It’s been a long time since we got to talk about Tiger Woods in strictly a golf sense. Usually it’s been about another mistress coming out or some fan heckling, but now we’re actually focusing strictly on Tiger’s golf game.
Tiger was nothing short of brutal this past weekend at the Bridgestone Invitational. Even more surprising about Tiger’s poor showing is that he had won at Firestone seven times including his last four tournaments there. Yet Tiger shot a 77 on Sunday giving him a career-worst score in any PGA Tour event he had ever played. The Tige was frustrated, mentally drained, and defeated. He gave away strokes and looked like he couldn’t get out of Akron fast enough. He was unlike we had ever seen him before. But despite Tiger’s second-to-last performance at the Bridgestone, he’ll remain as the number one ranked golfer on tour.
Phil Mickelson had a golden chance to take over the top ranking in the world. Had Tiger finished 44th or lower (he finished 78th!), all Phil had to do was finish in the top four to take over the number one spot. Phil entered the final round at -5 and only four shots back of leader Ryan Palmer. Mickelson completely bombed on Sunday, going eight over for a 78 — one shot worse than Tiger — to drop 30 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 46th. Phil will have another shot at taking over the top spot at the PGA Championship, but he can’t choke like this if he wants to unseat Tiger who has been number one since 2005. It was a beautiful opportunity missed for Mickelson.
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