October 29, 2019 • 51 mins
We discuss the amazing feat that Tiger Woods was able to accomplish in Japan at the ZoZo Championship. He has tied the great Sam Snead for the most PGA Tour victories of all time. How many more can he win? Can he get to 100? Where does this put him in the list of all time great athletes? We answer all this...and more!!! We are PLAYING THROUGH!!!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't mind us where playing through here and welcome to
another edition I'll be playing through podcast. It's Froggy from
Elvis Random the Morning Show, along with Golf Digests amazing
writer Brian Whacker, and this is another podcast that there
was a time I didn't think we'd ever have a
(00:23):
chance to do, and here we are. We're gonna even
though this technically is not podcast number eighty two, that's
what we're gonna call it. Soy, I was wondering, you
know what, what I was wondering what podcast we were
up here? This is number eight two. That really would
have been weird. Yeah, it's no number eighty two, but
it's close. It's getting very very close. I will actually
look while we're doing the podcast and I'll tell you
(00:44):
but this is going to be all about number eighty
two because that was a time Whacker, we didn't think
we'd never see this, But now here we are again
that I don't think eighty two is the end of
the line. I think that this goes higher. You agree, well, yeah, Look,
it's hard to argue otherwise because in the elephant in
the room, of course, is whether Tiger can stay healthy
(01:06):
or not? Right, I mean, look, the last fourteen starts
he's had on the tour, he's won three times. That's
as many as Brooks Kopka, and that's as many as
Rory McIlroy, who was the Player of the Year on
the PGA Tour. Now, look, I don't want to get
carried away, and you and I talked yesterday. Look, he
did Tiger have as good a season as Rory or Brooks? No?
(01:26):
I mean, yes, Tiger won a major acid Brooks. Brooks
also finished in the top four in all four majors
and had a tremendous year and had I believe nine
other top ten Rory meanwhile, almost never finished outside the
top ten, also had three wins, one of players Championship.
So you know, both had what I think we're better years.
(01:49):
But that's not what this is about. This is about
Tiger continuing to win. Because questions had come up, we
started to wander again. You know, we saw the fall
off after gust uh and then we hear about the
knee surgery, and so we wonder. Now, look, the knee surgery.
I don't want to classify as his minor, but athletes
(02:09):
get knees scopes all the time. But it's still a
procedure on a knee that has probably been operated on
multiple times. Absolutely, fifth knee surgery. Look, the guys got
the guy's like he's like Mr Potato Head, Okay. I
mean he's had four back surgeries, five knee surgeries, a
bunch of other surgeries. I mean, I don't know how
many other times you can can operate. Don't don't forget
(02:33):
the Achilles injury that he had back. I mean, he's
got more hole in his body than like the old
you know, uh, what was the old game, Froggy. You
and I are Stamiley both old enough to remember this operation. Yeah, right,
Like that's that's basically what his body looks like. It's
just have all these holes and it's just sort of
(02:53):
patched together. So you know, look, I think we all
thought after Gusta he would win more and so forth.
And there's a lot of buzz and a lot of
talk about, Look, he's gonna win more majors and so forth,
and I think we discovered, at least to me, you know,
at forty three. Look, he's just not going to be
as consistent. You know. Some of that is being forty three,
(03:14):
Some of that is the depth of the fealty spacing.
Some of that is injuries that are going to crop up,
as we saw in dealing with the knee problem, uh
for some length of time during the course of this
past season. But when he's healthy as we see it,
as we saw in Japan and playing well, he is
going to win golf tournaments. There he can win golf tournaments.
(03:35):
I mean the fact that he went nine under on
the par three's for the week in Japan and was
a career bet that's a career best. I mean, how
about that this guy at forty three, you're still setting
career best marks. I mean for all he's accomplished. So
to me, that's amazing. And this latest victory just speaks
(03:56):
to the fact that look, Tiger and I wrote this
for golf tiges dot Com, you can it there. Um,
Tiger is obviously an all timer in terms of not
just golf but sports. He's up there with the Michael
Jordan's and Gordy House and you know, on down the list,
And to me, those are guys when you look at
the history of sports, in history of golf, you know,
(04:18):
great players are great athletes all time grades are capable
of you know, tremendous performances really at any point in
their career, even Michael Jordan's. This is a guy who
averaged twenty points, a career low twenty points in his
final season in the NBA. I think he was forty
years old playing for the Wizards. But yet he still
had three games that season where he went over forty
(04:40):
points and shot over and each of those games, I
don't think he's at that yet. I don't think he's
in the final season yet. No, he's not, but he's
certainly in the in the back end of his career. Look,
golf as his sport, you can play for twenty thirty years.
But he said yesterday that he would like to play
until he's fifty something. So if he's gonna play until
he he's fifty two, like this is this is something
(05:02):
else I want to talk about? Is that? Alright? So
he's forty three, he'll be forty four in December. So
this this year's majors are over. So if he plays
for forty four five two for nine more seasons, nine
times four is thirty six more chances at majors. Now,
(05:25):
this is also with the caveat that we're healthy, we
don't know when he's really healthy, because, like you said,
so he plays the Masters. Last year he wins, we
all go crazy with okay, eight teens in play. This
is It was a foregone conclusion last year in April
that he was gonna win multiple times. Now he did
(05:47):
technically win multiple times in the year nineteen. However, he
told us for a long time he was healthy. We
did have a knee procedure. He has now admitted that
he could not been down to read putts. He was
not able to swing properly. He was putting undue pressure
on the back. And and I mean, so now we
know that when we were told he was healthy, he
(06:07):
wasn't healthy. So we don't ever really know what the
full truth is when we're getting it. And sometimes you
find out what the truth is later. And I don't
like that as a fan, but I have come to
understand it. That's what we're gonna get. It's what we've
always gotten. We always we always know what he wants
us to know, and that's all you're ever gonna know.
And then when he wants to tell you more, he does,
(06:30):
and when he doesn't, he doesn't. But if he plays
at least fifty two years old, you would. I mean,
if he only wins once, that puts him over. If
he wins once a season, remember, like you said, he's
won three times in the last thirteen months, as many
as anybody else on tour. He's played fewer events than
anybody else on tour and won those three times. If
he wins once a year for the next nine years,
(06:51):
that puts him into the nineties. He's gonna have nineties
something career victories if he wins nine more times, and
that gives him already six chances at major's if he
can stay healthy. I'm not willing to say he's in
the twilight yet. He's still in a he still could
have a very good run. He put a ball striking
clinic on in Japan, and that's after having surgery nine
(07:15):
weeks ago. It's unbelievable what he just did, and like
you said, setting records, career records. Still, I don't know
that we're on the real quote downturn. I get around
the down side of the mountain, but I don't think
we're going downhill as fast as we think. Sometimes, well,
it all depends, as you said, on the health, and
you never know how else going to play out. So
I think we just have to sort of wit, let
(07:37):
it play out and see what happens. But to the
point about the eighty two look, this is this is
a number that nobody I think is certainly not in
our lifetime. I think it's ever going to touch Put
that in perspective, right, eighty two victories. So the other
two winning IS players in the past twenty five years,
Phil Nicholson and d J. Singh, they have a combined
(07:59):
four fewer titles than Tigers two. Here's more numbers. Okay,
this will tell you about sort of the next generation
if you will, if you take just listen to this
and then it's laughable. Brooks Keth Guts plus Rory McRoy
plus Dustin Johnson, who by the way, is one every
(08:20):
year of his career and has been out there for
over ten years, and they've had a couple of multiple
win seasons. Justin Thomas john rom Patrick Cantley, Justin Rose,
Xander Shotley and Bryson Shamba, right, all of them who
were they were the nine players ranked ahead of Tiger
in the world rank. He's heading into the suite. They
have seventy nine PGA Tour wins between them, so perspective. Yeah,
(08:47):
So to me, two things. One, you know, this is
just a reminder that Tiger has set yet another mark,
much like his consecutive cuts. Street made his weeks at
number one in the world, and you know, his victory
total aren't never going to be caught. That is, that
is a record that will never be broken. And it's
sort of like I look at cal Ripkens market Baseball
(09:10):
for consecutive games played. I don't think in the way
the game is played today, in certain ways, the sported
I don't think that will ever be touched. Probably the
hitting Street will probably the six game hitting Street will
probably never be broken. You know, you can look at
other records in baseball like strikeouts and wins and things
(09:30):
like that, because of the way pitching is now constructed,
those marks will never be broken in Tiger. To me
that you know, he's got a number of these records
that will never be broken, but now he's got a
chance to add to it. And to me, this is
this is the most compelling part of his career, right
And I again I wrote this for y'all just dot
com you can read there or on Twitter. To me,
this is most compelling. Look, when he was at the
(09:52):
height of his career, everyone expected this guy. People were
talking majors, people expected him to win every single time
he heat it up. I don't think we have that anymore.
I think there's certainly the hope, but because these performances
are fleeting and this isn't in two point Look, I agree,
this isn't. I don't think he has like another year
(10:14):
or two. He's not in the final year or two
of his career probably unless there's injury and all. It's me,
this is the most compelling because I've always gone through
because uh, the way he seems to have changed in
his interaction with every everything from the media to fans too.
Things we don't see off camera. He's sort of a
(10:34):
different guy. I mean, look, everybody's a different person in
their forties and they are in the twenties or thirties.
And to me, this is most compelling because the opportunities
are fewer, but you can still dial up these great
performances and it really makes you appreciate what he's able
to do. And he seems to be appreciating um as well,
and I think we should as well. You know, it's unbelievable.
(10:57):
I follow I'm sure this shocks you. I follow golf
Channel Tiger Tracker, who tweets every single shot, goes to
the tournaments, and golf Channel has never ever divulged who
this person is. But he goes to every tournament, tweets
every shot. And I also follow t W Legion, which
is tw spot. He was also a huge Tiger fan.
And so Tracker went back and said yesterday that he
(11:20):
counted up everything from when he has started following Tiger
Woods and the very first tournament he started was Dural.
So he says, since he's done ninety nine events, including
two Ryder Cups and one President's Cup, and if you
count Tiger versus Phil in the Skins game, he's done
(11:42):
a hundred and one events. He's won eleven and if
you knock out the two Ryder Cups and the President's Cup,
it's actually he's played nine events. He's won eleven of
nine events. That and remember this is during the span
of golf of his career from to now. We have
(12:04):
had gone through the time where we went through the
chipping yips and he was a joke, and he was this,
and he was that, and he's still won eleven times
out of that's ten, he's over ten percent. He's won
over ten winning percentage during the worst of his career
and at the height he was attent. You take his
(12:24):
best ten years versus Jack Nicholas's best ten years, and
Tiger is in that thirty percent for winning, which is incredible,
which is better than Jack. Right was in um memory's
failing me a bit at the moment, but I think
Jack was in the range. The Tiger's best ten years
(12:46):
were so dominant it was incredible. And but yeah, this
is about this sort of third act of his career.
