Love him or hate him, you really have to hand it to Tiger Woods. After making his eagerly awaited comeback in January earlier this year at Torrey Pines, Tiger has gone on to make an impressive 17 starts in 2018 thus far and has mounted serious title challenges at Carnoustie, Bellerive, Bay Hill and Innisbrook, whilst qualifying for the season-ending Tour Championship in the process. Moreover, Woods also managed to force his way into Jim Furyk’s Ryder Cup plans and perhaps most importantly, has shown glimpses of the game which has seen him land 14 major titles. However, the question on everyone’s lips remains, can Tiger land the illustrious 15th and if so, how does he go about achieving that in 2019?
Play Smart But Plan Smarter
Despite the fact that Tiger is now seemingly pain-free, it’s important to remember that he’s no spring chicken at 42 and with the gruelling modern-day professional golfing schedule to contend with, Woods needs to plan smart if he’s to have any chance of landing another major title. Much like Woods’ fellow Nikecompatriot Roger Federer has done for the past 3 years with regards to the French Open and entire clay court season, Woods should look to pick and choose his tournaments wisely in order to give his body and his mind time to refocus and recuperate.
Of course, you could argue that Federer’s reasons partly lie in the fact that Rafael Nadal is as good as unbeatable on clay and that trying to wrestle the Roland Garros title from his grasp is almost futile but by the same token, the rest has demonstrably improved Federer’s results on grass and he has spoken numerous times about how important it is to feel fresh when you’re advancing in years; Tiger Woods could do much worse than take note of this advice – perhaps he can use this extra downtime to build and design some new courses?
Forget About Winning
As the old adage goes, “The harder you try, the worse it gets.” Ultimately, golf is the same as any sport in that you tend to play your best stuff when you’re most relaxed and enjoying yourself. Woods has really come to the fore in the past couple of months and it’s plain for everyone to see that the American is simply enjoying being able to play the sport he loves without any hindrance. Although it may sound paradoxical at first, Woods’ biggest strength could also be his biggest downfall when it comes to trying to land that illustrious 15th major – the competitive streak which has seen him become one of the most decorated players of all time could also lead to him trying a little too hard and few golfers have found success when operating with this mentality.
Instead, Woods should stick to simply enjoying playing golf again and events such as the upcoming Showdown at Shadow Creek should help the 42-year-old in this regard. Woods will go head to head vs Phil Mickelson during Thanksgiving week for a total purse of $9 million and, as of 11th September, Woods is the 4/7 favourite with Betway to come out on top in one of the most eagerly anticipated one-off matches the sport has ever seen.
Keep Being Tiger
Despite his namesake being a ferocious predator in its own right, Tiger is much more like a shark in that when he smells blood, you’re in big trouble. Over the years, it’s impossible to recall how many good golfers have crumbled in the last round when they knew that Woods is hot on their heels and back in the day (whenever that was), if Tiger took a sizeable lead into the final days play then the result was almost a foregone conclusion. The point is that the name Tiger Woods still strikes fear into the heart of the opposition and he should continue to play on this as well as rallying the crowds, all of whom will undoubtedly be rooting for him to succeed.
Tiger’s Comeback Is a Victory In Itself
Those who purchased his recently-released biography on eBay or Amazon will be aware of the hardships and sacrifices Tiger has made over the last couple of years in order to facilitate his comeback – when you consider that many top commentators believed he would never be the same after his injury problems, the fact that he’s back out on the course in any capacity is remarkable. However, we’re all aware by now that this won’t be enough for Woods and so, with that being said, can he land his 15th major title? As reported in the Express, Nick Faldo certainly seems to think so and that’s good enough for us.
