Tiger Woods ready to win at least three golf tournaments in 2012?

Tiger Woods kicks off his 2012 PGA Tour season this week at The AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Woods has been working hard on a new swing with coach Sean Foley and his mental game is also looking sharp, leading one expert to predict that Tiger will win at least three times on tour this year.

Tiger Woods, SpyGlass Hill Golf Course, Round One

 

Steve Siebold, a former professional athlete (tennis player), mental toughness coach and author of the book 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of The World Class, has worked with athletes for twenty-seven years and has been pointing to a Tiger Woods comeback all along, but based on what’s he’s seeing now he believes this is the year of the Tiger.

Here’s why:

·   Tiger Woods' talent never left him; it was his confidence that disappeared. Now that he knows how to win again, he’s not going to stop. Tiger won his last PGA Tour start, The Chevron World Challenge on December 4th and finished third at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. His confidence is as high as it’s been in years.

 

In his first round of the ATT at Spyglass Hill Golf course, Woods fired off six birdies for an opening round of 68, hitting eleven of fourteen fairways and fifteen of eighteen greens in regulation.

 

·   His ball control is much better than it’s been, and he’s working the ball left to right and right to left comfortably. Both physically and mentally he looks really healthy and his competition should be scared. He’s going to win at least three times this season.

 

·   Pebble Beach will be a good start for Tiger. He won the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by fifteen shots. He knows how to win big on this track.

 

 ·  Woods has made adversity his mental training ground. The stress and struggles of the past few years have only made him that much tougher and he’s ready to dominate the game again.

 

 ·  Woods is hard-wired through years of world-class programming to focus on a vision and persevere at any cost. He doesn’t understand what giving up is.

 

·   Champions like Woods are professional failures. They know that success is based on a series of comebacks, and that setbacks are set-ups for comebacks.

 

The bottom line for Siebold? A bet against a champion like Tiger Woods is a bad bet. On the physical plane he has perseverance, on the mental plane he has toughness and on the spiritual plane he has artistry...so says Siebold.

 

I agree with Steve Siebold that a bet against Woods at this point in his resurgence is a strong one but it should also be weighed heavily against other golfers in the field. In this stage of his career, with negatives drifting behind him, I think that Woods has the potential to win several golf tournaments this season, including a major (U.S. Open perhaps? He won it before hobbling on one leg...)

 

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Does it matter how many golfers Tiger Woods had to beat at Chevron?

An ESPN opinion piece mentioned a few reasons why Tiger Woods may have had an easier time winning his first tournament in two years, the Chevron World Challenge, but I'm not totally buying into it.

The reasons?

Tiger Woods with his Chevron trophy

 

1. Tiger Woods didn't have to beat very many players.

Does it really matter how many golfers are in the field? I will concede that more players increase the chances that more than one will shine but Golfers are supposed play against par. Whether there are eighteen or seventy-five golfers, if you're playing well for four straight days, you have a chance to win.Many of the golfers in this event are already winners and/or have played well this season. They also know that Tiger Woods had won on this golf course on four previous occasions.

Every golfer in the field was itching to win against Tiger Woods on Sunday in order to add it to their resume.

2. ESPN claims that the field of eighteen golfers (some of the finest players of the 2011 season) were not as engaged because this was not an official PGA Tour event.  

Do golfers enter into an event with the prospect of not playing their best or not wanting to win? I understand that there may be a different mindset between a major tournament and all other events during the year but putting together four terrific rounds of golf takes much physical effort and mental concentration: Woods was playing on point this week.

3. Joe LaCava, Tiger Woods' caddie, was quoted in the article as agreeing with the above statements, "He knows it's not 144 guys. He knows it's not the Masters."

4. The former number-one golfer in the world was highly motivated since this event was to help the Tiger Woods Foundation. I'm not sure that more motivation stems from the fact that he's helping his charity or because he went into the event wanting to win it.

Tiger Woods said, "I'm not playing for you guys or anything like that. Just playing to get the 'W'."

To add to the above ESPN list, since this win makes number five for Tiger on the same course, I'm unsure as to why Sherwood Country Club was not added as a reason why Woods won! As Bob Harig stated, "that first victory in more than two years had to come somewhere."

When Tiger was asked how this end-of-season win compared to his other victories, a Cheshire cat smile erupted (actually, the smile could not be undone after his win), "It feels great. … I know it's been a while, but also for some reason, it feels like it hasn't."

Watching Woods I noticed that his drives were errant and he did not play his "A" game but he also got out of sticky situations with aplomb, confidently putting his ball back into play and getting back into scoring position. Tiger Woods "of old" actually peeked out from a winless two years during the final two holes where he sealed the deal but there have been shimmers of hope for some time, especially since his stretch of tourrnaments in Australia.

