I’m on break this week, so I had a chance to watch the end of the oft-delayed WGC Championship at Doral. Here’s the long and the short of it: Geoff Oglivy won following a week of solid, even extraordinary, putting. Tiger finished fifth, behind Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh, who all tied for second.
So here’s what we now know:
- Byron Nelson’s streak of 11 straight victories will not fall.
- Tiger will not go undefeated this year.
- There’s enough talent on the Tour that if a couple of them play very well, and Tiger plays less than extraordinary golf, it’s anyone’s game.
That last is the most important lesson here. Tiger wasn’t edged out by a single shot on the last hole. Four players finished ahead of him; all of them are previous major winners. What this says is that—in spite of the endless hype by The Golf Channel—the other players are not going to simply roll over and allow Tiger to cruise through the season.
To that, I’ll repeat my prediction: Tiger will not win the Grand Slam this year. He’ll lose at the Masters.
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Well, now we can all rest easily.
I will be the contrarian and say that I think he will win the Masters, but I don’t think he will win the Grand Slam, he will only get 50% of the way there.