Anytime Tiger Woods wins a golf tournament, its electrifying. I loved watching every second of Sunday's final eighteen holes at Bay Hill and if you did not, well, I feel sorry for you. Back on December 4th of last year I wrote up my article "A Fist Pump & A Smile" essentially testifying that I believed 2012 was Tiger's year.
After the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship I was pleased with the performance Tiger put on to start the year, shooting (-11) and T-3 for the week it was a good jump start to 2012. You could start to feel Tiger coming back into his own at the Honda Classic after his final round on Sunday of 62 to finish the tournament at (-10). This has been TW's trend ever since his comeback, he has always put together good rounds but has never played the golf he is capable of playing for four straight days. If your an avid follower of Tiger's career, you know that after a 54 hole lead heading into Sunday, he's seemingly unbeatable. No one even gave him pressure Sunday, and if anyone was going to do it, G-Mac was going to be the one. Graeme had a rough start to his day with his double bogey on the first and showed signs of life throughout the afternoon but really never got it going. When Tiger was faced with putts inside ten feet this week, he buried nearly every single one of them. As far as greens in regulation, Tiger was on point all day & all week long, firing at every single pin and hitting great golf shots.
With his up and down performances in the last couple years, anytime TW plays with such dominance as he did this week, you really have to appreciate it. Playing the game of golf takes an immense amount of confidence and when Tiger has it, he's unbeatable. He played well for 72 holes this week, but the key was his putting, which at one point was the most questionable club in his bag. Nevertheless, it all came together in Bay Hill this week.
This is exactly what he needed heading into Augusta National which he played last weekend. The entire course has always played extremely favorable to Tigers swing and his ability to cut the golf ball into those treacherous greens. Tiger has not won the Masters since 2005, and has not won a major tournament since 2008. He is hungry to get his fifth green jacket. This years field at the Masters will arguably be on of the most competitive in recent years. However, the weight of the world was just lifted from Tiger's shoulders just a few hours ago. He showed his uncanny ability to stay calm and get the job done in his sunday red. With that, this Masters tournament will be one of the most anticipated for Tiger in a long time, he's showing signs of life again, and I sure hope to see Charl Schwartzel lift that green jacket over Tiger's shoulders in Butler Cabin on Sunday April 8th.
PJG
