InTheFairway

Both are difficult in their own respects. In tennis, you have such rivalries between players. A tennis tournament goes on for two weeks not just 4 days as in a golf tournament. But in tennis you are playing your opponent, that's the biggest difference, and usually the better player prevails. In golf, you are battling the course and the conditions. Even if you play better than your pair, it doesn't mean you'll score better than him. Golf is a fickled game, so many things can go wrong, and you have to keep control of your emotions and nerves. I would say golf is much more difficult to repeat major championships than tennis because its bigger than beating your opponent, there's much more variables involved.

I'm with you there. His only hope is that the course gets tougher and the leaders don't go too low. Unlike last week at Deutsche Bank this course is supposed to be tougher. Tiger will bounce back but I doubt to finish in the top 5.

Phil should have passed Tiger for #1 by now but the pressure is getting to him. He tanked at the WGC bridgestone as well. This was a big oppportunity missed by Phil and each week tiger is slowly putting his game back together.

There's no doubt it will get harder as each year passes because time does run out on you. Jack Nicklaus has acknowledge that this year was a big opportunity missed for Tiger and it will get harder for him. If he had been able to carry the momentum he had in 2009 into 2010, he probably should have snagged 1 or 2 majors this year. But if Tiger keeps hanging around in the major championships and stay around the top of the leaderboard, he will convert a few more whether his opponent melts or he's able to put together a good final round. I think Tiger can play well enough to keep giving himself chances to win, even if he doesn't dominate as he used to, he should reach that magical number 18.

The modern Tiger is more controlled and not as long as the young tiger. In the young tiger you can see the incredible torque he had as he winded up during his swing but he ended up "spinning out" of shots a lot of times. As he progresses during his career he is going for accuracy, and less for distance which i don't think will ever be a problem for him. If he is in the fairway more than not he doesn't have to go for those miracle shot as much.

Tiger had his world crumbled and it's hard to come back from that. The worst thing was he was deceiving people not just his wife about being a family guy but at the end of the day, it's not a crime to cheat and we watch him as fans because he's a virtuoso at what he does. It's easy to be critical of someone but we're not in their shoes and don't have to face the endless temptations that celebrity brings.

Way to go Arjun. He really hung in there and handled his nerves. Not easy considering the year he's had.

who knows? If he plays well at the fedex playoffs and can carry some positive momentum into 2011 then he'll probably have a good year. If he tanks at the Barclays and doesn't play well for the rest of the year, 2011 may not be so good.

Well I think that not being in the fairway is definitely important in major championships, where you get punished for being in the rough. There are times when you can get away with it where you are lucky enough to be in the intermediate cut or caught a good lie and your miss has to give you a good angle to the pin. He definitely is one of the longer hitters just like Phil or Ernie maybe not the longest in terms of statistical driving distance but if you look at the top 5 on the money list those guys are all capable of putting it out there 300+ yards when they need to. The par 5s is where they feast on for these guys and separates them from the herd. That's part of the reason Tiger has moved away from a softer ball to regain the advantage he used to have in distance.

PGA Golf is dominated by the long hitters, so if a player wants to be in the top 5 they have to be a long hitter and cant afford to lose much distance. Tigers driving came up in an interview with hank haney...Hanks comments were along the lines that Tiger is placed at a different standard than the rest of the field. Last year 2009, when he won 7 times, he finished 9th in total driving. But yet a lot was made about his driver problems. And even in this years masters, he hit more fairways than mickelson who won. So it seems people have a higher standard for Tiger and pay attention to his misses than his good drives.

You can't ignore Tiger's performance in the majors. He was in contention in 3 of the 4. Big occassions bring out the best of Tiger, and we shouldn't believe it would be any different in the Ryder cup. He is golf's number one competitor despite his struggles this year.

This is an unfortunate incident, and it could have happened to anyone. But the onus isn't on the official to prevent violations. The player has to know the rules. These kind of infractions rear their ugly head once in a while but its part of the game.

The strength of Tiger's game has been his mental game. He does what he needs to win, and doesn't make "mental" errors. After watching the start of his PGA sunday, he got off to a hot start but made a questionable call to try and drive the "easy" par4 sixth with a driver and ended up bogeying the hole. That just seemed to kill his momentum. Had he made the smart play and layed back and then tried to stick a wedge, he'd have a chance at birdie and at least par the hole. Part of him regaining his form is that he doesn't beat himself and play overagressively, but it's not all about him regaining his swing.

After some time, there is no doubt that Tiger will surpass Nicklaus by winning those elusive 4 more majors. Right now, he has to roll with the punches since he's name is mudd and his personal life is in disarray. But it won't stay that way too long, and he will regain his confidence again. Certainly he might not win at the same pace of major championships and tournaments we've seen him do in the past (10 before age 30), but as long as he remains committed to winning he should reach that mark of 18 majors.

tiger isn't going to take advantage of the par 5s the way he's driving the ball. He's ended up bogeying quite a few this week due to an erratic drive or second shot. He won't contend on most courses until he gets back to beating up on par 5s.

Tiger is tanking. Phil isn't do much better. I'd put my money on Jim furyk come Sunday.

I'll be they have been "sharing ideas" for some time. Perhaps thats why Tiger did so poorly at the WGC Brigstone since he was tweaking his swing from Foley's instruction.

Cool picture. looks like some dedicated fans. my pick is padraig harrington.

Geez Tiger won six majors with Haney...how could he have ruined his swing? I think the times tiger did struggle the worst was with his putting. His driving accuracy has never been great, but that is an achilles heel for long hitters.

Tiger understands his swing. He's not just a great player but a student of the game not to say he doesn't need a swing coach. His problems are in his mental game and concentration.

Hunter Mahan is on a roll and he will be carrying a lot of momentum from firestone into the pga championship. Steve Stricker is the hometown favorite. John Daly could surprise some people, like he did at St. Andrews, hopefully he keeps it together for the weekend:P

There is no evidence of him taking peds. Just because the doctor was implicated in peds doesn't mean he was giving peds to all of his patients. Tiger has been an advocator of drug tests on the pga. Tiger's driving distance has certainly fallen from being in the top 3 when he came on the tour, and only a recent change to harder ball, has brought him among the leaders in driving distance. You can't rationalize that he is using or ever used Peds since it has never been proven.

Tiger's level of concentration is not where it was compared to last year. That's the biggest factor on his performance. You can see his mistakes are magnified...he mishits a chip and then he rushes to his putt and misses that too. Until he gets his personal life sorted out he's not going to play at the same level. I have no doubt he will play better at the PGA since the majors bring the best out of him. But he won't be the "old" tiger just yet.

I very much doubt Tiger has used ANY form of HGH or performance enhancing drugs. Hank Haney was asked about that and he backed up this up. Haney wouldn't have any reason to lie since he left Tiger, not to mention he is a straight-up kind of guy.

phil probably leads tiger in this category. he's more congenial and he doesn't throw his clubs. he just gets exasperated and red-faced. everyone deals with it differently. i don't think it's good for someone like tiger to internalize his frustration like he's doing now...it's just not his style. it's worse to hit a spectator in the face with your golf ball like he did sunday at firestone than to curse and try and reclaim your swing so you don't hit the ball wayward.