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David Shedloski
David Shedloski is a columnist for GolfBrief.com. He also writes for PGATour.com and is the author of "Golden Twilight."
Mind your own business
- By David Shedloski
- Published 02/15/2008
- Commentary
- Unrated
So, who can challenge Tiger Woods?
That anyone chooses to respond to the question is all the evidence one needs to assert that no one is the answer.
Oh, we know what young Jason Day said about taking on the No. 1 player in the world. We know about Ian Poulter’s bravado. We know that Butch Harmon, Woods’s former swing coach, has recently promoted one of his current pupils, Adam Scott, as the player most capable of going after Woods. Ernie Els has his three-year plan to return to the No. 1 ranking. Why should this be so hard? Rory Sabbatini said that Tiger “is more beatable than ever.”
Everyone has Tiger on the brain. This is precisely what Tiger wants.
Why? Because how can anyone do what’s necessary to overtake Woods if he is not concentrating on himself? He can’t. The secret to Tiger’s success is that he isn’t thinking about anyone else. He isn’t thinking about being No. 1. He isn’t worried about what Els is doing to get better or that Phil Mickelson has embraced the teachings of Harmon or that Ian Poulter is putting himself on the same lofty plateau, even though he is a dozen majors and 62 PGA tour wins behind.
Ben Crenshaw once said that during the era of Jack Nicklaus at the height of his powers, his greatest tool for intimidation was wielded by those he intimidated. He got in their heads, without even trying, and they did the dirty work themselves in building up the Golden Bear.
Above all else in regard to the competition, Nicklaus did one thing well: he managed himself and his game with steely diligence and determination. He deduced from the most elementary logic that his game was the only one he could control. So that’s what he did.
That’s what Woods does today.
You might argue that he naturally has no one else to think about, being that he is in the enviable position of being ranked No. 1 in the world. But he truly acted no differently when David Duval overtook him for 16 weeks in 1999 or when Vijay Singh catapulted over him in 2004 during a fallow period when Woods was rebuilding his golf swing.
There were no pronouncements of returning to the top rung, no sticking a verbal bull’s eye on Duval or Singh. No goal-setting or confidence building through tough talk.
He focused on himself, started shooting lower scores, and the wins started piling up again.
With more than double the point average as No. 2 Mickelson in the Official World Golf Ranking, Woods has set himself apart from the competition.
Tom Watson said not long ago, thinking of his rise in the game, that he knew that to be the best he had to beat the best, and he was the player who finally supplanted Nicklaus as the game’s standard around 1980. He didn’t do it by calling out the Golden Bear. He didn’t do it by insinuating himself into the same stratosphere by beating his own chest.
Nope. Watson did it with clutch shots and key putts and even magical chip-ins. In other words, he overtook Nicklaus by not trying to beat him.
Gentlemen, to beat Tiger Woods, you have to forget that he exists. It’s that simple.
No, really, it is.
That anyone chooses to respond to the question is all the evidence one needs to assert that no one is the answer.
Oh, we know what young Jason Day said about taking on the No. 1 player in the world. We know about Ian Poulter’s bravado. We know that Butch Harmon, Woods’s former swing coach, has recently promoted one of his current pupils, Adam Scott, as the player most capable of going after Woods. Ernie Els has his three-year plan to return to the No. 1 ranking. Why should this be so hard? Rory Sabbatini said that Tiger “is more beatable than ever.”
Everyone has Tiger on the brain. This is precisely what Tiger wants.
Why? Because how can anyone do what’s necessary to overtake Woods if he is not concentrating on himself? He can’t. The secret to Tiger’s success is that he isn’t thinking about anyone else. He isn’t thinking about being No. 1. He isn’t worried about what Els is doing to get better or that Phil Mickelson has embraced the teachings of Harmon or that Ian Poulter is putting himself on the same lofty plateau, even though he is a dozen majors and 62 PGA tour wins behind.
Ben Crenshaw once said that during the era of Jack Nicklaus at the height of his powers, his greatest tool for intimidation was wielded by those he intimidated. He got in their heads, without even trying, and they did the dirty work themselves in building up the Golden Bear.
Above all else in regard to the competition, Nicklaus did one thing well: he managed himself and his game with steely diligence and determination. He deduced from the most elementary logic that his game was the only one he could control. So that’s what he did.
That’s what Woods does today.
You might argue that he naturally has no one else to think about, being that he is in the enviable position of being ranked No. 1 in the world. But he truly acted no differently when David Duval overtook him for 16 weeks in 1999 or when Vijay Singh catapulted over him in 2004 during a fallow period when Woods was rebuilding his golf swing.
There were no pronouncements of returning to the top rung, no sticking a verbal bull’s eye on Duval or Singh. No goal-setting or confidence building through tough talk.
He focused on himself, started shooting lower scores, and the wins started piling up again.
With more than double the point average as No. 2 Mickelson in the Official World Golf Ranking, Woods has set himself apart from the competition.
Tom Watson said not long ago, thinking of his rise in the game, that he knew that to be the best he had to beat the best, and he was the player who finally supplanted Nicklaus as the game’s standard around 1980. He didn’t do it by calling out the Golden Bear. He didn’t do it by insinuating himself into the same stratosphere by beating his own chest.
Nope. Watson did it with clutch shots and key putts and even magical chip-ins. In other words, he overtook Nicklaus by not trying to beat him.
Gentlemen, to beat Tiger Woods, you have to forget that he exists. It’s that simple.
No, really, it is.
Enough, already. We get the point. Actually, we got the point four months and 3,762 references ago, because that’s about how many times we have been subjected to this nonsense about something Ben Hogan may have said 57 years ago.
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