Here is the blow-by-blow of Tiger's morning on Tuesday. Here is another one.
In case you haven't turned on ESPN or your computer in the last four hours, the world's No. 1 golfer has returned to the PGA Tour and with it has come an absolutely insane about of coverage about Tiger Woods… and just for his Tuesday practice round. While I normally reserve Wednesday to get major coverage of the PGA Tour with a gathering of links, I thought it a worthwhile endeavor to make The Hunt the ultimate syndication of Woods-related news items for the lunch hour today.
About an hour ago, ESPN and ESPN News aired Tiger's opening press conference at the World Golf Championships live in which he discussed many subjects, including that he expects to be nervous on the first tee tomorrow when he faces the lowest-ranked player in the field, Australian Brendan Jones.
"The day I'm not nervous is the day I quit," Woods said.On the other hand, Jones says he would bet on Woods if he absolutely had to wager on tomorrow's match in this Bloomberg article. Some pretty candid stuff in this piece, including Jones' admission that his friends have joked that he should take out Tiger's knee if he is losing.
Here you'll find a gallery of photos from Tiger's Tuesday practice round, in which he wore a his trademark "TW" hat in white with Nike's new "Victory Red" logo on the panel. Woods wore a gray sweater vest during the round at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana, Ariz.
ESPN.com's Bob Harig caught all the action this morning, noting that Woods only missed one fairway on the front nine during his practice round/media extravaganza. (Side note: Harig's bracket has Woods losing to Irish phenom Rory McEllroy in the third round, which I find to be very bold and very stupid)
SI's Gary Van Sickle says Tigermania was back in full force this morning, and points out that Woods looked especially in control despite eight months away from the Tour. Van Sickle also writes it was a smart move for Tiger to return now, in late February.
SI senior writer Damon Hack wrote this morning that the weight of the golfing world seem to rest on Tiger's shoulders this week, as he returns to a Tour in desperate need of his presence to generate energy and sponsor confidence on the PGA.
Two days after winning his second-straight Northern Trust Open, Phil Mickelson beat Tiger to the range on Tuesday morning. If you take only one thing from the coverage, watch the video taken at the practice tee in Marana showing Mickelson hitting balls when Tiger first arrives. Neither player acknowledges the other, not even saying hello, and Mickelson doesn't even turn around to see if indeed Woods is on the range. He just stands and hits ball after ball, stoic, working with Woods' old swing coach Butch Harmon to prepare for the WGC.
ESPN.com's Jason Sobel will live blog Tiger's first match against Jones tomorrow. Unlike Harig, Sobel went the safe route in his bracket predictions, taking Tiger to beat Andres Romero in the final. Here is his Weekly 18 outlining Tiger's potential path to the WGC championship.
The group over at PGATour.com has made their expert picks for this week, and its no surprise that the No.1 selection is none other than Tiger.
ESPN analyst Andy North thinks Tiger will need to control his emotions in order to be successful this week in the Match Play format. Here is a link to a podcast he shared with Sobel this week.
A UK Times Columnist thinks Woods will never match Muhammad Ali's influence in the world of sports. I personally disagree with his argument, especially now, when boxing is completely an irrelevant sport in the mainstream. They have, by all accounts, participated in remarkably different eras and Woods obiviously has not been faced with the realities of the Vietnam War and enlistment and Ali's great hardships in the public eye. A decent read today, nonetheless.
Has Michael Jordan given Tiger a model for returning from a long layoff? The Golf Channel's Mercer Baggs answers that question and others in this notebook.
As if you wanted more, here is a complete viewable bracket for the Match Play field this week.
That's all for now and back Wednesday with more Tiger and first-round analysis.
Photo Courtesy/Getty Images
1 comments:
Ali has more influence over Woods. ERRONEOUS. Different era's, different sports, different persona. Woods is a class act (not that Ali wasn't a hero to boxing, because he was), he goes to the course to compete, winning as a class act and losing as a class act. As a PGA fan, I must be honest and say this is the most exciting thing I have seen in a while, Woods IS the PGA Tour: He brings people coming back to watch and their revenues are because of T-Woods.
Nice Work Charlie, I enjoyed this post.
Post a Comment