Tiger Woods Blows it for Himself and the PGA

Y.E. Yang shocked the world and probably himself by beating the world’s best golfer, and maybe the greatest golfer of all time, Tiger Woods, by coming back from 2 strokes down Sunday to win the PGA Championship. Yang is the first Asian player to win a Major, the first player to beat Tiger Woods when Woods was tied or all alone in the lead after 54 holes of golf. Golf enthusiasts cheered, David took down Goliath, 12 never struck for Cinderella, No. 110 took down No. 1.

Yay? I don’t think the PGA, it’s sponsors, or the casual golf fan are very happy. Tiger Woods in the starter, middle reliever, and closer for the PGA. Without Tiger, as we saw last year, no one cares. Now, people are getting the feeling that Tiger has lost it. He didn’t win a major this year and pretty much choked away the PGA Championship after missing the cut at the British Open.

Woods hasn’t regressed as much as people like to think. He’s still won a very impressive five tourneys in 2009, and has staged some remarkable comebacks this year. Only the more serious fans realize this, but the media will be all about Tiger’s lack of a major in 2009.

Yang winning is good, at the moment. But looking back 20 or 30 years from now, wouldn’t you rather tell your kids or grandchildren about how the greatest golfer of all time beat some other guy in a 12-hole playoff after holing out from the fairway on 18. Wouldn’t you rather have told your grandkids about how Tom Watson, the old geezer like you, won the British Open instead of pushing an 8 foot putt way to the right and self-destructing in a 4 hole playoff?

Yang will probably make few headlines anytime soon, and the once “sure prospect” of Woods beating Jack Nicklaus’ record for majors one is suddenly not such a sure thing anymore.

And for the 2009 golf season, there’s not exactly much that fans can look forward to at this point. Will a Fedex Cup tournament excite them? Not exactly. There’s really not much to look for.

We need the Tiger, the best golfer, to be well, the best golfer. He needs to hold leads on Sunday. He needs people to be scared on the last few holes with Tiger on the prowl. We need Tiger Woods to dominate everybody and ask questions later. If he’s labeled the best, he needs to start performing in the biggest and best events.

We need Tiger to be Tiger and everyone else to watch in amazement as he wins Majors, no offense to them, but fans don’t want Y.E. Yang, Angel Cabrera, or Lucas Glover to win. They want Tiger, and Tiger needs to deliver.

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