What’s Up With Tiger?

Tomorrow is the first round of the PGA Championship, the fourth and final major of this PGA golf season.  Tiger enters this tournament with some interesting stats.  First, he hasn’t won a major since his return from last golf seasons knee surgery.  And he enters his fourth major of the year coming off a win; in other words playing good golf.  So what’s up with Tiger this year, why hasn’t he won a major?

I don’t think that you can say he’s in a slump considering that he’s got 5 wins and 10 top 10 finishes, is #1 on the FedEx Cup standings and the World Golf Rankings.   But he hasn’t looked consistently like Tiger in the three majors this year.  Especially missing the cut at the British Open.

So let’s talk about this.  Everyone has an opinion and you know that I will tell you mine.  I think that the bottom line is that this is a year still in rehab for Tiger.  His knee was reconstructed just 14 months ago.  We’ve just tended to buy into the “Superman” image that Tiger has built over the last several golf seasons.  So we expect him to just bounce back from this kind of surgery and be himself immediately.

Now I’m not trying to make excuses for Tiger, he doesn’t need help or excuses.  I just think that he is probably right where he should be in his comeback and light years ahead of where any other golfer would be.  It just doesn’t seem very Tiger-ish.  But how many pro goflfers, at 33, now married with two kids, that have had the level of success that he has, would be even close to back in shape and playing like he is at this point?  I think exactly ZERO.

So will he win this weekend?  If I were betting, I’d bet not.  But my prediction is that he will finish the year strong and win the first two majors of 2010.  Just give him a little time.  He’s still Tiger after all.