Heeee's Grrrreat!

This past weekend, Tiger Woods won the NEC Invitational. Again. This is his fifth victory of the year. Tiger did what Tiger does best---win under pressure. With four players within two shots of him including Vijay Singh, Tiger pulled out a victory. Tiger is uncanny in his ability to win close games.

For a while, it was touch and go. Tiger would be tied. Or he'd lead by a shot. Or he was back a shot. Not playing his best golf, he birdied, par, par his last three holes, which was just enough to win by a shot.

Great players in tennis can do this. A great server like McEnroe could knock in three aces or service winners down 0-40. The ability to concentrate and get the points when absolutely needed is unbelievable.

But it must be that harder in golf. In golf, you fight the golf course as much as you fight your opponents. A great tennis player can win ten tournaments in a year. A great golfer would struggle to do that, especially in tournaments of note.

A week ago, Tiger Woods barely made the cut in the PGA Championships. Yet, he put himself in contention on the final day with a 2 under final score. The winner, Phil Mickelson, finished 4 under, two shots ahead of Tiger, but unlike Tiger, Phil lead all four rounds, and still only won by two shots.

Controversy swirled around the win as Tiger left the tournament grounds Sunday evening and headed to Florida. Due to inclement weather, the tournament at Baltusrol Country Club delayed the final leader rounds until Monday, when five
more holes could be played. As some of the leaders fell to 3 under, one shot off
from Tiger, Tiger was in Orlando. Were the leaders to have faltered, Tiger would have had to forfeit the playoff. He assumed that those ahead of him were so good, that at least one would win outright.

Still, some compared this to Randy Moss, who walked away from overtime, with seconds left, even though the odds were extremely slim that the Vikings would recover an onsides kick and score. Moss was criticized by the sports punditry, yet, some have supported Tiger saying the only person he was hurting was himself.

Whatever Tiger's personal flaws are, there's no denying his depths of concentration, which is why we admire athletes like Tiger. There's something about being able to win under pressure that inspires fans. A player can be good, but not great, if they have the stats, but don't have the ability to beat the best when it counts.