The only problem I see with the Woods' "progression" is that Tiger will not be playing another formal round of golf until the beginning of 2012 which leaves much time for changing the swing and overthinking; before the final round, the announcers even noticed that he was fidgeting with his putting grip, a sign that Tiger Woods still has far to go to regain the confidence of two years ago.

 

Although Chevron has decided to part company with this unofficial PGA Tour event, now that Tiger Woods is on the comeback trail, I'm sure a new sponsor will not be hard to find.

 

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Las Vegas betting on Tiger Woods to win Chevron Golf Challenge

A few good showings at golf events in Australia and Tiger Woods has become the odds-on favorite to win the Chevron World Challenge this week. Las Vegas odds makers, Golf Channel and even crowdsourcing websites have the former number one golfer in the world in their sights or at single digit odds while GolfOdds.com says, "All other golfers are double digit odds."

 

 

Bodog.com confirms Tiger Woods as the 7/1 favorite with Furyk also remaining in single-digit odds...but not by much.

 

Although the eighteen player field includes Webb Simpson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Nick Watney, Bill Haas & Jason Day, it is Tiger Woods who is the focus of attention on both the Golf Channel website and on their Facebook page. Why? To play on fan emotions? What does Woods have that these other great golfers are lacking?

 

Would you choose four-time previous winner Tiger Woods to lift the trophy at his own event or one of these great players? 

Webb Simpson - Winner of Wyndham Championship, three second-place finishes this season and second in money leaders on PGA Tour.

Bubba Watson - Winner of Farmers Insurance Open and sixteenth in money leaders this season.

Rickie Fowler - With only one second place finish at the WGC-Bridgestone and four top-tens this season, Fowler is probably not my favorite in this competition but still a solid contender.

Nick Watney - Winner of two events on the 2011 PGA Tour schedule and third place on the list of money leaders, I hope Watney brings his "A" game.

Bill Haas - Unlikely winner of the FedEx Cup Tour Championship, the $10 million dollar winner has a 69.44 GIR and scrambling stat which are both higher than the Tour average, he could finish off the season holding the Tiger cup.

Jason Day - With no wins this season on the PGA Tour, you might think that Day is the weakest link but remember that he took second place at both the 2011 Masters and the 2011 U.S. Open, two of the toughest tests in golf.

 

Jeff Sherman, the founder of Las Vegas' GolfOdds.com said, "All other golfers are double digit odds. Tiger Woods' recent play also slashed his 2012 Masters odds from 12/1 to 6/1, making him the favorite ahead of Rory McIlroy at 10/1."

 

Although this event will benefit Tiger Woods' charity, Woods is grateful that he stayed in the top-fifty long enough to be invited! He is now "rebuilding", as he claimed, after both personal and physical injuries. A win at the Chevron, although not a major event, will be a good start to 2012.

 

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Graeme McDowell: Why golf needs Tiger Woods

After putting his way to victory in a playoff at the 2010 Chevron World Challenge, Graeme McDowell was proud yet effusive in his praise of Tiger Woods.

McDowell believes that golf needs Tiger Woods. "Mentally Tiger is great match player. He's the greatest player ever, and he expect guys to hole putts like that. Did I expect to hole them? I'm trying to hole them, of course."

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Where many golfers like McDowell want to hole putts believing that the ball may go in the hole, Tiger Woods knows when he stands over a putt that it will drop. Golfers who play against him still expect that he will stage a comeback when he's down (in spite of his lackluster year) or at the very least, fight until the very last putt on the 18th green has dropped.

It's the knowledge of Woods' mental strength that keeps the players on their toes and adds mystique to Tiger's golf game.

Graeme McDowell was happy that he was invited by Tiger Woods adding,

"Just great to see him back playing great again this week. I thought he controlled his ball really well the last couple of days. Just kind of got on the wrong side of the 13th there and made double. Apart from that, (he) didn't do a huge lot wrong today."

Yes, Tiger Woods played great golf for the entire tournament in spite of a cold putter and yes, Tiger Woods is a force to be reckoned with for the 2011 golf season. Lee Westwood and the rest of the European Tour and PGA Tour golfers, be prepared.

As Graeme McDowell mentioned in the pressroom,

"He can play his way back into having that mystique again. There's no doubt. He's just got to do the talking with his golf clubs now...

At the end of the day, we're all humans and we all make mistakes and we all hit bad golf shots. But there's something a bit special about his golf game, and I fully expect that mystique to return as the golf clubs start doing the talking again."

Read the transcript from the Chevron World Challenge.

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