Huggan: "unfair to portray Woods as the poster boy for the relative mindlessness of top-level golf"

In December we had way too many Tiger at 30 columns. Now it's Tiger 10 years later, with John Huggan joining the chorus.

Which brings us to the thorny subject of distance. Although he is obviously well aware of the benefits that long driving brings in today's game, it is a fact that Woods had to be dragged screaming into the 21st century: his unwillingness to embrace modern technology was legendary.

Yes, because of the fact that he swings faster than almost anyone, he is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the supercharged clubs and balls that have so transformed the game at the highest level over the past decade or so. But the world's best golfer is also well aware that the yawning gap between him and the rest would be even larger if most tournaments did not reduce the game to a simple equation: blast away off the tee boys, then hit wedges on to almost every green.

So it is grossly unfair to portray Woods as the poster boy for the relative mindlessness of top-level golf in the early part of the 21st century. As he demonstrated when given the chance at Hoylake, the world's No.1 is the best shot-maker in the game by an enormous distance, if you will pardon the pun. No-one else is even close when it comes to imagination, flair and creativity, attributes that used to mean something when golf was inspired by the golfers rather than by the manufacturers of equipment.