We're About To Find Out If Tiger Is Taking His Scheduling Cues From Hogan

In the years following the car crash, Ben Hogan played a limited schedule, most notably in 1953 when he entered just six official events in his three-major-win season. Tiger Woods has played three tour events this year and with the Arnold Palmer Invitational his likely next and last start before the Masters, many feel he needs to play more.

As the entry deadline looms, Bob Harig at ESPN.com makes the case for Woods to add the Valspar in Tampa next week.  

David Duval is also in that camp.

“I think it’s imperative that he should go play Valspar, (with the assumption that he’ll) more than likely play Bay Hill,” Duval said. “But I think he’ll play Valspar. It’s a good place to work on all parts of your game. And you don’t have to drive it a ton there. You’ve got to deal with swirling winds, elevation changes. So I think it would be a very good thing for him to go play Valspar. It looks like it’s about reps and about exposure, putting yourself under the gun and seeing how you perform and how your golf swing holds up. A couple more opportunities to do that would be very beneficial.”

Looking at the stats analyzed by Alex Myers now that Woods is officially eligible for PGA Tour rankings, he's clearly rusty, as evidenced by his par-5 play.

Woods ranks a dismal 208th in par-5 scoring, a stat he used to dominate, with a 4.87 average. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson leads that category at 4.33, meaning that if a course has four par 5s, he's picking up two shots per round on Woods on just those holes. Woods' inability to take advantage of these longer holes has kept him to making only 3.6 birdies per round, which ranks 97th, and he has yet to make an eagle.