1999: Tiger Has Share Of Wyndham Lead; DLIII Right There Too!
/Tiger's resurgent play at the Wyndham Championship has been a site to behold, if nothing else for the fan energy he appears to be feeding off of.
Still, more impressive and exciting is the idea that Woods, a true horse-for-course who has been set in his ways, branches out playing a new course and thrives. Not knowing where all the trouble is, or having no bad vibes, or feeding off of playing an old Ross course may have set him free. Who knows, who cares. It's fun to see a player who has hit such a low point find something again.
And it turns out that 51-year-old Davis Love's role in contending is not a coincidence either, as Rex Hoggard explains for GolfChannel.com.
Best of all, we have the Ryder Cup task force to thank!
Late last year, in the aftermath of the U.S. Ryder Cup team’s loss at Gleneagles, Love and Woods were named to the Ryder Cup task force, and their friendship has grown from there one text message at a time.
“This whole task force, all of us, I’ve spent more time talking to Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods this year than I ever have,” Love said. “We asked, 'What is wrong with the Ryder Cup?' What we realized is that the guys didn’t talk. We’re all getting to know each other better.”
For Love, the practice round with Woods on Tuesday inspired the 51-year-old to stop worrying about making cuts and start focusing on winning tournaments again. As for Woods, well, he doesn’t seem to need much inspiration at this point.
Tiger is paired with Tom Hoge, who has 79 PGA Tour ROUNDS under his belt to Tiger's 79 Tour WINS. Chew on that!
Bob Harig on Tiger's humorous and apparently innocent reaction to hearing the name pronounced like the sandwich.
A rookie on the PGA Tour, Hoge has two career top-10s and has never led after any round. His name is also pronounced "Hoagie" and so when Woods was asked if he had ever heard of him, or if he would recognize him, there was a funny exchange.
"No, I wouldn't. What is it, or him? I don't know," Woods said.
Laughter understandably ensued, and Woods was not trying to be funny. He honestly did not have any idea who his co-leader in the tournament is, the guy he'll meet for the first time Saturday in a paring of the 315th-ranked and 286th-ranked players in the world.
"No, I don't know," Woods said. "I've never met him, never seen him. Don't know anything about him."
In Woods' defense, why would he?
The round two highlights that have Tiger sharing the lead with Hoge.
I'll be talking with Gary Williams on Morning Drive about Tiger at 11:15 a.m. ET. Coverage starts at 1 pm ET on Golf Channel, then heads to CBS at 3 pm ET.
**Tiger's helped ratings too.
The .97 overnight rating is best PGA TOUR Friday overnight rating since 2013 WGC Bridgestone and has the Wyndham up 234% vs Round 2 of 2014's event. Coverage peaked at a 1.2 overnight (4:30-5:30 p.m. ET). It's the highest early round overnight at Wyndham Championship on Golf Channel by 110% (2007-2015).
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