Television Negotiations Can Finally Get Underway Now That Tiger Is Taking More Time Off To Spend With Sean Foley
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Tim Finchem and the networks now have a good idea where they stand with Tiger, so let the big ne-gosh begin.
Meanwhile, it was an ugly PGA for Tiger Woods and for one last time (until November), the scribes write up his saga.
Dave Shedloski on the pertinent numbers for Tiger.
The pertinent numbers for Tiger Woods in the 93rd PGA Championship were these: he found 22 bunkers, 11 off the tee and 11 greenside, and he was in four water hazards. He made five double bogeys.
Bob Harig reports that Tiger is looking forward to working on his swing now that he has a few months off.
Any hope of advancing to the weekend vaporized in the sauna that has enveloped the PGA Championship when Woods double-bogeyed the 11th and then again at the 12th -- his fifth double in two days.
"I think it's a step back in the sense that I didn't make the cut and I'm not contending in the tournament," Woods said.
"But it's a giant leap forward in the fact that I played two straight weeks, healthy. That's great for our practice sessions coming up. We are going to now be able to work and get after it, something I haven't been able to do. And I thought I could come in here and play the last couple of weeks and it get it done somehow, but I need some work," he said.
Scott Michaux thinks ahead to Tiger's next start.
Unless Woods chooses to play in one of the four Fall Series starts that begin with the Las Vegas event Sept. 29, his 2011 PGA Tour season could be done after only eight starts.
"He and I will talk about it," Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent, told CBSSports.com. "We weren’t contemplating this, that’s for sure."
The PGA Tour declined to weigh in on Woods’ elective decision not to play the Wyndham Championship next week, which ensures that he won’t be eligible to play in the U.S. for the next six weeks. Woods has twice won the FedEx Cup. It's the last chance to earn points before the series begins.
"We don’t comment on player scheduling decisions," tour communications chief Ty Votaw said.
Woods is also not exempt for his own tournament. Not that I'm worried...
Brian Wacker says Tiger needs a break.
Time is exactly what Woods needs now, maybe now more than ever, to do the things Sean Foley has tried to impart but has been unable to because of Woods’ battered body and mind.
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but Foley has his work cut out with a soon-to-be 36-year-old Tiger.
“Now I have nothing to do but work on my game,” said Woods, a four-time winner of the PGA Championship who missed the cut in the event for the first time in his career. “That’s going to be good.”
Woods was anything but good this week, except for maybe his distance off the tee.
“I’m hitting the ball farther,” he said.
So is everybody else. Now, is it Tiger's instruction, or like everyone else on the tour this year, that improved core training?
Robert Lusetich says Tiger has to figure out if his swing is really the issue.
He played well in places, making eight birdies for the two days, which tied him for tenth in the field.
“I showed signs that I can hit the ball exactly how I know I can. Unfortunately, I just didn’t do it enough times,” he said.
But if he can’t answer the bell when the tournament begins, or can’t sustain the play, then maybe the rabbit hole goes deeper than swing planes and spine angles.
Woods doesn’t think the answer is dumping Foley, but neither does he seem particularly interested in looking inside himself.
Instead, he thinks that developing a “go-to shot” and hard work will get him back to the top.
Stinger, RIP.
Jeff Rude thinks the driver needs work.
Most of his misses were right – actually, make that right into fairway bunkers.
Last week, he ranked last in driving accuracy at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Here, he hit but 12 of 28 fairways, or 42.9 percent, ranking near the bottom of the field.
As a result, Woods made five double bogeys for the two days, the most he has had in a Tour event, regardless of the amount of holes. Interestingly, in Woods’ first 936 holes in the PGA Championship, he made 11 double bogeys. Here, he made five in a span of 25 holes.
In Brett Avery's stat wrap up, he notes that Woods is about to take a plunge in the world ranking.
5a. Woods said following his round he would not play next week in Greensboro, N.C., thereby missing the FedExCup playoffs for the first time. There is the prospect that the Australian Open in November will be his next start counting toward World Ranking calculations. If so Woods, who began the week No. 30 in the world, would in the interim lose ranking points from five 2009 starts (win at the BMW Championship, three seconds and a T-11) and have a lone victory in the calculations ('09 Australian Masters).
And Dave Kindred, writing about Jim Furyk's resurrection with a putter hinged against his body, notices this fascinating trend with former Tiger bagmen.
Besides introducing the world to a gaggle of unknowns, this PGA has revealed a curious trend. Only last week, remember, Adam Scott won with the drainpipe and a former Tiger caddie, Steve Williams. They're now three shots off the lead here. And, as it happens, Furyk's caddie, Fluff Cowan, also worked for Tiger. Clearly, then, the new formula for success on tour is wait for Tiger to fire his caddie, then send the caddie to fetch you a broomstick.
Tiger's post round transcript is here.
His short game stats would also tell quite a story, but the PGA's circa 2000 website unfortunately does not allow us to see what he did around the greens.