Right he had, he had the incredible first part of
his career, then you had the dark out turn in
the middle part of his career, and now we're seeing
this resurrection of Tiger personally professionally. He's doing this without
(13:10):
a swing coach. He seems to be in command of
his sort of his life and his and his game,
his swing. I mean, the fact that he hit sixty
percent of his fairways in Japan and the golf course
that you know was tightened and spots and it wasn't
wide open by any means tells you. And you look
at the swing and we talked about this over the weekend.
(13:31):
Try you that, you know, you look at that swing.
It's a very controlled swing. He's really getting through to
that left side. It's sort of flat move that, you know,
flat smooth, kind of moved to his left side. It's
got no violence in it like it did before exactly
and to me, and he's still hitting it far enough. Sure,
he's you know, it's during the height of his career.
(13:54):
He would win by blowing your path to everybody in part,
but he doesn't have to. And he said that in
the in in the in the press conference, after standing
on the green, he's like, listen, I can think my
way around the golf course. I can still knock it
out there far enough. And he hits his irons far enough.
You and I talked about this yesterday, yes, okay. So
on the twelfth hole, his first holl that he played
(14:15):
on I guess it was technically Monday, the final round,
when he had the seven holes to finish, he hits
his driver. He has two and twelve yards in for
tiger Woods, sooner in twelve yards is an easy six iron.
The average golfer standing on on on a golf course
with a six iron in his hand is going to
hit the green. I mean, that's what you you think
with a six iron, that's not a very long club.
(14:36):
So even on long par fours, this part four was
almost five yards, he's still got a mid iron in
his hand going into a par four. He can still
play the game. He's still his And the fact that
he hit sixty five of his fairways off the tee,
that's unbelievable. That, I mean Tiger and his prime didn't
(14:57):
hit his fairways, ladies and gentlemen. He starts hitting six
his fairways. He starts playing from the short grass in
the middle of the fairway. It's over, yes. And that's
the thing is that he's not as violent. He's not
trying to kill the ball. He's hitting. And you and
I don't. I don't know how much of the golf
course you want. How much of the golf tournament you
watched number one, if you saw the overhead shots. This
(15:20):
was a tree lined golf course that back in the
day would have been a problem for him because he
would have been playing out of the trees. He hit drivers.
He didn't hit four irons off tees to be conservative.
He hit drivers in three woods when he did miss
the fairway, he didn't mis him by a lot. There
were two drives that he hit into the trees that
he had to hit just straight knockout shots too. That's it.
Sixt fairways and he's hitting drivers and three woods off tees.
(15:44):
He is swinging much more controlled. The golf swing looks good.
He doesn't appear to be in pain, and he putted
absolute lights out. Now I understand he won't put like
this every week, but he missed his share of four
foot or two. I mean, there was plenty of shots.
He gave a way at thirteen on Monday Sunday here
in the States, Monday in Japan. His thirteenth totally missed
(16:06):
an eight footer that I mean did not even come
within six inches of the whole. That's not Tiger. There
was some nerves there. I'm sure he's admitted that he's
nervous at the beginning of rounds, which I respect means
he cares. When you were watching eighteen had actual Mattsu
Yamas in the fairway bunker waiting for the guys to
finish on the green. Wants to go for the green.
Tiger looks so focused standing on that eighteen tea box.
(16:29):
He wasn't joking around with Gary Woodland because they had
been cutting it up in the fairway, walking up and down.
He wasn't cutting it up with Joey. He was so
focused on what was gonna be the next shot, even
though he had a two shot lead and he knew
there was a good chance he probably could have made
bogie on that hole in one. What does he do?
Hits a three wood, puts it into front bunker, knocks
it up there and rolls in Birdie. That's old school
(16:51):
Tiger making Birdie when bogie was an option. He makes Birdie.
We're starting to see things that we have not seen
in a long long time. And I believe it's all
predicated on one thing. Can he keep his body healthy? Well? Yeah,
and I would back it up a little bit. You know, Look,
we saw this type of performance at the Masters, obviously. Yeah.
(17:15):
But he made bogie in the last hole of the Masters.
Remember he bogie the last hole. He knew he could.
He played conservative. He made bogie to make Bertie there
on Sunday. I mean, that was that's old school Tiger.
The gravitas of that moment was so enormous that at
a gust I can tell you it was powerful. You
could feel you could feel it standing on the ground there,
(17:36):
and you know, not even Tiger could would could would
stand that. But you look at the way he played
at East Lake a year ago, controlling his golf ball
there and avoiding any big numbers and mistakes and going
on to win there, and then the Masters, then of
course Japan. So the guys who win and and have
(17:58):
a sort of all times success, the legends of the game.
These guys don't forget what it's like or how to
win once they get in that moment. You know, Tiger
has done it so many times, and he just goes
right back into that mode, locked in, focused, and you're
and you're right. This all comes down. It's all predicated
on health. To me, it's simply a matter of can
(18:21):
he stay healthy, and yes he can. I don't know
where he goes, so you know, I don't I think
it's unrealistic to expect that he would dominate the sport
like he used to, because you know, there's a myriad
of reasons. There's it's a much deeper field now. He
can't overpower golf course is the way he used to.
He's going to have to pick his spots. He's probably
(18:42):
going to play a reduced schedule. He's probably going to
practice less. Even being healthy, I don't think we'll see
him practice and play as much. He's got other things
going on in his life that are important to him,
awesome health. Course, I believed all that back when. I'm
not sure he thought he could win again, because remember
he did say this came from his mouth. Everything from
(19:03):
here on out as gravy, and so I'm not sure
he was as committed at that point because not knowing,
not saying I'm not sure I can do it. However,
now that he has tasted victory three times, I believe
he will become more committed because I believe in his
mind he believes that eighteen is in play, and that
if he can stay healthy, he believes he can do it.
(19:26):
He does not want to stop at eight two. I
can tell you right now. I know that I know
that history loves company, well, the company, the guy making history,
he didn't love company. He wants to be by himself
at the top of the mountain. He loves Sam Sneed,
He respects Sam Sneed. He does not want to stop
at ad two. He wants to blow a D two
out of the water in his mind. And I know
(19:49):
this number is crazy, and I'm not saying it's attainable.
I think in his mind he would love nothing more
than to get to triple digits. I know it's probably
extremely unlikely. I get it. Can you imagine that because
of his health? Don't you agree? Do you think a
hundred is attainable? Good? You know, at this point, I
(20:10):
think we all learned to say, uh, you never say
never with with tigers involved, no matter what the circumstances.
That's that's the long ways off eighteen um to your point.
You you know, look, even if we're talking, even if
you want to go as so as far as ten
ten more years, I mean, that's winning every year. That's
having a couple of really big years where he wins
(20:30):
six seven times in a year, And I just I
don't know that. No, he needs eighteen. He needs eighteen
victories to get there. If he played ten more years
and he won twice a year. Listen, he's won three
times in the last thirteen months. And let's be honest.
Between the Masters and the Zozo, he had one top ten.
He did not play great. He played Okay, he miscuts
(20:51):
he did not play great, but did not really contend.
You know, look, I think it's more realistic, And this
is crazy to say, but I think it's. Um, I
think it's more realistic that he he would get to
eighteen major championships, then he gets a hundred victories just
because eighteen more victories is I mean, you're you're talking
about basically spending the next ten years having what Yeah,
(21:15):
he he needs Dustin Johnson's career basically again, yeah, I mean,
and then sum So it's that's a lot to expect.
I mean, look, guys can win. Guys are proving that
they can win at an advanced age. We thought Davis
Love to do it at the Winding Championship a couple
of years ago, winning at age fifty one. So you know,
(21:36):
but look, is Tiger going to you know, continue to
win at a clip of three three tournaments a year.
I'm not sure about that, but I do think he's
clearly not done winning. I is one of he's healthy.
He's going to win more tournaments. It's just a matter
of how many. And at this point, who knows that
the numbers? Who knows? You know, let's just enjoy it
and soaking in and watch it, you know, because we
(21:58):
don't know. He can have to see six months from
now and you just don't know. A couple of other
things I want to touch on. He did start this
tournament with three consecutive bogie which is unbelievable. As well,
he was three over on the first three holes and
shot and made nine birdies on the closing fourteen. I
mean it was really that's the first time, at least
(22:21):
according to DJ Tour staffs the folks, which only goes
back to but that's the first time that somebody has
done that and gone on to win a tournament, right, unbelievable.
So another first for Tigers. When you look at his
win percentage, it took him three hundred and fifty nine
starts to win eighty two tournaments. To put that into comparison,
(22:41):
Ben Hogan needed three hundred starts to win sixty four.
Sam Sneed needed five eight five to win his eighty
two and Jack Nicholas, who Tigers always compared to, played
five d and nine events and one seventy three. That's
a twelve point two percent winning percentage. Tigers is almost
twice that. It's unbelievable. What he's been able to do
(23:03):
is first win happened in then you look on. His
tenth win was in twenty in two thousand thirty in
just two years later, oh two, his forty two years
after that in two thousand four, his fiftieth two years
later in two thousand six, his seventieth in two thousand nine,
three years later. Then things did start to slow down.
(23:24):
Nine years later one is eight, one is eighty one,
and his eighty two in nineteen. He's the greatest athlete
of player. However you want to put it in any
sport in your mind, I'll say that he has done
more and and it's it's difficult to say this and
compare to other sports because golf is a single handed
Uh you know, I know the caddy plays an important part.
(23:45):
I know he's got a team of people behind him
to help him. However, there's one guy holding the club,
one guy hitting the shots. Um, golf is a is
a single sport. However, in my lifetime, I have not seen,
nor have I read about anybody prior to my lifetime
has done as much for one sport that I could
argue that one man is bigger than the sport. Ever,
(24:07):
I don't think that you know, I know Tom Brady
has done a lot for the NFL. But before Tom Brady,
there was Joe montana Um, there was Dan Marino, there
was you know, Johnny and Nitis. There was There's been
a ton of great quarterbacks in the NFL. A lot
of people have done a lot of good things for
the NFL. Peyton Manning has done a lot of good
things for the NFL at the same time Tom Brady has.
(24:28):
I'm not saying any of those guys are as good
as Tom Brady, but arguably they've done as much for
the sport. Is he bigger than Michael Jordan's Yes, because
I think you and I spoke about it yesterday. Uh,
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson did a lot for the NBA.
Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, they had
(24:48):
their era. They did a lot for the NBA. No,
I mean, go back and look at the purses that
guys were winning prior to Tiger Woods coming out on tour.
He has caused companies to up money into the PGA
tour at a rapid pace. The fan participation at events
is through the roof. I mean, go to an event
Tiger Woods isn't playing, and then go to the same
(25:10):
event and let him play at the following year, and
you look at the crowds. I don't have to tell
you what the difference is. There's only one difference. I
hate to say that any one man is bigger than
the sport. And listen, if Tiger Woods wakes up tomorrow
and decides he's done, he just wants to be a dad.
