Tiger Woods Is A Couple Shots Back
Athletes and Celebrities, Golf February 2nd. 2008, 5:12pm 
Now I don’t golf, but I do have an appreciation of the sport. I come from a golfing family. My brother plays poorly at the D-III level and my father plays even more poorly at the local courses in my home town. Thus, I feel compelled to give you a golf post.
Earlier this week Tiger said that he was playing better golf than when he crushed the field at Buick Invitational last weekend. Through the first two rounds of Dubai Desert Classic Tiger led the field by a stroke. In the third round today he played more like…a human.
While Tiger shot a 1-over, Ernie Els put together a solid 65 (-7) to take a 1-stroke lead over defending champion Henrik Stenson. Woods is tied for 5th place with Sergio Garcia and 4 behind the lead.
Can Tiger come back and win? Of course he can, he’s Tiger Woods! But Els is in a great position to hold on. In fact, I’m going to say he does hold on. Is anyone still reading or did they stop at Elin Nordegren?
17 Responses to “Tiger Woods Is A Couple Shots Back”
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February 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
CRM…i read the whole thing.
eh, tiger can win if he has a good day driving the ball. these middle east courses are extremely penal if you miss the fairways.
holy shit, hot blonde. fuck the wannamaker, thats the best trophy in golf.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Yeah, she’s hot
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
G-OLF ?
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Phil’s wife ain’t too shabby either, not being a supermodel and all.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
yea, but phil has bigger boobs.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Appreciate the golf post CRM. I watched the entire coverage this morning. Never seen Tiger turn a 1 shot Saturday lead into a 4 shot deficit before.
Hoping for another takedown of Ernie and Tiger by my boy Henrik Stenson, just like last year.
FYI for non golfers, this is essentially the only European Tour event Tiger plays in all year. It has to do with some investment interest in the Middle East.
Great round for Ernie Els today, 65. Keep up the good work Ronny.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
dornoch…the funny thing is, if he really wanted to, all he would have to do is play 3 more events per year to keep his Euro Tour card. and years he wins the British Open, he’d almost be a lock to win the order of merit based on the major win and his WGC event wins.
ernie always seems to do well at dubai. him and darren clarke or retief goosen seemingly won the jebel ali event every year.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I’m glad there are a few more golf fans amongst the regular commenters/readers. And yes Phil’s wife is nice. (Forget who the middle player/WAG is)
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
im pretty sure thats david toms.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm
The other golfer is David Toms. He used to be good.
spencer, I wish he would play over there more. I don’t know why more Americans don’t. Norman had it right 15 years ago with his World Tour talk. I don’t dislike the fact that there are two tours I just wish the American guys would go play over in Europe more often. All you see is Phil at Loch Lomond, along with a few others (the week before the Open) and Tiger and O’Meara at this event. It doesn’t even have to be Tiger. It would be cool if guys like Verplank, Woody, and the younger guys would put some more American flags on the European Tour leaderboards every week.
But I guess there is no financial benefit so they will just stay here in the USA. The purses are bigger in America on average.
Anyways, I love rolling out of beds on a Saturday and being able to watch the top players in the world.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
oh definitely. but really, it just doesnt make any sense financially or competitively. the best euro players are over here anyways and the fields in euro tour events just arent that deep.
that said, i love euro courses. the weather and the setups are just great when compared to a lot of the US course-on-steroids. creativity and course management are actually important over there instead of bomb-and-gouge, driver-wedge-2 putt. as much as i love the old school courses like bethpage black, winged foot, oakmont, etc., they’re just too tricked up.
anyways, i like the euro tour too and its cool seeing new courses in different places, but the PGA is still the place to be.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I think the fields are deeper over there than you might think. Depends on the week. The middle eastern swing brings out the Els, Stensons and Adam Scott’s but they will be over here for the bigger events. I like following the guys who bounce around, like Stenson Vijay, Els, Sergio. I like worldly players.
I think during the weeks where the fields are split, like this week, Europe can hold its own. And not just when Tiger is there.
But you are right, it is all about the money and there is no financial benefit on the surface, though the European events can hand out appearance fee money while the PGA Tour events cannot. So I am surprised that doesn’t entice more Americans. The appearance fees are the reason you see Daly playing in Europe from time to time.
My main point is that I just wish the top guys would come together more often. The WGC events are nice but in my mind it should essentially be like that every week. I think it would benefit golf to add about four more WGC events and to have them all staged in “Europe” which essentially means anywhere other than South and North America. Imagine top field events each year at some of the Scottish Links courses or Valderama or Royal Melbourne or even Dubai.
But like I said, I like two tours. It is also cool to be able to see Tiger and Els in the morning and Phil and others in the afternoon.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Good to see golf coverage other than the “lynching” thing.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
couldnt agree more.
the last ryder cup at the K Club was awesome. It was the perfect combo of links and American styles and was fun as hell. The WGC events should do more at places like that and Loch Lomond as more of a neutral type course. thats just optimistic fantasy and of course the Ryder Cup made the course that much more memorable, but still.
speaking of changes that would make golf that much more interesting would be going back to the old style of the PGA Championship and adding a match play tournament that all the top guys enter. Or make the Fed Ex Cup that style, something where match play is used in an important event. that or add a stableford event like the international in denver used to be.
again, wild fantasy. god forbid golf be played in anything but a stroke play format.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Good thoughts. But you haven’t forgotten the WGC Match-Play, right? It is coming up in a couple of weeks, only the top 64 in the world get in. Stenson won that last year as well.
I do agree, seeing the format more often would be great. Not sure why they only use it in team events.
The country as a whole needs more match-play, it would get more kids involved I think. Golf is such a hard game. Match-play allows for mistakes along the way while still allowing you to compete. Obviously the reasons for wanting it on the PGA Tour are much different.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
This is all good to know (Golf fans reading this site – the more that make themselves known the more likely I’ll be covering golf in the future)
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:52 am
no, i havent forgotten about the WGC match play event, but thats the only one and, despite the field and the purse, doesn’t mean shit. if the amateur open is match play, there should be a few more events. the fed-ex cup would be far more interesting if they adopted that format. the only major drawback is someone fluking it up and knocking tiger out therefore killing the ratings.
the more golf the better if you ask me.