EastStandBlue
Life President
Ok, Ok, I know this is late... But I was on my travels while this happened.
While your reading this, there's no doubt in my mind that Tiger Woods is on a golf course somewhere, meticulously tinkering away with his swing and clubs, trying to identify just what went wrong at Hazeltine.
After two rounds Woods had held a four shot lead over the chasing pack, with his most likely challenger Padraig Harrington behind him on -3 and even going into the final day, Yang Yong-Eun was two shots behind. The omens were good, Woods had won 15 consecutive titles after leading into the final day of a tournament and every aspect of his play was looking pretty much as you would expect it to; immaculate.
The other challengers had continued to fall by the way side. Vijay Singh couldn't doctor his scorecard enough to catch up, Harrington had relived his fondness of water from a week prior to shoot an eight on a par 3 and a superb round from the prodigy Rory McIlroy only led him to -3. All was as it should be, yet Tiger was showing signs of something completely alien to him, signs of weakness or perhaps doubt as he failed to read the greens properly, costing him valuable shots.
Taking nothing away from YE Yang, he played a stunning round... Even Woods himself admitted that he had played "Beautifully" and that he was fully deserving of his title, becoming the first Asian-born winner of a major championship. 110th in the rankings at the start of play, the South Korean was almost unheard of with only one previous tour win. Yet he quietly played his way into contention over the course of Saturday and, with all the ruthlessness of a Tiger, shot down Woods and overtook him going into the last two holes.
His victory will no doubt spark an onslaught of young Asian golfers, similar to how the South Korean national team exploded after their performance in the 2002 World Cup, and Yang was rightly speechless following his birdie on the 18th, holding his clubs aloft for the lack of a trophy.
Woods, as gracious in loss as he is in victory, congratulated the Korean but admitted their is work to be done in the coming weeks and months as he continues his hunt for form, so much so that he has commited himself to the full FedEx Cup regime. Outspoken, angry and, most probably drunk, grumpy Scot Colin Montgomerie recently stated his belief that Tiger had lost his unassailable aura through the surgery to repair his knee... and he'd have a point if Tiger was anything other than an enigma of the sport.
Yang might be the deserved Champion, but I'd put my house on Woods hitting the ground running in eight months time when the Majors roll around again.
While your reading this, there's no doubt in my mind that Tiger Woods is on a golf course somewhere, meticulously tinkering away with his swing and clubs, trying to identify just what went wrong at Hazeltine.
After two rounds Woods had held a four shot lead over the chasing pack, with his most likely challenger Padraig Harrington behind him on -3 and even going into the final day, Yang Yong-Eun was two shots behind. The omens were good, Woods had won 15 consecutive titles after leading into the final day of a tournament and every aspect of his play was looking pretty much as you would expect it to; immaculate.
The other challengers had continued to fall by the way side. Vijay Singh couldn't doctor his scorecard enough to catch up, Harrington had relived his fondness of water from a week prior to shoot an eight on a par 3 and a superb round from the prodigy Rory McIlroy only led him to -3. All was as it should be, yet Tiger was showing signs of something completely alien to him, signs of weakness or perhaps doubt as he failed to read the greens properly, costing him valuable shots.
Taking nothing away from YE Yang, he played a stunning round... Even Woods himself admitted that he had played "Beautifully" and that he was fully deserving of his title, becoming the first Asian-born winner of a major championship. 110th in the rankings at the start of play, the South Korean was almost unheard of with only one previous tour win. Yet he quietly played his way into contention over the course of Saturday and, with all the ruthlessness of a Tiger, shot down Woods and overtook him going into the last two holes.
His victory will no doubt spark an onslaught of young Asian golfers, similar to how the South Korean national team exploded after their performance in the 2002 World Cup, and Yang was rightly speechless following his birdie on the 18th, holding his clubs aloft for the lack of a trophy.
Woods, as gracious in loss as he is in victory, congratulated the Korean but admitted their is work to be done in the coming weeks and months as he continues his hunt for form, so much so that he has commited himself to the full FedEx Cup regime. Outspoken, angry and, most probably drunk, grumpy Scot Colin Montgomerie recently stated his belief that Tiger had lost his unassailable aura through the surgery to repair his knee... and he'd have a point if Tiger was anything other than an enigma of the sport.
Yang might be the deserved Champion, but I'd put my house on Woods hitting the ground running in eight months time when the Majors roll around again.