I respect that decision. The PGA Tour is going to
continue on. The PGA Tour is in good hands with
(25:31):
its young talent. However, without him, it is drastically different
than it is with him, whether it's what he's done
up to this point and what he continues to do.
Wait until next year's Masters when he's the defending champion,
and you tell me somebody who does more for their
sport than Tiger Woods, I think that's unquestionably true. I
(25:52):
don't think anybody has carried or done more for their
respective sport dan Tiger. Because you look at the purses,
you look at all of it, it's all because of Tiger.
And I think Michael Jordan's is probably the closest that
would come to mind as being I mean, Jordan's in
the prime of his career was a global icon and superstar.
(26:14):
Beyond that was transcended the sport um You can even
go you could go back to the days of Arnold Palmer.
He was a guy that put golf on television and
made it popular sort of to the masses, but nobody
to this level. I think there's a difference. I think
when you're talking about that impact, I agree with it.
(26:36):
I don't think there's been anybody bigger than Tiger Woods,
certainly in our lifetimes and maybe ever in terms of
their respective sport and being bigger than it. If you
will you see the most now when it comes to
the athletic performances, is he the most dominant? Certainly that
you can He's certainly in the conversation, if not at
the top of the conversation. You can look at guys
(26:58):
like Wayne Gretzky, who is an incredibly dominant player in
his era. You can look at Tiger, of course, you
can look at Jordan's. They're they're handful of other athletes
who would be in this conversation. But but me, Tiger
might be the greatest of all time from that perspective,
because you look at the differences we talked about, the
winning percentages markedly different than Jack's two percent of his starts,
(27:23):
he's one. He's finished in the top ten. Do you
do you know when his top ten percentages it's off
the chart, it's he finishes in the top ten more
than half, greater than half of the time. If he
teas it up two times, he's guaranteed to finish in
the top ten more than one. That's under It's it's
unheard of. I mean, guys, this just doesn't happen. Go
(27:44):
go talk to a tournament director. They sit around and
wait until the last second to see if you wait
for him to commit, And when they do, they open
up more tickets, they have more security, and they because
they know that in some cases the attendance doubles because
Tiger Wood shows up. Go look at ad rates on
the weekends. When CBS is running a tournament, he doesn't
(28:06):
make the cut on the weekend, it drops off. I
remember there was one year he played the Windham but
the Windham Championship, it was the second most he was
in contention on the weekend. It was the second most
watched event they had had the PGA Championship the week before.
More people watched the Windham than we're watching the fourth
round of the p g A Championship that was a
(28:28):
major y because Tiger Woods was playing well. Look, I
mean just the fact that here we are basically in
November and now certainly the TV ratings aren't going to
be through the roof, but here we are. There's a
lot of buzz, a lot of talk about Tiger Woods.
Uh you know about a golf tournament guy winning golf
tournament in Japan on Sunday night US time, Uh, you know,
(28:51):
Monday morning, Japan. And it's all because it's Tiger Woods.
You know, if if it's anybody else, it's not even
close to the same level of the tension. But he
makes it interesting. He certainly makes it far more interesting.
Golf is better obviously with him and having him healthy
and now happy and a sort of more engaging, more energetic,
(29:13):
more you know, there seems to just be more fun
around him in his life right now. He seems to
appreciate the victories more as well. Winning certainly helps. I
don't think we have this same package um without the winning,
the winning has always mattered to Tiger, and I think
(29:34):
that's a huge part of this. I don't think we're
having these conversations. I don't think Tiger is having quite
the same joy if he's out there finishing. If you
remember I talked about this last year. Remember he's been
back a full year. Now. We have now seen a
full year of Tiger Woods. Actually almost two years, right, Yeah,
we've seen almost two two full seasons. If you remember
(29:56):
I made this point to you, not the twenty teen season.
I know that. I know technically the zozo is is
going to go into the season, it's a wrap around.
But during I said to you, I'm shocked at how
he's finishing in the middle of the pack because he
had that really good finish at the valves Bar and
then things were not good for a little while. He
(30:17):
played well in some major championships and he hung around.
I was surprised at how engaged he was, and how
he would really play hard on Sunday and he'd move
his way up the leaderboard, and how committed he was
because I believe in his mind, he he always believed
that it was coming back. So I do think the
winning has kept him involved. I believe now, like I
(30:40):
said earlier that with three victories, I believe you're gonna
see him. I don't know they'll play more events. I
think fifteen events a years is probably all you're ever
gonna get out of him, and you'll be lucky to
get fifteen. I do believe you're gonna get a more
engaged and a guy that, when he is healthy, will
really be a guy to be reckoned with more often,
because he's proven that when he's healthy, he's as good
(31:02):
as anybody in the world. Still at forty four years
old in December, he's still as good as anybody out
there when he's healthy. And to your point about him
enjoying it more, I'll give you a great line I
heard from a player to a player who goes all
the way back to Tiger's junior days when they played
(31:23):
a lot against each other grown up and they've owned
each other for decades, and this player said, look the
first four team majors he won. And you can read
this engulfed I Just on the website on golf i
Just dot com or in the magazine for a piece
I did on on how Tiger sort has changed and
sort of a nicer guy than he's gotten credit, probably
(31:44):
gotten credit for it, but but seems to be different now.
And and this player said, look, the first four team
Majors he won, he was chasing history. But you could
see it in the emotion he showed at the Masters
that this one was for him, for his family, obviously
his kids. And he's this player said, he got to
enjoy that one more than the other four team combined.
(32:07):
And to this player, that was cool to see. And
I think it speaks to the evolution, the maturing of Tiger.
I mean again we go back to you know, this guy.
For the longest time, all he was was was a golfer.
And I think he's he's involved. You know, he had
this sort of suspended were stunted out of lessons, and
I think we saw some transgressions obviously along the way,
(32:29):
and some personal issues, you know, some really deep seated
personal things. But I think now being a dad, being
forty four, you know, having gone through a lot on
the golf course, off it, you know, being on the
verge of never playing again, as you mentioned, I mean,
it's this guy who stopped there resigned to the fact
that probably never going to play again. And uh, and
(32:50):
here he is, and and he's and he's more appreciative.
And I think he's enjoying these a lot more and
it shows and I think and I think you see
in fans reactions too. I think, you know, a lot
of fans are appreciative because you know, there there are
people that never got to see him at his prime
or never thought he'd get back to even winning tournaments,
(33:11):
are being in contention, and here we are. You know,
he's one of the best players in the world because yeah,
you know, I was reading an article here Paulaisinger last
year said before the Open Championship, he said, I'm not
quite as high on Tigers. That was before he won
the Masters. I'm never going to count him out. He
won the Masters, but it felt like it made Tiger
to content. It's the most content I've ever seen him.
Tiger has never looked satisfied. Don't get me wrong, He's
(33:34):
been happy, but the next day he usually moves on.
He said, the Masters, he did not move on. It
was a mountaintop experience. I think it will be very
difficult for Tiger to ever win another golf tournament. And
it's funny how we all went from right after the Masters,
we thought, up eighteen is under assault. Here we go,
and then we had a rough time and he did
(33:55):
not play very well. I appeared in only three events,
and in the peach A Championship. In the US Open,
he missed some cuts, and he missed the cut at
beth Page. He finished twenty one at Pebble Beach, which
is supposed to be, you know, playground for him. He
did get a top ten at the Memorial, and we wondered, then, okay,
maybe we have seen the end. Maybe he put it
(34:15):
all together one last time and that was the Swan song.
But after what we've seen now and now we know
that there was a knee issue. He wasn't able to
rotate properly. He wasn't able to get down and read putts.
He was he was relying on Joey's reads on putts,
which listen, I'm not saying Joey can't read a putt,
but if you've played golf whatsoever, and there's a good
(34:36):
chance if you're listening to this podcast, you're a golfer,
you trust your own read. Somebody else can tell you
all day that putt breaks left, but if you don't
see it, you don't trust it. So with him not
being able to been down to read puts, we now
understand why he wasn't putting as well. We know now
why he wasn't swinging as well. And now it makes
sense that here we are again, and it all boils
down to I'm not ever going to write him off ever,
(35:00):
just like I don't ever really believe everything he tells us.
When he says that he's healthy, I think we're getting
what he wants us to know. So now we know
that there wasn't the injury. He had it scoped. You know,
my eyes don't lie. Your eyes don't lie. When you
see him swinging the clubs. Something didn't look right last year,
it looks right again. This guy can win more golf tournaments.
(35:21):
He absolutely could. He's back to I'll say this and
tell me if you agree with this, he's back to
being a force. Anytime he tease it up, he absolutely
can win that event. Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
As long as he's healthy every time he tees it up.
I don't think we should expect him to win. Are
necessarily even content because because again I think there's you're
(35:43):
not going to have that prolonged consistency. Though. Eisinger made
a great point. You could see if he won the Masters,
there's this, there's you win a number of weeks without
touching the clubs. There was some real satisfaction. He took
time to let that sink in and and really soak
up the experience. And you know, look, is he going
(36:06):
to have that after winning the Zozo Championship in Japan? No,
probably not. But look, he's gonna play again at the
Hero Uh in a few weeks. That's the next time
we see him, right, that'll be the Hero in the
beginning of December. I'm sure he's going to pick himself
for the President's Cup and we're going to see him play.
(36:27):
They're probably not all five matches, but I'm sure we'll
see him play, you know some and I think we're
gonna you know, we'll see him at Tory Ponds, will
see his usual schedule. Um, we're not going to see
him play a heavy, heavy load and you're not gonna
see him practice and so forth as much. But this
is a guy. If he's healthy, sure he can win anytime.
(36:51):
He tease it up. So he wanted to have the
surgery after the Hero but he did not, and he
said they paid off because he ended up getting a
major out of it. I completely understand that. But then
he played the rest of the year with the knee
bothering him, and it obviously got worse as the year
went on. He wanted to have the surgery. Then, I know,
you've got a date on when he had the surgery.
(37:12):
Do you know when the knee was injured? Was it
injured at the Hero or prior? Do we know any
of that? And and and when was the surgery? So
the surgery was in August, he announced it on the seven.
I believe it was that he had undergone an arthroscopic
procedure the week before during the Tour Championship on his
(37:34):
left knee or appear to repair minor cartilage damage. But
to your point, you know, look, he wins the Masters
and comes out for Golf TV interview not long afterwards,
and we see him sort of walking very gingerly. You know,
there was a lot of speculation of oh here we
got again, and and so Forthnath. Was that related to
(37:54):
the knee. I'm not sure, but certainly it looks like
you could have been clearly been need have been bothering
him for some time, and he had the surgery later
in the year during the Tour Championships. So this past
year which he did not qualify for, So just again
it goes back to this guy, I can stay healthy,
(38:15):
he can win golf tournaments. But it's just as simple
as that he's healthy, he's going to win golf. Absolutely,
So he's risen to number six in the world golf
rankings that as they're out, he's only played thirty three events.
