It would appear that Tiger Woods has regained some of his old form and perhaps found some new tricks to play on his fellows on the PGA Tour. Going into the final round at Doral he led the field by 11 strokes leaving some of his colleges shaking their heads in wonder.
Steve Strickler gave Woods his famous putting lesson early on in the week at Doral. Strickler commented to ESPN after the match, “His attitude and what I saw this week and his belief in himself again looks very similar to the early 2000’s…or you can pick any year, I guess, when he was playing great. He just seems in a better place mentally to me. Seems to be having fun. Seems to have a lot of confidence in himself and his game.”
Greame McDowell, who played with Woods on Saturday and Sunday, told the press, “In this wind the last couple of days, his ball flight control is pretty stunning, really, the way he flights his irons around. It’s pretty cool to watch. I thought his short game and putting the last couple of days was very impressive. He cleaned up everything he had to clean up pretty much. It was good stuff.”
These comments are not coming from some star struck fan of Tiger Woods but from two of the top golfers on the PGA Tour.
Tiger Woods’ Cadillac Championship rounds were indeed very impressive. McDowell said afterwards that he gave up any hope of catching Tiger somewhere on Saturday afternoon. If these two world class golfers are correct…..and Tiger Woods is really back on form….it’s pretty bad news for the rest of the golfing world.
With this latest victory at Doral, Woods now has 76 career PGA Tour wins in 283 starts as a professional. That’s means that he won 26.9% of his starts. No one has even come close to that record says Jason Sobel of the Golf Channel. Jack Nicklaus only won a little better than 12% of the tourneys that he entered.
Woods is always talking about the “process”….the all encompassing process. It is his focus and it encompasses everything from the weight room to the putting green.
It is his mantra….the “process”….and it seems to be working for him.
Tiger’s competitive spirit must be admired.
