with approaches from out of the rough, but when he needed to hit the fairway, he returned to his Royal Aberdeen strategy – and it worked better than everyone else, again.

This season is the best example of how far ahead Woods is of the rest of the Tour in terms of pure golf talent.  Woods is by no means playing his best possible golf, but he is getting the job done at an absurd clip.  Tiger is missing well over half of his fairways.  He is playing a lot out of the rough and the sand.  Despite that, he still plays enough brilliant shots and sinks awe-inspiring putts that carry him to the tournament title week in and week out. 

Could you imagine the state of the Tour if Woods was playing at his peak performance?  He would probably be riding a six event win streak right now and have a fifth green jacket.  The player of the year award would have been determined – although Quail Hollow may have put the first nail in the coffin for that award.  We would be talking about the possibility that Woods could again challenge Byron Nelson’s incomparable 11 event win streak.  Basically, the golf world wouldn’t know what to do.

Since we don’t have Woods at his best, we’ll just have to make do with the amazing performances we have seen from Tiger so far in 2007.  Even though he is playing less, he has maximized the value of all of his starts.  Taking two to three weeks between starts has had no impact upon Woods’ ability to win.  Hell, it may have even enhanced it.  But, this kind of impact with his current schedule may set up an even more feverish clip of victories in the final few months of the season. 

I’m so confident in Woods that I’m going to throw out a prediction – not something I usually like to do.  Woods will win double digit tournaments this season.  Mark it down and bet the house.  Tiger Woods is going to make history this year and he’s going to do it without the greatest of his abilities.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  Having graduated from the University of Maryland in 2004 and 2006, Ballengee brings the perspective of the younger golf fan to the microphone and his columns.  Over the nearly five years he has been broadcasting and writing, Ballengee has developed a reputation for a unique interviewing style that asks both the difficult and fun questions. You can also get The 19th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here The Golf Newsnet Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.