I'm gonna give you the events that people in front
of him have played. Brooks events, McElroy forty eight events,
Dustin Johnson forty three events, Justin Thomas forty seven events,
(38:38):
John Ram forty eight events, Tiger Woods thirty three, Can't
Lay forty four, rose Xander Shafley fifty events, and then
Bryson de Shambo to rind out the ten fifty four events.
So you're talking everybody's played more events than him, but
yet he's got his many victories. It really truly is
(38:58):
unbelievable the clip he's still winning at not playing his
you know, he doesn't have as many opportunities, but he
is making the most of him. So when he plays
the Hero in December. Is that an official event that
number one would count towards eight three? It does not,
It would not count. It's only eight team players. And
but but it is World Golf ranking points. You do,
(39:21):
you do, strangely get World ranking points for the event.
But it is not an official PGA Tour event. So
his next tour event would obviously wouldn't come until again,
probably you know, last year, there's some speculation and rather
this past year there's speculation that he might key it
up in Hawaii for the Tournament Century Tournament of Champions,
(39:41):
the winners only event in Maui, which, by the way,
he's won that in the past and played there, but
hadn't played there in a long time. And you know, look,
given the hilliness of the course and sort of the
awkwardness of some of the shops that you faced there, um,
I I wouldn't expect him. Plus, look, he's a creature habit,
you know, I just don't think he is going to
(40:02):
see it up there. So you can almost guarantee that
the next time we see him in a PGA Tour
event would be the Farmer's Insurance Open at Toria Pines, which, oh,
by the way, He's won there a million times, so
don't be surprised if he breaks the record at Tory Pines.
See that's the thing. So now every tour event he
(40:23):
plays will be the watch for a D three. Every
single tour event that we're gonna go to will be
trying to get to number eighty three, and then it
will be everyone he'll just be adding on. It really
adds a whole new element to the p G A tour.
I'm sure they are going to have massive ad campaigns
around it every time he plays. I mean, this really
is playing right into him once again becoming the face
(40:46):
of the PGA tour again, which they didn't have him
for so many years, and they made the young guys
and tried to do all they could to make these
other guys. But sure enough he has put himself and
subplanted himself right back to be the face of the
tour once again. Well and look, and I don't think
it's going to be Um, I don't think we're going
to go a long time without Tiger winning because eighty three. Uh,
(41:06):
it's Look, it's a big deal. It's a lot. You
could see it in Tiger's expression, um when he was
asked about it after his victory in Japan, he just
had a big smile and um, but look, that's I
think fifteen fifteen major. You know, winning that fifteenth major
was far and away the hardest thing he has had
to accomplish in his golf career, and so him getting
(41:30):
the eighty three is not going to be the momentous
occasion in his eyes. I think in terms of pressure
and difficulty in all of those sorts of things in
the stage and so forth. Um, I think he gets
there next next year. I think we see him, you know,
win in twenty, whether it's Tory Pines or Bay Hill
or um, you know, wherever it might be. I think
(41:52):
I think he gets there, uh in twenty. And how
cool would it be, by the way, you know, if
he's back to winning golf tournament, stay healthy, you mean,
how cool would it be to see him, you know,
get to a team major championships and maybe do it
at Augusta. I mean, that's that's a real possibility. Yeah.
You know, the selfish part of me doesn't want him
to win at Torrey Pines. As much as I love
(42:13):
Tiger Woods, I don't want it to happen at Torry Pines.
I would love to see it happened here in Pontovidra,
at the Players. I would love and could happen there,
absolutely to see him set the record right here, only
for the simple fact that I could go and I
could be there and see it. That's the really the
only reason. Because I'm guessing next year to the Florida
Swing has become a little more difficult with scheduling. Um,
I'm guessing in Florida next year will only see him,
(42:35):
probably at the Players and probably bay Hill. I remember
last year, because of scheduling and the w g C
event in Mexico, Uh, he did not play the Valves Bar,
and he did not play the Honda Classic. Right the
Honda comes the week after w g C in Mexico.
He is unlikely I would think to turn down free
World Ranking points, not to mention that's a golf course
(42:58):
where he should have success on and play well, given
his ball striking capabilities and the fact that he's now
back to hitting the ball straight off the tee, maybe
straighter than ever. So look, he'll he'll get there. He'll
get there next year if he's healthy. If he's healthy,
it all is a predicated on him. He's healthy, and
(43:18):
that's that's one last thing you just said I do
do you want to talk about in closing is how
is it all of a sudden he's driving the golf
ball straighter than he's ever driven. And I'm going back
to when he was healthy and when he was kicking
everybody's ask and taking names on a weekly basis, How
is it all of a sudden he has figured something
out that has allowed him to drive the ball straighter
than he has ever driven. Yeah, No, it's it's it's
(43:41):
quite without a swing coach, as you said earlier. Yeah,
we've seen, we've seen the swing evolved. We've seen the
fact that he's willing to concede a few yards. And look,
let's remember technology, you know as part of that equation
as well, our friends of Taylor made are making it
easier obviously as well too, Right, Yeah, I mean he
he has really adapted well to the switch the tailor
(44:03):
made h in his bag and that's been a big
impact for him. And he seems to figure it out
and gone uncomfortable and it goes you know, the t
are certainly connected the swing and the equipment, and I
think he knows that. You know, Look, his way of
winning golf tournaments isn't going to be hitting a three
thirty yards through forty yards um and and trying to
(44:27):
wedge out, you know, or wedge it out of the
green from the trees. I think he realizes that if
he can straighten it out a bit and give up
a few yards his iron play distance control with his
iron play. Um, Look, you've always been one of one
of the greatest ball strikers to ever play the game.
And that's not going to go away, you know, the injury.
(44:49):
That's not going to really be affected by the injury
now that he's healthy. Really, let's face it. I mean,
if the guy is keeping the ball in the fairway,
he's gonna be tough to beat. I remember long time
ago when when Phil and him were kind of at
odds with each other, or what at least the media
and and and the fans believed that they were at odds.
There was a time he had won and Phil said, Wow,
(45:10):
it's amazing he's able to win with those Nike clubs.
Imagine if he played good clubs, how good he'd be.
And everybody kind of laughed it off. Remember that, how
great was that Tiger winning despite equipment, and but now
with the Taylor Made clubs, you know, they've made him
his own set of irons. He's got his piece sevent
ws that he plays. It really is remarkable how he's
(45:30):
able to strike the ball as well as he is
this late in his career, with all the injuries. It
does make you believe that the switch to Taylor Made
has done nothing except elevate his game. It has not
hurt him in any way, shape or form. No, so
he's clearly adapted off the tea especially. I think that's
to me, that's that's always been. You know the thing
with Tiger. If he's driving the ball well, you know
(45:52):
looks certainly that they're going to be days where his
iron plays off or is putting his off. That's going
to happen. It happens to everybody, including the great. It's
but to me, if Tigger drives the ball anywhere near
as well as he did in Japan, um, certainly he's
not going to do that again every time he tease
it up. But if he can do it more often
and more often, and we see him continue to hit
(46:13):
it well off the tea, then you know who knows
what the wind total ends up being. I mean, he's
he's just proving yet again that you really can't doubt him.
I mean, you know, you can't doubt him when it
comes to anything. And I think really anything at this
point is fair game. And it's fun to see and
it's it's incredible to watch. Congratulations to Tiger Woods. Congratulations
(46:36):
to the fans, people who have stuck by him and
believed in him and always wanted to see this happen again.
It really is remarkable to see a guy fight back.
Some of the stuff that has happened to him has
been self induced and self stuff he's brought on himself,
but a lot of it is his body breaking down,
and even some of that is self induced and has
been brought on himself, and he was warned not to
do it. A lot of the guys that the greats
(46:58):
are are stubborn and they believe the way they do
it is the right way to do it, and they
continue to do it, and that's why they're as great
as they are. So congratulations to him, Congratulations to us
the fans, to be able to live and witness and
and I do hope that as a fan and chances
are you are a fan of Tiger. If you're listening
to this podcast, I hope you're enjoying this ride, because
(47:18):
this is one of the most epic rides in the
history of sports. We are witnessing a rebirth of something
that we thought we'd never see again. To witness the rebirth,
I mean, we've seen Tiger Woods go through the highs,
the lows, highs again in drop again, and now come
back again. I mean, we really have been able to
see some amazing stuff. And I hope that you are
(47:42):
taking it in and enjoying it because it will not
last forever. This is a true dynasty, one man dynasty
that we're witnessing kind of come back again, and I
hope that people are appreciating it and not just taking
it for granted and thinking, ah, here we go again. Yeah,
this is fun to watch, and it's exciting for golf.
It's exciting for the fans, it's exciting for everybody. Uh,
(48:04):
Tiger golf is better with a healthy Tiger and Tiger
winning and it's fun to see. And you throw in
you know, Rory and Brooks, Justin Thomas and a number
of other players, uh, you know from this next generation
and it's a cool time to really be covering golf
and to be watching golf and uh see it all unfold. Yes.
(48:27):
So this week we've got a split field event. We've
got the w g C HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which
you'll see Rory. Uh. Do you know Brooks is playing
this week? I know is his knee he is not
in the field, so in the field, so it's still
a great event. The HSBC champions going on in Shanghai,
the Bermuda Championship, which is new as the split field event,
(48:49):
the alternate field going on this week as well. We
get to my COVID next week, the r S M
at Sea Island, Georgia the week after that. Uh, and
then we get the hero will the Tiger again December
four and then the President's Cup, which when he won
he said that the player got the captain's attention. I'm
pretty sure that's a good son. That we will see
(49:09):
Tiger be a playing captain, which has been done before,
which I believe Arnold Palmer did it back in the day.
It has been done before. We will see Tiger play
twice in this calendar year. But like you said earlier,
will not count towards his victory total, trying to get
to eight three, and it'll be you know, it'll be
great to see him play in the President's Cup. Because
(49:32):
two things for America that work out great for that,
actually three things. One Tiger playing again. Obviously that's a
bonus too because of this. It's in Australia. You get
that means golf at night here on the East Coast
in the US, which is always fantastic. And then you
have it at Royal Melton, one of the you know,
this is a golf course that's probably top two or
(49:54):
three or four in the world. I mean, this is
a fantastic, fantastic Then you it's a great time a
year down there. Um, it'll really show showcase the golf course,
and um, it'll be really cool to see Tiger playing there.
So you have this nice collection of reasons to get
excited for golf in December at a time when you
(50:15):
know we're you know, probably not really thinking about golf.
But it'll be fun to see obviously Tiger playing in
this event in the Bahamas, which will be a nice
hitting giggle and fun to see. So a lot of
good stuff left on the golf calendar for the year
and a lot to be excited about. So it's fun
to see. It's a good year. It's good to have
him back. It's nice to see him at number eighty two.
(50:36):
Congratulations two Tiger Woods, and we will talk to you soon,
definitely before he tease it up again at the Heroro
World Challenge and again at the President's Cup. Thank you
so much for listening to the Playing Through podcast. We're online,
get us anytime on Instagram playing Through Podcast. I'm on
Twitter at Froggy Radio and Brian on Twitter at Brian
(50:58):
whacker one from Golf Digest. So thanks for listening to
the Playing Through Podcast. We will talk to you soon.
