CLUELESS WRITER

CLUELESS WRITER

Sally Jenkins, a writer for the Washington Post, recently wrote an article about Tiger Woods as he was just returning from his 8 month lay off. I remember reading it and wondering what planet Sally was actually living on. I recently came across another blogger discussing the same topic so I'd thought I would share my thoughts.

Here is the article link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/15/AR2009031502686.html

I could go on and on about many of her "interesting" view points but here are a few examples.

"After an eight-month layoff to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, Woods missed dozens of putts and seemed frustrated by the slow pace of the whole affair. All of which was a reminder that the injury is a clear demarcation in his competitive life: He's now 33 years old and in the last third of his career, and while he surely has a lot of greatness left, the game may no longer come so easily. "

She made this statement after Tiger had played just 6 competitive rounds after an 8 month layoff. Prior to his injury, Tiger had won 10 out of 13 tournaments and won the U.S. Open on one leg. Now all of a sudden, he won't be the same.

Here is the most absurd point.

In addition to recovering his patience, Woods has to regain his feel and focus on the greens. Oddly, the thing that seems most affected by the long layoff is not his swing -- he engages that primary weapon system as powerfully as ever -- but his putting. Woods is an aggressor who likes to jam his short putts into the hole, but when he misfires they have a tendency to rim out. Time after time at Doral he grazed the edges or ran the ball around the lip. The good news was that he was just centimeters away from some low scores. But his trouble was perhaps a glimpse of what to expect when he gets older: Other greats who were nervy, aggressive putters, such as Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson, saw their touch desert them in their mid-30s, and struggled to ever make short putts again.

On a side note, Tom Watson did begin to have problems with putting, however, he has won 12 tournaments on the champions tour including 5 senior major titles. You can't even join the champions tour until you are 50. Not bad for someone who can't make a short putt. Did Jenkins do any research for this article or just make things up?


Is she really suggesting here that Tiger will struggle to ever make short putts again after he had one bad week of putting after such a long layoff? It really is just ridiculous. The funny thing about this is that the week after Jenkins wrote this Tiger made every putt he looked at during the tournament at Bay Hill. He lead the field in putting for the week and won the tournament for the 6th time. He also drained putt after putt in the final round including the winning putt on #18 in the dark to win by one stroke. It is true that Tiger is a streaky putter and sometimes has bad days like everyone, however, when he is on, he is the best putter of all time.

It must be nice to get paid for writing random nonsense like Sally Jenkins did in this article.

This video is awesome. Tiger + Rocky theme music.