Tiger Withdraws

[newtogolf]

7 minutes ago, Archie Bunker said:

"Vulnerable" is an interesting term. Ben Hogan quit playing competitive golf when he felt he could no longer compete. He refused to become a "ceremonial golfer". Maybe Tiger is thinking along these lines. I think there is a good chance you'll never see him on the Champions Tour.

I think this is Tiger's last attempt at playing golf on a Tour level and he's nervous about it because if it doesn't go how he plans he's got some real tough questions to answer about his future.  

[David in FL]

5 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

I think this is Tiger's last attempt at playing golf on a Tour level and he's nervous about it because if it doesn't go how he plans he's got some real tough questions to answer about his future.  

That ship may have just sailed.  He might be done...

[Zeph]

We can throw around which words he or someone who knows him used, but it doesn't really matter which part of the game wasn't ready. Good thing is he didn't say it was caused by health related issues, which of course it could still be, regardless of what he says.

World Hero Challenge in December will probably the most likely place for his return then.

[iacas]

12 minutes ago, David in FL said:

That ship may have just sailed.  He might be done...

Maybe. Maybe not.

I hope he does what suits him best. Beyond that, it's selfish to want one thing or the other.

18 minutes ago, newtogolf said:

I think this is Tiger's last attempt at playing golf on a Tour level and he's nervous about it because if it doesn't go how he plans he's got some real tough questions to answer about his future.  

I don't think he's got tough questions to answer. Like what? How to spend millions of dollars? He has already set himself up for the future, with course design, and perhaps to run a tournament like Jack does, and to spend time with his kids and basically play golf occasionally for fun with some buddies.

Hasn't he?

[David in FL]

10 minutes ago, iacas said:

Maybe. Maybe not.

I hope he does what suits him best. Beyond that, it's selfish to want one thing or the other.

I guess we're all selfish by that standard. We want Tiger to play, we want our favorite football player to stick it out one more year, we want our favorite author to crank out another book, etc...

 I admit, I couldn't care less about what suits Tiger best, I just want to be entertained watching him play golf.  It's starting to feel like that's less likely with each passing day though.

[GolfLug]

Good heavens, how hard can it be to knock a little white ball around a park??

It would be interesting to hear his perspective about what is good enough to start after 14 months of major injury related layoff. Some one posted 75-75 wouldn't be bad. I would up the ante to 80-80 and he still gets a hero's welcome on the 18th hole come Friday afternoon. But again, much to the chagrin of many like myself, seems like he has his mind set on a different target.

I still think he was not being disingenuous when he committed last Friday but can't be competitive without playing and he seems set to not play till he is competitive..  BAAAAHH!  

  

[iacas]

1 hour ago, David in FL said:

I guess we're all selfish by that standard.

What else would you call it? People - fans - putting their desires, wishes, whatever on another person for the (small) benefit of themselves in getting to watch him play golf? Yeah, it's selfish. Not grossly so, but yeah.

1 hour ago, David in FL said:

We want Tiger to play, we want our favorite football player to stick it out one more year, we want our favorite author to crank out another book, etc...

That may be true of even the vast majority. Not all.

Heck, I'm even somewhat disappointed that R.E.M. stayed together after Bill Berry left. They said they'd break up the band if any one of them ever quit. That happened, and they didn't.

I get that the distinction may be small, but while I'd like to see Tiger play competitive golf again, I don't "want" him to do anything different than whatever he feels is best for him. If he retires tomorrow, that's fine.

[skydog]

5 hours ago, iacas said:

No mention of his short game. This thread is about the only place where that's given as the reason.

No, not "for the short game."

When Tiger was dealing with the short game yips a couple of years ago he never truly acknowledged/admitted he was facing the yips when asked about it...he kind of brushed it off. Not saying I blame him, but IF he is facing that kind of thing again, it stands to reason he wouldn't draw attention to it by outright stating it.

I have no idea whether that is his reason or not, just saying that if it were, you certainly wouldn't hear an outright declaration of it from his camp.

Edited October 11, 2016 by skydog

[mvmac]

Certainly seems like the media wants it to be the yips. I'd be surprised if it was since he fixed the problem last year and was able to work on short game before he moved on to full swings. 

If I had to guess (and based on his history) I'd say he was probably struggling with full shots, specifically driver, and didn't have much confidence he could hit the ball in places that would allow him to shoot a decent score.

[newtogolf]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

Maybe. Maybe not.

I hope he does what suits him best. Beyond that, it's selfish to want one thing or the other.

I don't think he's got tough questions to answer. Like what? How to spend millions of dollars? He has already set himself up for the future, with course design, and perhaps to run a tournament like Jack does, and to spend time with his kids and basically play golf occasionally for fun with some buddies.

Hasn't he?

I know a few retired professional athletes and it's not about the money it's about the need to compete.  Of course financially he's set, imo he wouldn't be trying to make another comeback if he was content with designing golf courses and running tournaments for the rest of his life.  

[iacas]

Just now, newtogolf said:

I know a few retired professional athletes and it's not about the money it's about the need to compete.  Of course financially he's set, imo he wouldn't be trying to make another comeback if he was content with designing golf courses and running tournaments for the rest of his life.  

Well, that's just a guess, obviously. He may drop hints from time to time, but he might also just be saying what people want to hear. Even him saying things like "being around these guys at the Ryder Cup really made me miss it" doesn't necessarily tell us much unless it's super truthful. Is it? We also don't know.

He's also said that he wants to show his kids that he can still compete. Whether that is true either, who knows…? Maybe he just doesn't know what else to do with his time? He's been prepping for nothing else for 30+ years now.

I didn't say it was about the money, either. I said he's got plenty of money and so he can pretty much do whatever he pleases with his time. Maybe that will mean spending a lot of time with his kids. We don't know. We'll see.

[boogielicious]

When other professional athletes retire, many turn to golf for competitive fun. What does a professional golfer do? For someone like Tiger, whose whole life has been golf, it may be difficult.

[Yukari]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

When other professional athletes retire, many turn to golf for competitive fun. What does a professional golfer do? For someone like Tiger, whose whole life has been golf, it may be difficult.

Scuba diving and fishing?

That's what I would do. 

[Archie Bunker]

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

When other professional athletes retire, many turn to golf for competitive fun. What does a professional golfer do? For someone like Tiger, whose whole life has been golf, it may be difficult.

Don't know much about what Tiger does other than play golf. We've seen him go skiing when he was with Lindsay Vonn, and that he likes to watch cartoons. Maybe he will spend lots of time with his kids. He owns a restaurant in Jupiter (The Woods) but likely does not go there all that often. Golf course designer would probably be the thing he would focus on when he calls it quits.

[bogdan101]

4 hours ago, boogielicious said:

When other professional athletes retire, many turn to golf for competitive fun. What does a professional golfer do? For someone like Tiger, whose whole life has been golf, it may be difficult.

 

Trying out for MLB seems a popular choice.

[David in FL]

30 minutes ago, bogdan101 said:

 

Trying out for MLB seems a popular choice.

I don't know.  If you can't hit a ball very well when it's standing still, it'll probably be really tough to hit one moving 95mph!  

[natureboy]

3 hours ago, bogdan101 said:

Trying out for MLB seems a popular choice.

Those guys were multi-sport athletes in HS/College. Some former pros in other sports try to become pro golfers: http://www.pgatour.com/content/pgatour/players/player.26920.rick-rhoden.html/career

[bogdan101]

3 hours ago, David in FL said:

I don't know.  If you can't hit a ball very well when it's standing still, it'll probably be really tough to hit one moving 95mph!  

Yeah, but it's okay to hit it OB!...