Don't mind us where playing through here and welcome to
another edition I'll be playing through podcast. It's Froggy from
Elvis Random the Morning Show, along with Golf Digests amazing
writer Brian Whacker, and this is another podcast that there
was a time I didn't think we'd ever have a
(00:23):
chance to do, and here we are. We're gonna even
though this technically is not podcast number eighty two, that's
what we're gonna call it. Soy, I was wondering, you
know what, what I was wondering what podcast we were
up here? This is number eight two. That really would
have been weird. Yeah, it's no number eighty two, but
it's close. It's getting very very close. I will actually
look while we're doing the podcast and I'll tell you
(00:44):
but this is going to be all about number eighty
two because that was a time Whacker, we didn't think
we'd never see this, But now here we are again
that I don't think eighty two is the end of
the line. I think that this goes higher. You agree, well, yeah, Look,
it's hard to argue otherwise because in the elephant in
the room, of course, is whether Tiger can stay healthy
(01:06):
or not? Right, I mean, look, the last fourteen starts
he's had on the tour, he's won three times. That's
as many as Brooks Kopka, and that's as many as
Rory McIlroy, who was the Player of the Year on
the PGA Tour. Now, look, I don't want to get
carried away, and you and I talked yesterday. Look, he
did Tiger have as good a season as Rory or Brooks? No?
(01:26):
I mean, yes, Tiger won a major acid Brooks. Brooks
also finished in the top four in all four majors
and had a tremendous year and had I believe nine
other top ten Rory meanwhile, almost never finished outside the
top ten, also had three wins, one of players Championship.
So you know, both had what I think we're better years.
(01:49):
But that's not what this is about. This is about
Tiger continuing to win. Because questions had come up, we
started to wander again. You know, we saw the fall
off after gust uh and then we hear about the
knee surgery, and so we wonder. Now, look, the knee surgery.
I don't want to classify as his minor, but athletes
(02:09):
get knees scopes all the time. But it's still a
procedure on a knee that has probably been operated on
multiple times. Absolutely, fifth knee surgery. Look, the guys got
the guy's like he's like Mr Potato Head, Okay. I
mean he's had four back surgeries, five knee surgeries, a
bunch of other surgeries. I mean, I don't know how
many other times you can can operate. Don't don't forget
(02:33):
the Achilles injury that he had back. I mean, he's
got more hole in his body than like the old
you know, uh, what was the old game, Froggy. You
and I are Stamiley both old enough to remember this operation. Yeah, right,
Like that's that's basically what his body looks like. It's
just have all these holes and it's just sort of
(02:53):
patched together. So you know, look, I think we all
thought after Gusta he would win more and so forth.
And there's a lot of buzz and a lot of
talk about, Look, he's gonna win more majors and so forth,
and I think we discovered, at least to me, you know,
at forty three. Look, he's just not going to be
as consistent. You know. Some of that is being forty three,
(03:14):
Some of that is the depth of the fealty spacing.
Some of that is injuries that are going to crop up,
as we saw in dealing with the knee problem, uh
for some length of time during the course of this
past season. But when he's healthy as we see it,
as we saw in Japan and playing well, he is
going to win golf tournaments. There he can win golf tournaments.
(03:35):
I mean the fact that he went nine under on
the par three's for the week in Japan and was
a career bet that's a career best. I mean, how
about that this guy at forty three, you're still setting
career best marks. I mean for all he's accomplished. So
to me, that's amazing. And this latest victory just speaks
(03:56):
to the fact that look, Tiger and I wrote this
for golf tiges dot Com, you can it there. Um,
Tiger is obviously an all timer in terms of not
just golf but sports. He's up there with the Michael
Jordan's and Gordy House and you know, on down the list,
And to me, those are guys when you look at
the history of sports, in history of golf, you know,
(04:18):
great players are great athletes all time grades are capable
of you know, tremendous performances really at any point in
their career, even Michael Jordan's. This is a guy who
averaged twenty points, a career low twenty points in his
final season in the NBA. I think he was forty
years old playing for the Wizards. But yet he still
had three games that season where he went over forty
(04:40):
points and shot over and each of those games, I
don't think he's at that yet. I don't think he's
in the final season yet. No, he's not, but he's
certainly in the in the back end of his career. Look,
golf as his sport, you can play for twenty thirty years.
But he said yesterday that he would like to play
until he's fifty something. So if he's gonna play until
he he's fifty two, like this is this is something
(05:02):
else I want to talk about? Is that? Alright? So
he's forty three, he'll be forty four in December. So
this this year's majors are over. So if he plays
for forty four five two for nine more seasons, nine
times four is thirty six more chances at majors. Now,
(05:25):
this is also with the caveat that we're healthy, we
don't know when he's really healthy, because, like you said,
so he plays the Masters. Last year he wins, we
all go crazy with okay, eight teens in play. This
is It was a foregone conclusion last year in April
that he was gonna win multiple times. Now he did
(05:47):
technically win multiple times in the year nineteen. However, he
told us for a long time he was healthy. We
did have a knee procedure. He has now admitted that
he could not been down to read putts. He was
not able to swing properly. He was putting undue pressure
on the back. And and I mean, so now we
know that when we were told he was healthy, he
(06:07):
wasn't healthy. So we don't ever really know what the
full truth is when we're getting it. And sometimes you
find out what the truth is later. And I don't
like that as a fan, but I have come to
understand it. That's what we're gonna get. It's what we've
always gotten. We always we always know what he wants
us to know, and that's all you're ever gonna know.
And then when he wants to tell you more, he does,
(06:30):
and when he doesn't, he doesn't. But if he plays
at least fifty two years old, you would. I mean,
if he only wins once, that puts him over. If
he wins once a season, remember, like you said, he's
won three times in the last thirteen months, as many
as anybody else on tour. He's played fewer events than
anybody else on tour and won those three times. If
he wins once a year for the next nine years,
(06:51):
that puts him into the nineties. He's gonna have nineties
something career victories if he wins nine more times, and
that gives him already six chances at major's if he
can stay healthy. I'm not willing to say he's in
the twilight yet. He's still in a he still could
have a very good run. He put a ball striking
clinic on in Japan, and that's after having surgery nine
(07:15):
weeks ago. It's unbelievable what he just did, and like
you said, setting records, career records. Still, I don't know
that we're on the real quote downturn. I get around
the down side of the mountain, but I don't think
we're going downhill as fast as we think. Sometimes, well,
it all depends, as you said, on the health, and
you never know how else going to play out. So
I think we just have to sort of wit, let
(07:37):
it play out and see what happens. But to the
point about the eighty two look, this is this is
a number that nobody I think is certainly not in
our lifetime. I think it's ever going to touch Put
that in perspective, right, eighty two victories. So the other
two winning IS players in the past twenty five years,
Phil Nicholson and d J. Singh, they have a combined
(07:59):
four fewer titles than Tigers two. Here's more numbers. Okay,
this will tell you about sort of the next generation
if you will, if you take just listen to this
and then it's laughable. Brooks Keth Guts plus Rory McRoy
plus Dustin Johnson, who by the way, is one every
(08:20):
year of his career and has been out there for
over ten years, and they've had a couple of multiple
win seasons. Justin Thomas john rom Patrick Cantley, Justin Rose,
Xander Shotley and Bryson Shamba, right, all of them who
were they were the nine players ranked ahead of Tiger
in the world rank. He's heading into the suite. They
have seventy nine PGA Tour wins between them, so perspective. Yeah,
(08:47):
So to me, two things. One, you know, this is
just a reminder that Tiger has set yet another mark,
much like his consecutive cuts. Street made his weeks at
number one in the world, and you know, his victory
total aren't never going to be caught. That is, that
is a record that will never be broken. And it's
sort of like I look at cal Ripkens market Baseball
(09:10):
for consecutive games played. I don't think in the way
the game is played today, in certain ways, the sported
I don't think that will ever be touched. Probably the
hitting Street will probably the six game hitting Street will
probably never be broken. You know, you can look at
other records in baseball like strikeouts and wins and things
(09:30):
like that, because of the way pitching is now constructed,
those marks will never be broken in Tiger. To me
that you know, he's got a number of these records
that will never be broken, but now he's got a
chance to add to it. And to me, this is
this is the most compelling part of his career, right
And I again I wrote this for y'all just dot
com you can read there or on Twitter. To me,
this is most compelling. Look, when he was at the
(09:52):
height of his career, everyone expected this guy. People were
talking majors, people expected him to win every single time
he heat it up. I don't think we have that anymore.
I think there's certainly the hope, but because these performances
are fleeting and this isn't in two point Look, I agree,
this isn't. I don't think he has like another year
(10:14):
or two. He's not in the final year or two
of his career probably unless there's injury and all. It's me,
this is the most compelling because I've always gone through
because uh, the way he seems to have changed in
his interaction with every everything from the media to fans too.
Things we don't see off camera. He's sort of a
(10:34):
different guy. I mean, look, everybody's a different person in
their forties and they are in the twenties or thirties.
And to me, this is most compelling because the opportunities
are fewer, but you can still dial up these great
performances and it really makes you appreciate what he's able
to do. And he seems to be appreciating um as well,
and I think we should as well. You know, it's unbelievable.
(10:57):
I follow I'm sure this shocks you. I follow golf
Channel Tiger Tracker, who tweets every single shot, goes to
the tournaments, and golf Channel has never ever divulged who
this person is. But he goes to every tournament, tweets
every shot. And I also follow t W Legion, which
is tw spot. He was also a huge Tiger fan.
And so Tracker went back and said yesterday that he
(11:20):
counted up everything from when he has started following Tiger
Woods and the very first tournament he started was Dural.
So he says, since he's done ninety nine events, including
two Ryder Cups and one President's Cup, and if you
count Tiger versus Phil in the Skins game, he's done
(11:42):
a hundred and one events. He's won eleven and if
you knock out the two Ryder Cups and the President's Cup,
it's actually he's played nine events. He's won eleven of
nine events. That and remember this is during the span
of golf of his career from to now. We have
(12:04):
had gone through the time where we went through the
chipping yips and he was a joke, and he was this,
and he was that, and he's still won eleven times
out of that's ten, he's over ten percent. He's won
over ten winning percentage during the worst of his career
and at the height he was attent. You take his
(12:24):
best ten years versus Jack Nicholas's best ten years, and
Tiger is in that thirty percent for winning, which is incredible,
which is better than Jack. Right was in um memory's
failing me a bit at the moment, but I think
Jack was in the range. The Tiger's best ten years
(12:46):
were so dominant it was incredible. And but yeah, this
is about this sort of third act of his career.
Right he had, he had the incredible first part of
his career, then you had the dark out turn in
the middle part of his career, and now we're seeing
this resurrection of Tiger personally professionally. He's doing this without
(13:10):
a swing coach. He seems to be in command of
his sort of his life and his and his game,
his swing. I mean, the fact that he hit sixty
percent of his fairways in Japan and the golf course
that you know was tightened and spots and it wasn't
wide open by any means tells you. And you look
at the swing and we talked about this over the weekend.
