UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. -- There should be nothing noteworthy or noticeable about the 195th-ranked player in the world missing the cut and shooting 16-over par at the U.S. Open, but Tiger Woods is the biggest circus act in sports right now.
The full Tiger Woods circus came to the U.S. Open
Whether he’s exceptional or awful, Tiger Woods overwhelms a golf course.
The 14-time major winner came to the Pacific Northwest for a truncated two-day stay at the U.S. Open. That was still plenty of time to take in the full Tiger experience. There were awful shots, career worsts, embarrassing moments, and an overflowing and polarized crowd lining the fairway. It should not be fun for anyone, but it’s still gripping.
Tiger spent his two days playing one group behind Jordan Spieth. Woods is still the headliner every time he goes out on a golf course, but it was a sad contrast each and every time those back-to-back groups came through a particular corner of Chambers Bay. At the 17th on Friday, Spieth hit a perfect tee shot into a gettable pin placement at the intimidating par-3. He drilled the putt, making his fourth birdie in his first seven holes to take the lead.
The crowd in the large grandstand complex surrounding the green lost it, rising to their feet and screaming at Spieth. They ate it up and reacted as if a player had just drained a hole-in-one or holed-out from a bunker, but it was a just a moderate-length putt of average difficulty. An elderly woman in the back row vigorously waved to him as if he were walking down the sidewalk in front of her porch and could actually see her or care.
Tiger came just minutes later, dropping a tee ball almost on top of the pin to prompt another explosion from the already lathered-up crowd. But he landed it too close, and the ball slowly rolled away from the cup, over one of these many slopes at Chambers Bay and all the way to the back of the green. The crowd reaction to the sequence summed up everything Woods is giving to us right now. Wanting a vintage Tiger shot and some break from the depressing grind, thinking they got it when the ball pinged the turf, and then a wave of wild shouts shifting to pained groans as it trickled farther away into an impossible spot miles from the hole.
Woods made an average two-putt par, and the crowd rose to give him a standing ovation. Unlike Spieth, this came less from excitement and enthusiasm and more from of a burdened sense of obligation. This guy is the show. This guy won 14 majors. We should probably stand and clap even though he just made a completely uninteresting par during a competitively irrelevant round.
But that’s what Tiger Woods does to a crowd and a tournament, even when he’s at his worst. His worst is a carnival that consumes the course right now. This week included:
- Tiger's worst ever U.S. Open round, an opening 10-over 80.
- A leaderboard stretch where only the great Rich Berberbian, Jr., a club pro, was lower.
- Tiger heaving his club some 20 yards behind him on a chop out of the hay.
- Promptly finding the rough on the hole with the widest fairway in the history of the U.S. Open
- An unambiguous top into the ground and down the middle of the 18th fairway and into the worst bunker on the course.
- Fans audibly laughing at the shot, something you might see a regular weekend chop pull off at your local muni.
- The rote TV commentary laments we get each time Tiger tees it up in 2015. Greg Norman said he looked "Completely lost, completely drained" and was "sad to watch." Corey Pavin, who walked with Tiger's group, said "It was hard to watch."
- A post-round media session, which he did not have to agree to, intensely watched and regulated to five questions by his representatives (who signaled how many were left with a hand-raised countdown of their fingers off to the side). When the press tried to cram a couple extra questions in, his reps barked at the USGA media relations person to "Get him out of there!"
- Tiger starting his second day with ANOTHER opening bogey and tumble on his ass
- Members of the crowd as he walked down his final, merciful hole shouting "Go Tiger!" "We believe in you!" and "We love you!" followed by one bold individual with a mocking bellow, "Need some weekend tickets!?" as it got quiet up on the green.
— Adam Sarson (@Adam_Sarson) June 18, 2015 Golf events always have a few moron hecklers in the gallery, but the loud laughs at Tiger's topped shot on 18 seemed particularly classless.
— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) June 19, 2015 It was just 36 holes but it was the full carnival package -- from the broadcast to the fans to his play on the course -- and Spieth playing just minutes ahead of him accentuated it all.
We’ll see Tiger next at the Greenbrier Classic in two weeks. He’ll go work on his “patterns” and “baseline shifts” with his swing consultant, Chris Como. But expect more of the same tough stuff in the hills of West Virginia in a couple weeks.
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