Photo: © Reuters/WireImage |
| Woods just couldn't get things going last week at Bay Hill. |
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But maybe that's why he is great. He realizes he is not the best every week. He realizes when he's not the best, he certainly can get beat. He's not fooling himself - the world is full of really good golfers, and when he is not spot-on, he will lose. Well, at least most of the time.
"I think you have to analyze your performance and where you went wrong," Tiger said in rehashing that cruel day two Sundays ago. "Too many people are afraid to look deep down and look at where you made mistakes. That's not always easy to do, to be honest with yourself.
"That's something my father always instilled in me and even to this day, sometimes it's difficult, but you have to take an honest look and have an honest evaluation of your performance. I made too many mental mistakes (at Bay Hill,) which I never do. Physical mistakes I can handle, but since this is not a reactionary sport, it's just frustrating for me to make a mental mistake."
After such slipshod days, though, he indeed is at his most dangerous. He has gone off by himself for a little fireside chat, figured out where he had faulty thought processes, and when he emerges, he is VERY good. In fact, he wins at a better than 50 percent clip when he has finished out of the top 20 - a success rate of 13 victories in 23 tries the very next tournament.
Tiger finished in a tie for 22nd at Bay Hill, after being as close as one shot to the lead on the front side Sunday. But at Doral, he had all the mental mistakes worked out. He led by as much as six strokes before doing what needed to be done for a two-shot win.
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images | | Tiger Woods wins the WGC-CA Championship for a six time. |
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For the year, his record is now four tournaments played and two wins. He is the best in the game at playing from the sand and at hitting greens in regulation. He is No. 1 in making eagles.
Of course, he couldn't tell you from a memory basis where he stands on the ranking board in sand saves, greens in regulation, or eagles. He wouldn't know that he is 20th in putting, or that he is second in scoring average. He knows the record, however, in that most important category - two wins in four tries.
"To be honest with you," said Tiger, "I haven't looked at any of the PGA Tour stats since I think maybe '02 or something, '03. I don't know what's going on, where I rank in what.
"All I know is after my play I go over each round, each tournament, evaluate it, look back on it and learn from it. I'm not that analytical on writing things down like Annika, but I will take a hard look at myself, and try and figure out where I went wrong, and also where I went right so I can build on that as well."
The process doesn't always come the week following a botched tournament. Often it comes the moment after he's hit a wayward shot. He doesn't need to look at the tour statistics to know that the shot skied out of control.
"Deep down, I know exactly what shot I was trying to play, and what the conditions were and what I was feeling and thinking. I'm the only one who can actually, truly, take a hard look at it and be honest with it."
And 'be honest with it' he does. If it was a lousy shot - and, yes, he does hit those sometimes - he 'fesses up. Tiger Woods does play dumb shots at times, Tiger Woods says.
The important thing about such shots, though, is that you don't you don't try to put a pretty pink bow on a pig. You've got to be brutally honest. And, you've got to do it not only when you lose a tournament, but also when you win a tournament.
"How are you going to win if you don't study your losses, and how are you going to win if you don't study your wins?" he reasons. "It's both."
That's one of the many reasons that he is perhaps the best who ever played. Because he realizes he can be just another golfer if he isn't in tiptop shape mentally, he has become the greatest player certainly of this generation.
"He's just better than us, I think," said Geoff Ogilvy. "I don't know, I wish I could work out how he does it, because he seems to do it every time we play, I mean, he's just better than us, really. If I knew what he was doing, I'd try to do it myself."
It's a secret that belongs to Tiger. It is just a matter of being honest - brutally honest, he says. On the days when he doesn't have it, he is honest enough with himself to confess it. But on the days when he does, he is untouchable.
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