The Players Championship without the best player
May 9th, 2008, 8:58 am · 2 Comments · posted by Alex Kreitman
It’s May and we’ve already watched The Masters and golf is supposed to be in full swing. But not this year.
With Tiger Woods missing in action due to injury a usually fun to watch tournament like The Players Championship has lost its appeal.
The winner for this tournament and every other Woods will miss is tainted because they didn’t have to beat the best.
Every tournament Tiger is the favorite because he’s the world’s best and maybe greatest ever, but with him on the sidelines the competition level seems down, or just nonexistent.
It’s always, how is anyone going to beat Tiger? Now it’s just who cares who’s going to win.
It’s not completely anyone’s game which I think might be good for golf to try and develop some other dominant players while Woods is gone, but in the long run, when Tiger returns, it will be back to the same old story. Tiger is the favorite and Tiger wins.
I realize Woods doesn’t win every tournament he plays in, but he seems to always be in the running. So, until he comes back, I probably won’t watch much golf. I plan on playing a little bit, but I’ll stay in the woods and off the couch.
I’m actually playing in a tournament Monday with some other folks at the Times-News. It’s at Alamance County Club which I’ve played once before, compliments of my friend Ricky. But I didn’t turn in a good score that day; in fact it was one of the worst efforts in recent years. Hopefully I’ll have better luck this time around.
It’s a Captain’s Choice format, but I’m not sure how many of my scores we’ll be using. I plan on heading out this weekend to try and sharpen my skills, but I’m sure they’ll stay pretty dull.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:31 am
No doubt Tiger is the best and has an edge of the rest of the field, but those “other guys” are still really awesome to watch (and very good too). I went to the first round of the Wachovia Championship last week and it is truly amazing to watch shots from anyone who can play at that level. Also, there is nothing like a litte Sunday afternoon snooze while “watching” some golf.
Good luck at ACC. At least there is less trouble there and you can usually find your ball easier than the ‘ol Valley.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I guess I was a bit hard on the other golfers. I do usually pull for Lefty to win occasionally, but outside of him there’s no one golfer that stands out as someone I’d pull for. I need a favorite.