It feels like the PGA Championship is golf's least-loved major. Or maybe it just feels that way to me because I forgot to set my ESPN Best Ball lineup like an idiot (after placing 421st for the US Open and being the top 5% for the British - dammit!). The PGA Champ is like the Australian Open of golf. It's the Rodney Dangerfield compared to other majors.
If you had to rank the majors in order of prestige, it would go Masters, US Open, British Open, then finally the PGA. Why is that? Is it like the Belmont Stakes and the triple crown, where it only matters if someone is chasing a golf Grand Slam? Is interest lessened this year because Tiger seemed to be slumping? Am I just bitter because of the Best Ball thing? Let me know.
Before going to bed last night around 11:30pm PT, I checked ESPN.com one last time and learned that some French guy had birdied the second hole to take the VERY early lead at the British Open. Now that I'm in my office, most of the rounds have been completed. That's definitely a big part of why I've never gotten into the British Open quite like my love of the Masters and the US Open. It's weird golf over there. Normally the ground is very hard and your ball rolls a lot making it easy for a nice drive to roll through the fairway into the fescue...even though the fairways are very wide by pro golfer standards. The hardness of the fairway and greens make it hard for the pros to really spin the ball and stop it like they normally can. They have to plan on landing the ball short of the hole and rolling it close. However, supposedly the putting is actually very slow. I haven't really figured out how the greens can be hard and slow...
The US Open is my favorite golf tournament of the year. It's the one tournament every year that professional golfers are happy to shoot par. It is the closest they come to having a similar experience to everyone else trying to break 100/90/80. Not in the scores, but in the emotions and feelings that result from a good chip to set up a tap in par or missing the green on your approach shot.
Here Phil Mickelson comes up short on a false front and watches the ball roll 60 yards back to his feet...three times before finding the green on his sixth shot, only to three putt for a 9. Every golfer has experienced holes like this. I know EXACTLY how he feels. I have no idea what Tiger feels like when he goes driver-iron-20 foot putt for eagle on a par 5. The best I can realistically expect on a par 5 is driver-3 wood- two putt for birdie.
Now the caveat to loving the US Open is that I need to know how good these guys are to appreciate their struggles. You need a Northern Trust Open and a Waste Management Phoenix Open where the winner is 16-under par to be able to differentiate between the US Open and your local club championship. You first need to be impressed by the birdies and eagles these guys can get with regularity before understanding the triumph of par on a USGA-designed course.
Which would you rather watch? The best in the world displaying skills you do not have? Or the best going through the same trials and tribulations you regularly face?
A buddy asked for 3/1 odds that Tiger would win and I jumped on the field. If Tiger doesn't win (which I don't think he will) then I win. If Tiger wins, then everyone wins.
Who is Tiger Woods, really? Is it a question that any of us - anyone at all - can answer with any certainty?
I don't mean for this to turn into a People-style expose on all that has happened in TigerWorld of late. Rather, this will be my take on the bizarre and meticulous crafting of Tiger's image and persona.
