Why is Tiger no longer dominating like he used to?

[golf_junkie27]

I think he still dominates. He's top 5 in FedEx cup points and is the only player who has not yet played in at least 10 events. He's got two wins, seven top tens and has made $3.4 million dollars. He's also first in scoring average. Last year, he won four out of the six tournaments he played in, finished second in the other and as others have stated, won a major. How exactly is that not dominating? No one else has come close to producing those kinds of figures.

Like other polarizing sports stars, no matter what TW does, it will never be enough.

[gogolfing]

He hasn't finished out of the top 10 this year. I still think he's pretty dominant.

[NorCalGolfer]

I think he still dominates. He's top 5 in FedEx cup points and is the only player who has not yet played in at least 10 events. He's got two wins, seven top tens and has made $3.4 million dollars. He's also first in scoring average. Last year, he won four out of the six tournaments he played in, finished second in the other and as others have stated, won a major. How exactly is that not dominating? No one else has come close to producing those kinds of figures.

I couldn't agree with this more...

[AmenCorner]

Golf is a streaky sport. Maybe he just had a hot streak back then that he might not repeat for a while. God knows injuries don't help.

I'm sure Byron Nelson probably wasn't losing sleep at night that he wasn't able to beat his own winning streak.

I think it's a fair question though. As far as swing goes, I like his swing now more than I did the previous two iterations. Just my opinion.

[AmenCorner]

I personally would like to add that I think it's amazing how he finds a way to be near the top of every leaderboard even when it's clear he is nowhere near his A game.

[senorchipotle]

I personally would like to add that I think it's amazing how he finds a way to be near the top of every leaderboard even when it's clear he is nowhere near his A game.

yea, that's amazing. i can't remember a major where he was more than a couple strokes off the lead.

[Range King]

Is it due to swing changes? The skill level of his peers? ''Tiger proofed'' courses?

I think the field also got better. E.g. Tiger showed that physical fitness is defintely part of the game.

[imtomtomim]

how many events did tiger play in '08? something like 8 right? with 5 wins including an open title and 3, I'm gonna call them top 6 finishes. If that's not domination I don't know what is. Yeah, he's finding his game now which is understandable after surgery and the layoff, but come on, you can't really say he's not crushing the field. He hasn't had a single finish outside of the top 10 so far this year not to mention 2 wins. For a lost game, I'd say that's dominating. he even racked up enough points to hold his #1 ranking for a year without play. That's an even more dominating thought.

[AmenCorner]

how many events did tiger play in '08? something like 8 right? with 5 wins including an open title and 3, I'm gonna call them top 6 finishes. If that's not domination I don't know what is. Yeah, he's finding his game now which is understandable after surgery and the layoff, but come on, you can't really say he's not crushing the field. He hasn't had a single finish outside of the top 10 so far this year not to mention 2 wins. For a lost game, I'd say that's dominating. he even racked up enough points to hold his #1 ranking for a year without play. That's an even more dominating thought.

I pretty much agree with you. I remember Greg Norman winning PGA player of the year with 2 wins one year. If Tiger wins only 2 he is in a major slump. Keep in mind Greg was the #1 player off and on for YEARS and Tiger has won 12 more majors and who knows how many more tourneys.

He is dominant, just not as much as the one super hot streak. I venture to say he will be at it again. 2 more majors this year and I bet he wins at least 1 of them.

[AmenCorner]

I think the field also got better. E.g. Tiger showed that physical fitness is defintely part of the game.

He has. But aside from Phil trimming up, do you think other guys are following this lead? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm wondering if this is really going on. Sorry, but my ADD just kicked in, remember when Gary Player said guys on Tour were using steriods or HGH? I'm sort of laughing thinking about it.

Is anyone else on tour jacked like Tiger? There are some skinny dudes out there, but I don't see anyone with his strength. My buddy was right next to him on the range at Isleworth a few weeks ago and said Tiger is absolutely jacked.

[bobsuruncle]

a few possible reasons for why he isn't winning by double digit no. of strokes:

1. equipment: (a) Fitting - TW has tremendous swing speed which allowed him to blast the ball past everyone else. New technology has nullified that advantage. E.g. guys with slower swing speeds use longer shafts, etc and they are no longer 50 yds behind him; (b) hybrids - guys who are shorter off the tee no longer play the hard to hit 2- or 3-irons into the greens. Now their shots are higher and land softer, giving them more of a chance than before. (c) others e.g. putters - mallets, belly, etc; and so on and so forth. You get the drift. In the old days you either had the game or not, you didn't have equipment as the great "equalizer".

2. fitness - guys are hitting the gym and practicing (almost) like Vijay. Even the pudgy guys are a little less rounded !!!

3. coaching - just about everyone has a swing coach today - both long game (Butch, Haney, etc) and short game (Pelz, Utley)

4. mental coaching - the good Dr. Bob is everywhere, everywhere.. arg, he's in my head !!!

