Tiger golf is back -- and not a moment too soon
With all due respect to Vijay Singh, Paul Goydos, George Lopez, Charley Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman, Abbie Hoffman and FedEx and its Cup, the PGA Tour season really begins this week at the Buick Invitational. After nearly four months of waiting, it's finally Tiger time. Even the return of Phil Mickelson last week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic was not enough to make it feel like any of it mattered yet. It's Tiger Woods and his six-tournament winning streak we have been pining for all winter.
And the papa-to-be could not be returning at a better time. The two week run-up to the Super Bowl is the sports journalism equivalent of root canal.
Prepare for a 14-day information avalanche during which fans will be snowed under by more information about the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears than is humanly imaginable -- not to mention remotely interesting -- climaxing, no doubt, with dueling profiles of the two long snappers.
Thankfully, into the blizzard of shameless hype steps Tiger Woods, who remains one of the most-compelling stories in sports. This week we will remember he has won six consecutive PGA Tour events -- tying himself and Ben Hogan for the second-best in tour history -- and that only he possesses the talent and focus to make Byron Nelson's unbreakable all-time mark of 11 in a row seem breakable. Tiger Woods playing well is not only the best story golf has to offer; it is one of the best stories sports has to offer.
The last time we saw Tiger in a PGA Tour event was Oct. 1 when he was a 30-year-old guy putting away the field by eight strokes at the American Express Championship in England. He has since turned 31 and announced to the world that sometime this summer his first child will be born. That announcement was soon followed by his revelation he was skipping the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship and would begin his year instead at the tournament sponsored by the car company from whom he receives a rather generous annual check.
So as we await Tiger to tee it up this week at Torrey Pines, these questions rattle around in our Super Bowl-addled heads: Will Tiger be in top form?
Will Mickelson do what he did in 2000 at Torrey Pines and stop Tiger's six-in-a-row streak? Will the TV ratings go through the roof? And, most curiously, does Tiger know he is tied for 129th place in FedEx Cup points? Vijay Singh is first with 4,621, Paul Goydos comes next at 4,564 followed by Charley Hoffman at 4,500. Woods is tied with Dustin and Abbie Hoffman at zero.
But, in a statement probably as far off the mark as when President Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address: "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here ..." golf fans have been so swept up in the scintillating start to the season they have not noticed Tiger's absence.
Of course we have. Greatness is judged against greatness, and without Tiger Woods in the field, no tournament has a meaningful measuring stick for success.
Goydos and Hoffman (Charley, not Dustin or Abbie, although Charley's hair does make him look a little like he'd have fit in with Abbie's Yippie tribe) no doubt are thrilled with their early-season success. But don't you think that Mercedes-Benz trophy would have meant a little more to Vijay if Tiger had been in the field? Certainly, you know Mickelson is going to be way more stoked this week at the Buick than he was last week at the Hope. Champions want to beat the best. And the best is back this week.
If Tiger does extend his streak to seven this week, he will get more time to work on his game because his appearance next week in the Dubai Desert Classic won't count in terms of the record because it's a European Tour event. Most likely, his next appearance on the PGA Tour after Torrey Pines will be the Nissan in Los Angeles Feb. 15-18. And that's even better timing for sports fans because the Super Bowl will be behind us and pitchers and catchers will just be arriving at spring training. You think Dubai is in a desert? February is as barren as it gets for sports fans.
But the PGA Tour could have something much more compelling than the FedEx Cup to carry it into spring. It could have Tiger chasing history. Let's just suppose here for a minute that Tiger wins his seventh in a row this week and that his next event is the Nissan. That would be No. 8.
It would not be an unreasonable assumption that his next three events after that would be the Accenture Match Play Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill and the World Golf Championship CA Championship at Doral. Do you know what that means? The attempt at the record-breaking 12th in a row would come at the Masters. You think that might be the most-watched golf tournament in history? Even the long snappers for the Colts and Bears will be tuning in.
Now you could not possibly have as much conjecture as I have just laid out.
And the chances that we will get to April with Tiger's win streak still intact are about as long as the odds are that we will get through the next two weeks without reading a story about how Peyton Manning has to prove he can win the big game. But it is a measure of the magic of Tiger Woods that we even can speculate that he could achieve the seemingly unachievable. He is all about redefining limits, always has been and always will be.
Welcome back, Tiger. Congratulations on that baby thing. And thanks for rescuing us for at least a week from wondering if Peyton Manning can become Phil Mickelson and redefine his place in history by finally winning the football equivalent of a major championship. There is golf and then there is Tiger golf. Tiger golf is back. Let's tee it up and get going. Is it Thursday yet?
Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine. Do you have a question or comment for Ron? Send your inquiries to editors@golfdigest.com with the word "Sirak" in the subject field.