(13:31):
Try you that, you know, you look at that swing.
It's a very controlled swing. He's really getting through to
that left side. It's sort of flat move that, you know,
flat smooth, kind of moved to his left side. It's
got no violence in it like it did before exactly
and to me, and he's still hitting it far enough. Sure,
he's you know, it's during the height of his career.
(13:54):
He would win by blowing your path to everybody in part,
but he doesn't have to. And he said that in
the in in the in the press conference, after standing
on the green, he's like, listen, I can think my
way around the golf course. I can still knock it
out there far enough. And he hits his irons far enough.
You and I talked about this yesterday, yes, okay. So
on the twelfth hole, his first holl that he played
(14:15):
on I guess it was technically Monday, the final round,
when he had the seven holes to finish, he hits
his driver. He has two and twelve yards in for
tiger Woods, sooner in twelve yards is an easy six iron.
The average golfer standing on on on a golf course
with a six iron in his hand is going to
hit the green. I mean, that's what you you think
with a six iron, that's not a very long club.
(14:36):
So even on long par fours, this part four was
almost five yards, he's still got a mid iron in
his hand going into a par four. He can still
play the game. He's still his And the fact that
he hit sixty five of his fairways off the tee,
that's unbelievable. That, I mean Tiger and his prime didn't
(14:57):
hit his fairways, ladies and gentlemen. He starts hitting six
his fairways. He starts playing from the short grass in
the middle of the fairway. It's over, yes. And that's
the thing is that he's not as violent. He's not
trying to kill the ball. He's hitting. And you and
I don't. I don't know how much of the golf
course you want. How much of the golf tournament you
watched number one, if you saw the overhead shots. This
(15:20):
was a tree lined golf course that back in the
day would have been a problem for him because he
would have been playing out of the trees. He hit drivers.
He didn't hit four irons off tees to be conservative.
He hit drivers in three woods when he did miss
the fairway, he didn't mis him by a lot. There
were two drives that he hit into the trees that
he had to hit just straight knockout shots too. That's it.
Sixt fairways and he's hitting drivers and three woods off tees.
(15:44):
He is swinging much more controlled. The golf swing looks good.
He doesn't appear to be in pain, and he putted
absolute lights out. Now I understand he won't put like
this every week, but he missed his share of four
foot or two. I mean, there was plenty of shots.
He gave a way at thirteen on Monday Sunday here
in the States, Monday in Japan. His thirteenth totally missed
(16:06):
an eight footer that I mean did not even come
within six inches of the whole. That's not Tiger. There
was some nerves there. I'm sure he's admitted that he's
nervous at the beginning of rounds, which I respect means
he cares. When you were watching eighteen had actual Mattsu
Yamas in the fairway bunker waiting for the guys to
finish on the green. Wants to go for the green.
Tiger looks so focused standing on that eighteen tea box.
(16:29):
He wasn't joking around with Gary Woodland because they had
been cutting it up in the fairway, walking up and down.
He wasn't cutting it up with Joey. He was so
focused on what was gonna be the next shot, even
though he had a two shot lead and he knew
there was a good chance he probably could have made
bogie on that hole in one. What does he do?
Hits a three wood, puts it into front bunker, knocks
it up there and rolls in Birdie. That's old school
(16:51):
Tiger making Birdie when bogie was an option. He makes Birdie.
We're starting to see things that we have not seen
in a long long time. And I believe it's all
predicated on one thing. Can he keep his body healthy? Well? Yeah,
and I would back it up a little bit. You know, Look,
we saw this type of performance at the Masters, obviously. Yeah.
(17:15):
But he made bogie in the last hole of the Masters.
Remember he bogie the last hole. He knew he could.
He played conservative. He made bogie to make Bertie there
on Sunday. I mean, that was that's old school Tiger.
The gravitas of that moment was so enormous that at
a gust I can tell you it was powerful. You
could feel you could feel it standing on the ground there,
(17:36):
and you know, not even Tiger could would could would
stand that. But you look at the way he played
at East Lake a year ago, controlling his golf ball
there and avoiding any big numbers and mistakes and going
on to win there, and then the Masters, then of
course Japan. So the guys who win and and have
(17:58):
a sort of all times success, the legends of the game.
These guys don't forget what it's like or how to
win once they get in that moment. You know, Tiger
has done it so many times, and he just goes
right back into that mode, locked in, focused, and you're
and you're right. This all comes down. It's all predicated
on health. To me, it's simply a matter of can
(18:21):
he stay healthy, and yes he can. I don't know
where he goes, so you know, I don't I think
it's unrealistic to expect that he would dominate the sport
like he used to, because you know, there's a myriad
of reasons. There's it's a much deeper field now. He
can't overpower golf course is the way he used to.
He's going to have to pick his spots. He's probably
(18:42):
going to play a reduced schedule. He's probably going to
practice less. Even being healthy, I don't think we'll see
him practice and play as much. He's got other things
going on in his life that are important to him,
awesome health. Course, I believed all that back when. I'm
not sure he thought he could win again, because remember
he did say this came from his mouth. Everything from
(19:03):
here on out as gravy, and so I'm not sure
he was as committed at that point because not knowing,
not saying I'm not sure I can do it. However,
now that he has tasted victory three times, I believe
he will become more committed because I believe in his
mind he believes that eighteen is in play, and that
if he can stay healthy, he believes he can do it.
(19:26):
He does not want to stop at eight two. I
can tell you right now. I know that I know
that history loves company, well, the company, the guy making history,
he didn't love company. He wants to be by himself
at the top of the mountain. He loves Sam Sneed,
He respects Sam Sneed. He does not want to stop
at ad two. He wants to blow a D two
out of the water in his mind. And I know
(19:49):
this number is crazy, and I'm not saying it's attainable.
I think in his mind he would love nothing more
than to get to triple digits. I know it's probably
extremely unlikely. I get it. Can you imagine that because
of his health? Don't you agree? Do you think a
hundred is attainable? Good? You know, at this point, I
(20:10):
think we all learned to say, uh, you never say
never with with tigers involved, no matter what the circumstances.
That's that's the long ways off eighteen um to your point.
You you know, look, even if we're talking, even if
you want to go as so as far as ten
ten more years, I mean, that's winning every year. That's
having a couple of really big years where he wins
(20:30):
six seven times in a year, And I just I
don't know that. No, he needs eighteen. He needs eighteen
victories to get there. If he played ten more years
and he won twice a year. Listen, he's won three
times in the last thirteen months. And let's be honest.
Between the Masters and the Zozo, he had one top ten.
He did not play great. He played Okay, he miscuts
(20:51):
he did not play great, but did not really contend.
You know, look, I think it's more realistic, And this
is crazy to say, but I think it's. Um, I
think it's more realistic that he he would get to
eighteen major championships, then he gets a hundred victories just
because eighteen more victories is I mean, you're you're talking
about basically spending the next ten years having what Yeah,
(21:15):
he he needs Dustin Johnson's career basically again, yeah, I mean,
and then sum So it's that's a lot to expect.
I mean, look, guys can win. Guys are proving that
they can win at an advanced age. We thought Davis
Love to do it at the Winding Championship a couple
of years ago, winning at age fifty one. So you know,
(21:36):
but look, is Tiger going to you know, continue to
win at a clip of three three tournaments a year.
I'm not sure about that, but I do think he's
clearly not done winning. I is one of he's healthy.
He's going to win more tournaments. It's just a matter
of how many. And at this point, who knows that
the numbers? Who knows? You know, let's just enjoy it
and soaking in and watch it, you know, because we
(21:58):
don't know. He can have to see six months from
now and you just don't know. A couple of other
things I want to touch on. He did start this
tournament with three consecutive bogie which is unbelievable. As well,
he was three over on the first three holes and
shot and made nine birdies on the closing fourteen. I
mean it was really that's the first time, at least
(22:21):
according to DJ Tour staffs the folks, which only goes
back to but that's the first time that somebody has
done that and gone on to win a tournament, right, unbelievable.
So another first for Tigers. When you look at his
win percentage, it took him three hundred and fifty nine
starts to win eighty two tournaments. To put that into comparison,
(22:41):
Ben Hogan needed three hundred starts to win sixty four.
Sam Sneed needed five eight five to win his eighty
two and Jack Nicholas, who Tigers always compared to, played
five d and nine events and one seventy three. That's
a twelve point two percent winning percentage. Tigers is almost
twice that. It's unbelievable. What he's been able to do
(23:03):
is first win happened in then you look on. His
tenth win was in twenty in two thousand thirty in
just two years later, oh two, his forty two years
after that in two thousand four, his fiftieth two years
later in two thousand six, his seventieth in two thousand nine,
three years later. Then things did start to slow down.
(23:24):
Nine years later one is eight, one is eighty one,
and his eighty two in nineteen. He's the greatest athlete
of player. However you want to put it in any
sport in your mind, I'll say that he has done
more and and it's it's difficult to say this and
compare to other sports because golf is a single handed
Uh you know, I know the caddy plays an important part.
(23:45):
I know he's got a team of people behind him
to help him. However, there's one guy holding the club,
one guy hitting the shots. Um, golf is a is
a single sport. However, in my lifetime, I have not seen,
nor have I read about anybody prior to my lifetime
has done as much for one sport that I could
argue that one man is bigger than the sport. Ever,
(24:07):
I don't think that you know, I know Tom Brady
has done a lot for the NFL. But before Tom Brady,
there was Joe montana Um, there was Dan Marino, there
was you know, Johnny and Nitis. There was There's been
a ton of great quarterbacks in the NFL. A lot
of people have done a lot of good things for
the NFL. Peyton Manning has done a lot of good
things for the NFL at the same time Tom Brady has.
(24:28):
I'm not saying any of those guys are as good
as Tom Brady, but arguably they've done as much for
the sport. Is he bigger than Michael Jordan's Yes, because
I think you and I spoke about it yesterday. Uh,
Larry Bird and Magic Johnson did a lot for the NBA.
Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, they had
(24:48):
their era. They did a lot for the NBA. No,
I mean, go back and look at the purses that
guys were winning prior to Tiger Woods coming out on tour.
He has caused companies to up money into the PGA
tour at a rapid pace. The fan participation at events
is through the roof. I mean, go to an event
Tiger Woods isn't playing, and then go to the same
(25:10):
event and let him play at the following year, and
you look at the crowds. I don't have to tell
you what the difference is. There's only one difference. I
hate to say that any one man is bigger than
the sport. And listen, if Tiger Woods wakes up tomorrow
and decides he's done, he just wants to be a dad.
I respect that decision. The PGA Tour is going to
continue on. The PGA Tour is in good hands with
(25:31):
its young talent. However, without him, it is drastically different
than it is with him, whether it's what he's done
up to this point and what he continues to do.
