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2008 US Open
Let's get one thing clear from the start. Tiger Woods is the greatest
golfer who ever played the game. His passion, work ethic, natural
talent, athleticism and drive are unmatched. He seems to have something
other than blood running through his veins. Let's call it ice water.
And Tiger Woods just played in arguably the most entertaining U.S.
Open in the history of golf.
Note, I said the most entertaining. Not the greatest round. Not
the most odds overcome. Not the most flawless game. Not with the
most on the line.
Woods was also one putt away from losing the U.S. Open to a 45
year-old not ranked in the top 100 in golf. Read that statement
again. By definition, it would be almost impossible to argue that
Woods just played his greatest round ever. It took him 91 holes
to beat a man who has one top 5 finish in more than 40 major starts.
It may have been entertaining, but it wasn't the greatest round.
Of course, watching television and reading the papers on Tuesday
morning you'd never know it. They drank the Tiger Kool-Aid from
the beginning. He'd been hurt. He was playing against doctors' orders.
He hadn't played in two months. But he persevered and charged back
to beat Mediate, making his win the greatest of his career and one
of the greatest in golf history.
Excuse me if I don't fall over myself congratulating the man who
chose to have elective surgery, who by several accounts (that obviously
weren't reported on NBC, the network that stood the most to make
from an epic Tiger story) was hitting lasers on the practice range
over the weekend with no noticeable sign of injury.
But Tiger knows how to mold his own legend. He is a master of public
appearances. Just take his own words following the tournament. "This
is my greatest tournament ever," he said after dispatching
of the gutsy Mediate.
Really? The greatest victory you, the man who has been #1 in the
world golf rankings for a decade, have ever had it beating a journeyman
whom most people had not heard of? The terrible thing about Woods
proclamation is that it immediately makes people believe that if
the greatest player in history felt it was his best Open that it
must be the "best Open of all time." And that discredits
decades of history. History Tiger knows well.
Does Tiger not believe that Jack Fleck, a nobody who had been playing
full-time professional golf for less than a year, beating his idol
the great Ben Hogan in an 18-hole playoff in 1955 was not more remarkable
than his victory? What about Francis Ouimet, who as an 18 year-old
amateur, beat the legendary Harry Vardon in an 18-hole playoff in
1913?
Ben Hogan didn't have elective knee surgery in 1949. He almost
died in a car accident that shattered his pelvis, broke his ribs,
ankle and collarbone. The next year, in 1950, he won the U.S. Open.
More recently, in 1964, Ken Venturi won the Open just a few years
after his game had abandoned him. Struggling thru heat exhaustion
that threatened to kill him, Venturi somehow overcame the physical
odds and the personal struggled he had been enduring, to win the
Open title.
Those examples of history are truly overcoming the odds. And if
Tiger, who loves to place himself in the context of history, wants
some personal benchmark, he need look no further than the 1997 Masters
or either the British or U.S. Opens in 2000 as examples of majors
where his excellence and outstanding play were in their rarest of
forms.
But, NBC, like any media outlet, likes a good story. It keeps people
engaged. It drives ratings. It sells ads and it promotes the PGA's
bread and butter product. What is more, Tiger likes to help stoke
his own legacy and people love good drama. It's a perfect storm
that results in over-hyped coverage and hyperbole of what was surely
one of the most exciting U.S. Open's in history, but it wasn't the
greatest, and it was the greatest performance, regardless of how
history remembers it.
About the Author: Mike Harmon has been in the
gaming business for over 15 years. Having worked in Las Vegas in
various capacities in the sports gaming industry with extensive
contacts at oddsmaking and consulting services, Harmon has put together
the necessary tools to forge a career out of sports wagering. When
Mike lays on a team, the books listen.
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