With the way Tiger Woods has declined over the past two or three years, many believe the best days of his career are behind him. In all likelihood, that is true. Tiger will get his swing back at some point and play more consistently than he is right now, but he will probably never be the Tiger of old who used to dominate every major and only miss the cut on tournaments he didn’t play in. At only 36 years old, Tiger envisions at least 15 years of good golf on the horizon.
Our friends The Sports Junkies from 106.7 The Fan in Washington, D.C. recently caught up with Woods at a press conference in Maryland. Either Tiger is putting on an act, or his confidence is still very high.
“Absolutely, 100 percent agree with that,” he said when asked if he can still win tournaments after he turns 50. “It just has to be on the right golf course. It can’t be, at that age — well, by the time I’m at that age, it’ll be some golf courses over 8,000 yards. It’s probably not going to be at one of those; it’s probably going to be at a shorter golf course like you’d find at a British Open.
“Tom (Watson), at Turnberry, it was like the perfect Open. It was howling, it was a golf course he had won on and knew how to play and it was playing very quick. … You can certainly see a certain player playing into their 50s and being successful on a certain venue. You can’t do it on all venues, there’s no doubt. Some ballparks are just too big.”
Watson shot an opening round 65 at the British Open in 2009 when he was 60 years old. Obviously it is doable, but it’s an extremely difficult task. The problem for Tiger is that he’s lost his edge, and the longer he goes without finding it the more difficult it becomes. It would be easy to envision the old Tiger whose life was in order and who dominated the sport winning tournaments into his 50s. This Tiger, not so much.
H/T Sports Radio Interviews
Photo credit: Allan Henry-US PRESSWIRE