Wait until next year's Masters when he's the defending champion,
and you tell me somebody who does more for their
sport than Tiger Woods, I think that's unquestionably true. I
(25:52):
don't think anybody has carried or done more for their
respective sport dan Tiger. Because you look at the purses,
you look at all of it, it's all because of Tiger.
And I think Michael Jordan's is probably the closest that
would come to mind as being I mean, Jordan's in
the prime of his career was a global icon and superstar.
(26:14):
Beyond that was transcended the sport um You can even
go you could go back to the days of Arnold Palmer.
He was a guy that put golf on television and
made it popular sort of to the masses, but nobody
to this level. I think there's a difference. I think
when you're talking about that impact, I agree with it.
(26:36):
I don't think there's been anybody bigger than Tiger Woods,
certainly in our lifetimes and maybe ever in terms of
their respective sport and being bigger than it. If you
will you see the most now when it comes to
the athletic performances, is he the most dominant? Certainly that
you can He's certainly in the conversation, if not at
the top of the conversation. You can look at guys
(26:58):
like Wayne Gretzky, who is an incredibly dominant player in
his era. You can look at Tiger, of course, you
can look at Jordan's. They're they're handful of other athletes
who would be in this conversation. But but me, Tiger
might be the greatest of all time from that perspective,
because you look at the differences we talked about, the
winning percentages markedly different than Jack's two percent of his starts,
(27:23):
he's one. He's finished in the top ten. Do you
do you know when his top ten percentages it's off
the chart, it's he finishes in the top ten more
than half, greater than half of the time. If he
teas it up two times, he's guaranteed to finish in
the top ten more than one. That's under It's it's
unheard of. I mean, guys, this just doesn't happen. Go
(27:44):
go talk to a tournament director. They sit around and
wait until the last second to see if you wait
for him to commit, And when they do, they open
up more tickets, they have more security, and they because
they know that in some cases the attendance doubles because
Tiger Wood shows up. Go look at ad rates on
the weekends. When CBS is running a tournament, he doesn't
(28:06):
make the cut on the weekend, it drops off. I
remember there was one year he played the Windham but
the Windham Championship, it was the second most he was
in contention on the weekend. It was the second most
watched event they had had the PGA Championship the week before.
More people watched the Windham than we're watching the fourth
round of the p g A Championship that was a
(28:28):
major y because Tiger Woods was playing well. Look, I
mean just the fact that here we are basically in
November and now certainly the TV ratings aren't going to
be through the roof, but here we are. There's a
lot of buzz, a lot of talk about Tiger Woods.
Uh you know about a golf tournament guy winning golf
tournament in Japan on Sunday night US time, Uh, you know,
(28:51):
Monday morning, Japan. And it's all because it's Tiger Woods.
You know, if if it's anybody else, it's not even
close to the same level of the tension. But he
makes it interesting. He certainly makes it far more interesting.
Golf is better obviously with him and having him healthy
and now happy and a sort of more engaging, more energetic,
(29:13):
more you know, there seems to just be more fun
around him in his life right now. He seems to
appreciate the victories more as well. Winning certainly helps. I
don't think we have this same package um without the winning,
the winning has always mattered to Tiger, and I think
(29:34):
that's a huge part of this. I don't think we're
having these conversations. I don't think Tiger is having quite
the same joy if he's out there finishing. If you
remember I talked about this last year. Remember he's been
back a full year. Now. We have now seen a
full year of Tiger Woods. Actually almost two years, right, Yeah,
we've seen almost two two full seasons. If you remember
(29:56):
I made this point to you, not the twenty teen season.
I know that. I know technically the zozo is is
going to go into the season, it's a wrap around.
But during I said to you, I'm shocked at how
he's finishing in the middle of the pack because he
had that really good finish at the valves Bar and
then things were not good for a little while. He
(30:17):
played well in some major championships and he hung around.
I was surprised at how engaged he was, and how
he would really play hard on Sunday and he'd move
his way up the leaderboard, and how committed he was
because I believe in his mind, he he always believed
that it was coming back. So I do think the
winning has kept him involved. I believe now, like I
(30:40):
said earlier that with three victories, I believe you're gonna
see him. I don't know they'll play more events. I
think fifteen events a years is probably all you're ever
gonna get out of him, and you'll be lucky to
get fifteen. I do believe you're gonna get a more
engaged and a guy that, when he is healthy, will
really be a guy to be reckoned with more often,
because he's proven that when he's healthy, he's as good
(31:02):
as anybody in the world. Still at forty four years
old in December, he's still as good as anybody out
there when he's healthy. And to your point about him
enjoying it more, I'll give you a great line I
heard from a player to a player who goes all
the way back to Tiger's junior days when they played
(31:23):
a lot against each other grown up and they've owned
each other for decades, and this player said, look the
first four team majors he won. And you can read
this engulfed I Just on the website on golf i
Just dot com or in the magazine for a piece
I did on on how Tiger sort has changed and
sort of a nicer guy than he's gotten credit, probably
(31:44):
gotten credit for it, but but seems to be different now.
And and this player said, look, the first four team
Majors he won, he was chasing history. But you could
see it in the emotion he showed at the Masters
that this one was for him, for his family, obviously
his kids. And he's this player said, he got to
enjoy that one more than the other four team combined.
(32:07):
And to this player, that was cool to see. And
I think it speaks to the evolution, the maturing of Tiger.
I mean again we go back to you know, this guy.
For the longest time, all he was was was a golfer.
And I think he's he's involved. You know, he had
this sort of suspended were stunted out of lessons, and
I think we saw some transgressions obviously along the way,
(32:29):
and some personal issues, you know, some really deep seated
personal things. But I think now being a dad, being
forty four, you know, having gone through a lot on
the golf course, off it, you know, being on the
verge of never playing again, as you mentioned, I mean,
it's this guy who stopped there resigned to the fact
that probably never going to play again. And uh, and
(32:50):
here he is, and and he's and he's more appreciative.
And I think he's enjoying these a lot more and
it shows and I think and I think you see
in fans reactions too. I think, you know, a lot
of fans are appreciative because you know, there there are
people that never got to see him at his prime
or never thought he'd get back to even winning tournaments,
(33:11):
are being in contention, and here we are. You know,
he's one of the best players in the world because yeah,
you know, I was reading an article here Paulaisinger last
year said before the Open Championship, he said, I'm not
quite as high on Tigers. That was before he won
the Masters. I'm never going to count him out. He
won the Masters, but it felt like it made Tiger
to content. It's the most content I've ever seen him.
Tiger has never looked satisfied. Don't get me wrong, He's
(33:34):
been happy, but the next day he usually moves on.
He said, the Masters, he did not move on. It
was a mountaintop experience. I think it will be very
difficult for Tiger to ever win another golf tournament. And
it's funny how we all went from right after the Masters,
we thought, up eighteen is under assault. Here we go,
and then we had a rough time and he did
(33:55):
not play very well. I appeared in only three events,
and in the peach A Championship. In the US Open,
he missed some cuts, and he missed the cut at
beth Page. He finished twenty one at Pebble Beach, which
is supposed to be, you know, playground for him. He
did get a top ten at the Memorial, and we wondered, then, okay,
maybe we have seen the end. Maybe he put it
(34:15):
all together one last time and that was the Swan song.
But after what we've seen now and now we know
that there was a knee issue. He wasn't able to
rotate properly. He wasn't able to get down and read putts.
He was he was relying on Joey's reads on putts,
which listen, I'm not saying Joey can't read a putt,
but if you've played golf whatsoever, and there's a good
(34:36):
chance if you're listening to this podcast, you're a golfer,
you trust your own read. Somebody else can tell you
all day that putt breaks left, but if you don't
see it, you don't trust it. So with him not
being able to been down to read puts, we now
understand why he wasn't putting as well. We know now
why he wasn't swinging as well. And now it makes
sense that here we are again, and it all boils
down to I'm not ever going to write him off ever,
(35:00):
just like I don't ever really believe everything he tells us.
When he says that he's healthy, I think we're getting
what he wants us to know. So now we know
that there wasn't the injury. He had it scoped. You know,
my eyes don't lie. Your eyes don't lie. When you
see him swinging the clubs. Something didn't look right last year,
it looks right again. This guy can win more golf tournaments.
(35:21):
He absolutely could. He's back to I'll say this and
tell me if you agree with this, he's back to
being a force. Anytime he tease it up, he absolutely
can win that event. Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
As long as he's healthy every time he tees it up.
I don't think we should expect him to win. Are
necessarily even content because because again I think there's you're
(35:43):
not going to have that prolonged consistency. Though. Eisinger made
a great point. You could see if he won the Masters,
there's this, there's you win a number of weeks without
touching the clubs. There was some real satisfaction. He took
time to let that sink in and and really soak
up the experience. And you know, look, is he going
(36:06):
to have that after winning the Zozo Championship in Japan? No,
probably not. But look, he's gonna play again at the
Hero Uh in a few weeks. That's the next time
we see him, right, that'll be the Hero in the
beginning of December. I'm sure he's going to pick himself
for the President's Cup and we're going to see him play.
(36:27):
They're probably not all five matches, but I'm sure we'll
see him play, you know some and I think we're
gonna you know, we'll see him at Tory Ponds, will
see his usual schedule. Um, we're not going to see
him play a heavy, heavy load and you're not gonna
see him practice and so forth as much. But this
is a guy. If he's healthy, sure he can win anytime.
(36:51):
He tease it up. So he wanted to have the
surgery after the Hero but he did not, and he
said they paid off because he ended up getting a
major out of it. I completely understand that. But then
he played the rest of the year with the knee
bothering him, and it obviously got worse as the year
went on. He wanted to have the surgery. Then, I know,
you've got a date on when he had the surgery.
(37:12):
Do you know when the knee was injured? Was it
injured at the Hero or prior? Do we know any
of that? And and and when was the surgery? So
the surgery was in August, he announced it on the seven.
I believe it was that he had undergone an arthroscopic
procedure the week before during the Tour Championship on his
(37:34):
left knee or appear to repair minor cartilage damage. But
to your point, you know, look, he wins the Masters
and comes out for Golf TV interview not long afterwards,
and we see him sort of walking very gingerly. You know,
there was a lot of speculation of oh here we
got again, and and so Forthnath. Was that related to
(37:54):
the knee. I'm not sure, but certainly it looks like
you could have been clearly been need have been bothering
him for some time, and he had the surgery later
in the year during the Tour Championships. So this past
year which he did not qualify for, So just again
it goes back to this guy, I can stay healthy,
(38:15):
he can win golf tournaments. But it's just as simple
as that he's healthy, he's going to win golf. Absolutely,
So he's risen to number six in the world golf
rankings that as they're out, he's only played thirty three events.
I'm gonna give you the events that people in front
of him have played. Brooks events, McElroy forty eight events,
Dustin Johnson forty three events, Justin Thomas forty seven events,
(38:38):
John Ram forty eight events, Tiger Woods thirty three, Can't
Lay forty four, rose Xander Shafley fifty events, and then
Bryson de Shambo to rind out the ten fifty four events.