But, even with all that...to say TW isn't dominant is just downright untrue. He may no longer "be feared" (thanks to Dr. Bob) but he's still intimidating. And his numbers speak for themselves.

[Zeph]

Golf is definately about hot streaking. A player may win two tournaments in a jiffy, then not be close for the next 10 years. Tiger just happen to be the best player and get streaks more often and dominate even more when he does.

His domination was primarily between 99 and 02, since then he's been on and off.

[timwalsh300]

It's normal that when someone comes along and sets a new, higher standard others rise to the challenge.

In baseball nobody hit homeruns before Babe Ruth came along. He dramatically altered how the game is played. In track and field, people thought that a 4:00 mile was impossible for a long time. Roger Bannister finally did it and now it's commonplace. Royce Gracie introduced UFC/MMA to grappling and dominated for a while. But now others have learned from his techniques and can beat him at his own game.

Tiger has inspired a whole new generation of well-rounded, top-tier athletes to begin playing golf (who might have previously chosen to play baseball, or hockey, or whatever). His success convinced a lot of older, contemporary players revamp their games - taking physical fitness seriously for the first time, as others have mentioned.

You can't expect that others were just going to stand off to the side and watch him dominate.

Tim

[iacas]

He has. But aside from Phil trimming up, do you think other guys are following this lead? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm wondering if this is really going on. Sorry, but my ADD just kicked in, remember when Gary Player said guys on Tour were using steriods or HGH? I'm sort of laughing thinking about it.

You said it's not rhetorical, so instead I'll simply point to guys like Camilo Villegas and the fact that virtually EVERY PGA Tour pro hits the fitness trailer all the time (or works out at home). Again, even Phil and some of the old-school golfers have started working out - and those that haven't, well, we rarely hear from them anymore...

[1par2win]

I believe it's a classic case of preception vs. reality. When he has played to his peak there has been really nothing like it and when he has "come back down to reality" he's still the odds on favorite in the field. This reminds me when I listen to people talk about their rounds they remember the missed 4 footer or the bladed chip but forget the 30 footer they drained or the miss hit that just cleared the water on the approach. In the end, the game has a way of having things even out. In Tiger's case, it's still about winning a handful of tournaments and measuring the success of a season by whether he wins a major. And he's got the handful of wins already and two more majors to go.

There endith the rant.

[wannabe]

Tiger still dominates.

His play back in the late 1990's - early 2000, though, was something beyond domination. It was like an adult playing against a lot of toddlers. It was super-human. It was something we may never again see in our lifetimes, or ever.

For the other players, those days were like splashing ice-water on the faces of sleeping children. It woke them up to what would from then on be the new bar for achieving success in pro golf. To their credit, they've done their best to rise to the challenge, though no one has really met it yet.

These days Tiger's domination is still amazing. The other players on tour are fortunate that Tiger doesn't play more events. They're also fortunate he's re-worked his swing a few times, had injuries, etc. Otherwise, the beatings could be much much worse.

I hear it every week from pro players, both young & strong, and seasoned, in interviews and in commentary all the time. There are pro golfers, and then there's Tiger.

[BigBoy]

I think its comes to down to distance. In 2000, the guy was just tearing up golf courses with his mammoth distance advantage. Only a handful of guys could keep up, and they weren't as good golfers as he was overall. The way courses were set up then allowed him to take lines that no one else could, doing things like hitting SW into Par 5s at Augusta. That kind of advantage allows you to win when you aren't playing that great, and allowed Tiger to just kill the field when he had his A game. It was like he was able to play from the white tees while most everyone else was forced to play from the tips.

Technology, club fitting ect, have allowed the field to catch up in terms of distance, and new course layouts make every one try to 'bomb' it more often. Also, once someone starts winning like that, people will work to emulate it, so distance became a focus of a lot of younger players. Tiger is still "long", but you don't think about that being the biggest part of his game anymore. In the 2000 time frame, his length was what was talked about the most, because he was so dominant in the category.

[Range King]

He has. But aside from Phil trimming up, do you think other guys are following this lead? This is not a rhetorical question, I'm wondering if this is really going on. Sorry, but my ADD just kicked in, remember when Gary Player said guys on Tour were using steriods or HGH? I'm sort of laughing thinking about it.

No, most of the guys are still nowhere near Tiger in terms of fitness. That is one of the reasons, why he is still dominating, just not AS dominating as he was couple years ago.

However, to shrink Tigers dominance from double digit win margins to 1 stroke wins, it is enough that maybe 50 guys get 10% better in terms of physical and mental fitness. Remember that Tiger is playing the whole field, and it takes only 1 out of 150 players having the weekend of their life to get Tiger into trouble. In my book, Tiger is still dominating and by far the best player out there, but he is not anymore the all consuming monster he used to be. Maybe comparable to the 2 gents in my avatar. They are definfitely dominating the game, but also lose from time to time.