In case you hadn’t noticed, it hasn’t exactly been a great week for people who call themselves Tiger.
First, you have the Memphis Tigers, who blew a nine-point lead in the final two minutes-plus en route to losing Monday night’s national championship game.
Then you have the Detroit Tigers, who were supposed to be the class of the American League Central, if not the American League, if not the major leagues. They went into Wednesday night winless in their first seven games.
Which brings us to The Masters. Given all the bad Tiger karma out there, are we sure this Eldrick Woods dude is the man to beat at Augusta this week?
The answer is yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The difference between Tiger and those other Tigers is that those other guys had competition. Tiger’s only competition is between himself and the history books, not the other players.
If Tiger plays like he’s capable of, The Masters is over before it starts. And there are exactly no reasons to think he won’t do just that. The man, after all, has won seven of his last nine PGA events.
What makes this year unique in the Life of Tiger is that, for the first time, we expect him to win not just The Masters, but the Grand Slam. At least I expect him to. Go ahead, wait until the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open to start speculating. I’m getting in now while the getting is good.
For the record, Tiger has won The Masters four times in 11 starts and the U.S. Open twice in 11 starts. He’s three out of 11 at the British Open and four out of 11 at the PGA Championship. Collectively, that’s about .295 winning percentage.
So why would anyone think he could win the Grand Slam? Simple. Because he’s Tiger. Because he’s playing the best golf of his life. Because he wants to do it and believes he was born to do it.
Who knows? Maybe the odds will catch up with him. Maybe, even for Tiger, the Grand Slam will prove to be too tall a challenge. But having seen him bring the PGA Tour to its collective knees, I’m not going there.
Be surprised if he doesn’t win it, not if he does.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s daily sports commentaries on The Jimmy Page midday during the week. And read his columns on Sundays at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