So you're talking everybody's played more events than him, but
yet he's got his many victories. It really truly is
(38:58):
unbelievable the clip he's still winning at not playing his
you know, he doesn't have as many opportunities, but he
is making the most of him. So when he plays
the Hero in December. Is that an official event that
number one would count towards eight three? It does not,
It would not count. It's only eight team players. And
but but it is World Golf ranking points. You do,
(39:21):
you do, strangely get World ranking points for the event.
But it is not an official PGA Tour event. So
his next tour event would obviously wouldn't come until again,
probably you know, last year, there's some speculation and rather
this past year there's speculation that he might key it
up in Hawaii for the Tournament Century Tournament of Champions,
(39:41):
the winners only event in Maui, which, by the way,
he's won that in the past and played there, but
hadn't played there in a long time. And you know, look,
given the hilliness of the course and sort of the
awkwardness of some of the shops that you faced there, um,
I I wouldn't expect him. Plus, look, he's a creature habit,
you know, I just don't think he is going to
(40:02):
see it up there. So you can almost guarantee that
the next time we see him in a PGA Tour
event would be the Farmer's Insurance Open at Toria Pines, which, oh,
by the way, He's won there a million times, so
don't be surprised if he breaks the record at Tory Pines.
See that's the thing. So now every tour event he
(40:23):
plays will be the watch for a D three. Every
single tour event that we're gonna go to will be
trying to get to number eighty three, and then it
will be everyone he'll just be adding on. It really
adds a whole new element to the p G A tour.
I'm sure they are going to have massive ad campaigns
around it every time he plays. I mean, this really
is playing right into him once again becoming the face
(40:46):
of the PGA tour again, which they didn't have him
for so many years, and they made the young guys
and tried to do all they could to make these
other guys. But sure enough he has put himself and
subplanted himself right back to be the face of the
tour once again. Well and look, and I don't think
it's going to be Um, I don't think we're going
to go a long time without Tiger winning because eighty three. Uh,
(41:06):
it's Look, it's a big deal. It's a lot. You
could see it in Tiger's expression, um when he was
asked about it after his victory in Japan, he just
had a big smile and um, but look, that's I
think fifteen fifteen major. You know, winning that fifteenth major
was far and away the hardest thing he has had
to accomplish in his golf career, and so him getting
(41:30):
the eighty three is not going to be the momentous
occasion in his eyes. I think in terms of pressure
and difficulty in all of those sorts of things in
the stage and so forth. Um, I think he gets
there next next year. I think we see him, you know,
win in twenty, whether it's Tory Pines or Bay Hill
or um, you know, wherever it might be. I think
(41:52):
I think he gets there, uh in twenty. And how
cool would it be, by the way, you know, if
he's back to winning golf tournament, stay healthy, you mean,
how cool would it be to see him, you know,
get to a team major championships and maybe do it
at Augusta. I mean, that's that's a real possibility. Yeah.
You know, the selfish part of me doesn't want him
to win at Torrey Pines. As much as I love
(42:13):
Tiger Woods, I don't want it to happen at Torry Pines.
I would love to see it happened here in Pontovidra,
at the Players. I would love and could happen there,
absolutely to see him set the record right here, only
for the simple fact that I could go and I
could be there and see it. That's the really the
only reason. Because I'm guessing next year to the Florida
Swing has become a little more difficult with scheduling. Um,
I'm guessing in Florida next year will only see him,
(42:35):
probably at the Players and probably bay Hill. I remember
last year, because of scheduling and the w g C
event in Mexico, Uh, he did not play the Valves Bar,
and he did not play the Honda Classic. Right the
Honda comes the week after w g C in Mexico.
He is unlikely I would think to turn down free
World Ranking points, not to mention that's a golf course
(42:58):
where he should have success on and play well, given
his ball striking capabilities and the fact that he's now
back to hitting the ball straight off the tee, maybe
straighter than ever. So look, he'll he'll get there. He'll
get there next year if he's healthy. If he's healthy,
it all is a predicated on him. He's healthy, and
(43:18):
that's that's one last thing you just said I do
do you want to talk about in closing is how
is it all of a sudden he's driving the golf
ball straighter than he's ever driven. And I'm going back
to when he was healthy and when he was kicking
everybody's ask and taking names on a weekly basis, How
is it all of a sudden he has figured something
out that has allowed him to drive the ball straighter
than he has ever driven. Yeah, No, it's it's it's
(43:41):
quite without a swing coach, as you said earlier. Yeah,
we've seen, we've seen the swing evolved. We've seen the
fact that he's willing to concede a few yards. And look,
let's remember technology, you know as part of that equation
as well, our friends of Taylor made are making it
easier obviously as well too, Right, Yeah, I mean he
he has really adapted well to the switch the tailor
(44:03):
made h in his bag and that's been a big
impact for him. And he seems to figure it out
and gone uncomfortable and it goes you know, the t
are certainly connected the swing and the equipment, and I
think he knows that. You know, Look, his way of
winning golf tournaments isn't going to be hitting a three
thirty yards through forty yards um and and trying to
(44:27):
wedge out, you know, or wedge it out of the
green from the trees. I think he realizes that if
he can straighten it out a bit and give up
a few yards his iron play distance control with his
iron play. Um, Look, you've always been one of one
of the greatest ball strikers to ever play the game.
And that's not going to go away, you know, the injury.
(44:49):
That's not going to really be affected by the injury
now that he's healthy. Really, let's face it. I mean,
if the guy is keeping the ball in the fairway,
he's gonna be tough to beat. I remember long time
ago when when Phil and him were kind of at
odds with each other, or what at least the media
and and and the fans believed that they were at odds.
There was a time he had won and Phil said, Wow,
(45:10):
it's amazing he's able to win with those Nike clubs.
Imagine if he played good clubs, how good he'd be.
And everybody kind of laughed it off. Remember that, how
great was that Tiger winning despite equipment, and but now
with the Taylor Made clubs, you know, they've made him
his own set of irons. He's got his piece sevent
ws that he plays. It really is remarkable how he's
(45:30):
able to strike the ball as well as he is
this late in his career, with all the injuries. It
does make you believe that the switch to Taylor Made
has done nothing except elevate his game. It has not
hurt him in any way, shape or form. No, so
he's clearly adapted off the tea especially. I think that's
to me, that's that's always been. You know the thing
with Tiger. If he's driving the ball well, you know
(45:52):
looks certainly that they're going to be days where his
iron plays off or is putting his off. That's going
to happen. It happens to everybody, including the great. It's
but to me, if Tigger drives the ball anywhere near
as well as he did in Japan, um, certainly he's
not going to do that again every time he tease
it up. But if he can do it more often
and more often, and we see him continue to hit
(46:13):
it well off the tea, then you know who knows
what the wind total ends up being. I mean, he's
he's just proving yet again that you really can't doubt him.
I mean, you know, you can't doubt him when it
comes to anything. And I think really anything at this
point is fair game. And it's fun to see and
it's it's incredible to watch. Congratulations to Tiger Woods. Congratulations
(46:36):
to the fans, people who have stuck by him and
believed in him and always wanted to see this happen again.
It really is remarkable to see a guy fight back.
Some of the stuff that has happened to him has
been self induced and self stuff he's brought on himself,
but a lot of it is his body breaking down,
and even some of that is self induced and has
been brought on himself, and he was warned not to
do it. A lot of the guys that the greats
(46:58):
are are stubborn and they believe the way they do
it is the right way to do it, and they
continue to do it, and that's why they're as great
as they are. So congratulations to him, Congratulations to us
the fans, to be able to live and witness and
and I do hope that as a fan and chances
are you are a fan of Tiger. If you're listening
to this podcast, I hope you're enjoying this ride, because
(47:18):
this is one of the most epic rides in the
history of sports. We are witnessing a rebirth of something
that we thought we'd never see again. To witness the rebirth,
I mean, we've seen Tiger Woods go through the highs,
the lows, highs again in drop again, and now come
back again. I mean, we really have been able to
see some amazing stuff. And I hope that you are
(47:42):
taking it in and enjoying it because it will not
last forever. This is a true dynasty, one man dynasty
that we're witnessing kind of come back again, and I
hope that people are appreciating it and not just taking
it for granted and thinking, ah, here we go again. Yeah,
this is fun to watch, and it's exciting for golf.
It's exciting for the fans, it's exciting for everybody. Uh,
(48:04):
Tiger golf is better with a healthy Tiger and Tiger
winning and it's fun to see. And you throw in
you know, Rory and Brooks, Justin Thomas and a number
of other players, uh, you know from this next generation
and it's a cool time to really be covering golf
and to be watching golf and uh see it all unfold. Yes.
(48:27):
So this week we've got a split field event. We've
got the w g C HSBC Champions in Shanghai, which
you'll see Rory. Uh. Do you know Brooks is playing
this week? I know is his knee he is not
in the field, so in the field, so it's still
a great event. The HSBC champions going on in Shanghai,
the Bermuda Championship, which is new as the split field event,
(48:49):
the alternate field going on this week as well. We
get to my COVID next week, the r S M
at Sea Island, Georgia the week after that. Uh, and
then we get the hero will the Tiger again December
four and then the President's Cup, which when he won
he said that the player got the captain's attention. I'm
pretty sure that's a good son. That we will see
(49:09):
Tiger be a playing captain, which has been done before,
which I believe Arnold Palmer did it back in the day.
It has been done before. We will see Tiger play
twice in this calendar year. But like you said earlier,
will not count towards his victory total, trying to get
to eight three, and it'll be you know, it'll be
great to see him play in the President's Cup. Because
(49:32):
two things for America that work out great for that,
actually three things. One Tiger playing again. Obviously that's a
bonus too because of this. It's in Australia. You get
that means golf at night here on the East Coast
in the US, which is always fantastic. And then you
have it at Royal Melton, one of the you know,
this is a golf course that's probably top two or
(49:54):
three or four in the world. I mean, this is
a fantastic, fantastic Then you it's a great time a
year down there. Um, it'll really show showcase the golf course,
and um, it'll be really cool to see Tiger playing there.
So you have this nice collection of reasons to get
excited for golf in December at a time when you
(50:15):
know we're you know, probably not really thinking about golf.
But it'll be fun to see obviously Tiger playing in
this event in the Bahamas, which will be a nice
hitting giggle and fun to see. So a lot of
good stuff left on the golf calendar for the year
and a lot to be excited about. So it's fun
to see. It's a good year. It's good to have
him back. It's nice to see him at number eighty two.
(50:36):
Congratulations two Tiger Woods, and we will talk to you soon,
definitely before he tease it up again at the Heroro
World Challenge and again at the President's Cup. Thank you
so much for listening to the Playing Through podcast. We're online,
get us anytime on Instagram playing Through Podcast. I'm on
Twitter at Froggy Radio and Brian on Twitter at Brian
(50:58):
whacker one from Golf Digest. So thanks for listening to
the Playing Through Podcast. We will talk to you soon.
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