2015 British Open

[shnsajax]

It's a little early to start but looking like this might play a little easier this year with the weather.

 

Also Spieth shot a 61 today to take the lead in the John Deere.

[seanimal]

nothing against spieth, but i'm rooting for fowler

[jersey cubs fan]

http://deadspin.com/hows-tiger-woodss-british-open-going-so-far-1718201763

As of this writing, Woods has played 16 of his opening-round holes, and sits at four over par. That puts him ahead of just two players—Rod Pampling and Kevin Streelman—on the leader board. But even that depressing fact doesn’t quite capture how miserable Tiger’s round has been:

[vine]https://vine.co/v/erngjwzxama[/vine]

[vine]https://vine.co/v/ervJaeBh5QD[/vine]

[Banedon]

Bad Tiger makes me sad.

[seanimal]

he needs to buy whatever remaining time butch harmon has left

[UMFan83]

He should just retire. Watching/following him is cringe worthy these days. Of course part of me keeps hoping he will put it together for one weekend and look like the Tiger of old while winning a major. But I just can't see that happening at this point. That knee injury killed his career.

[seanimal]

tiger of old was arguably the best golfer ever, to return to that is impossible. and i don't buy the knee injury thing because he was really good again after that. i think the flag hit/rules controversy at the masters was the genesis of his current dance with the drain. his short game is total garbage. he can't score to save his life

 

i look at how great mcilroy, spieth, and fowler are, in particular, and it's hard to even care about tiger's struggles. the infatuation with it is creepy

[jersey cubs fan]

and it's hard to even care about tiger's struggles. the infatuation with it is creepy

 

I think it's weird that you view it this way. He was on track to be the greatest golfer ever and after a sex scandal and injury he is now healthy but mediocre. That's a crazy story in any sport, and it is magnified in a sport that is strictly about individual performance.

[seanimal]

it's not that weird. his sex scandal was five years ago, after which he regained the no. 1 ranking for some time. it has nothing to do with present-day tiger woods

 

the creepy part is the delight at which people point out his struggles. almost in the way a white sox fan delights in any cubs failure, real or perceived

[Ryne Ween]

Even with all the other great players today I am still most interested to see how tiger does in every event that he plays. I'm just waiting until he gets it together again, to whatever degree that ends up being.

 

The obsession with him is deserved. He's not just a guy who was the best of his era and arguably all-time, like say a Pete Sampras type. He's a transformative figure that basically broke both the color and to a degree the socioeconomic barrier of his sport. He's possibly the most important athlete ever. And he's 39 right now.

 

Lots of people want to watch him fail and I think more want to watch him succeed at this point. But as big a star Rory is and Spieth is becoming they will never generate the type of interest tiger does. That's why they air every shot he hits.

[jumbo]

it's not that weird. his sex scandal was five years ago, after which he regained the no. 1 ranking for some time. it has nothing to do with present-day tiger woods

 

the creepy part is the delight at which people point out his struggles. almost in the way a white sox fan delights in any cubs failure, real or perceived

 

This. I hate listening to most golf commentators/announcers because many of them savor the opportunity to make fun of his bad rounds, delivering on some payback for Tiger being a dick to them at some point in the past. If the golf community would simply report on the relevant players and let him fade away with his game (or resurface when appropriate) it would make MILLIONS of golf fans happy. Some will certainly miss the "Tiger watch" format, but not as many as the networks think.

During the US Open I went to the channel with four video feeds at once and as soon as I tuned it Tiger was on three of the four screens. It just happened that he was on the featured hole cam, but he was also in the featured group feed and the main network feed as well. All this with a full field in the first or second round.

[jersey cubs fan]

it's not that weird. his sex scandal was five years ago, after which he regained the no. 1 ranking for some time. it has nothing to do with present-day tiger woods

 

Nothing to do? Hardly.

[seanimal]

it's a convenient narrative, but a) 5 years is kind of a while ago and b) his actual sucking immediately follows his back injury and subsequent surgery

[jersey cubs fan]

it's not that weird. his sex scandal was five years ago, after which he regained the no. 1 ranking for some time. it has nothing to do with present-day tiger woods

 

the creepy part is the delight at which people point out his struggles. almost in the way a white sox fan delights in any cubs failure, real or perceived

 

This. I hate listening to most golf commentators/announcers because many of them savor the opportunity to make fun of his bad rounds, delivering on some payback for Tiger being a dick to them at some point in the past. If the golf community would simply report on the relevant players and let him fade away with his game (or resurface when appropriate) it would make MILLIONS of golf fans happy.

 

I think there are a huge number of people who revel in Tiger failing, and not all for good old schadenfreude. But that comes with a sport that demands attention to the individual rather than a team. Asking people to ignore it would be like asking them to ignore the Yankees going from a string of dominance to a huge drought. That is going to be a story, and trying to play the "why is this news? why is anybody reporting this? why are we paying attention to this guy?" is disingenuous and/or naive.

 

Tiger Woods struggling is news because it's Tiger Woods struggling.

 

Anyway, somebody named Danny Willett is now 9 under while the Johnsons are each 7 under.

[Banedon]

Also, there's a lot of fans rooting for the guy to get back to what he once was. So that makes his failures attention worthy.

[jersey cubs fan]

Also, there's a lot of fans rooting for the guy to get back to what he once was. So that makes his failures attention worthy.

 

The guy went from perennial world number one to outside the TOP 200 in a hurry. Compare it to Phil Mickelson, who was the only other golfer people paid attention to for a while. He went from perennial number 2 to gradually outside the top 10 into the 20s. It's been a steady, probably normal for his age, decline. Noteworthy only in that he was popular and good but now not as good. Whereas Tiger was exponentially more popular and successful and the only golfer with anything resembling attention from outside the golfing world, and his fall was so much more steep and drastic. It's noteworthy for many reasons.

[jumbo]

it's not that weird. his sex scandal was five years ago, after which he regained the no. 1 ranking for some time. it has nothing to do with present-day tiger woods

 

the creepy part is the delight at which people point out his struggles. almost in the way a white sox fan delights in any cubs failure, real or perceived

 

This. I hate listening to most golf commentators/announcers because many of them savor the opportunity to make fun of his bad rounds, delivering on some payback for Tiger being a dick to them at some point in the past. If the golf community would simply report on the relevant players and let him fade away with his game (or resurface when appropriate) it would make MILLIONS of golf fans happy.

 

I think there are a huge number of people who revel in Tiger failing, and not all for good old schadenfreude. But that comes with a sport that demands attention to the individual rather than a team. Asking people to ignore it would be like asking them to ignore the Yankees going from a string of dominance to a huge drought. That is going to be a story, and trying to play the "why is this news? why is anybody reporting this? why are we paying attention to this guy?" is disingenuous and/or naive.

 

Tiger Woods struggling is news because it's Tiger Woods struggling.

 

Anyway, somebody named Danny Willett is now 9 under while the Johnsons are each 7 under.

 

I don't think they should deny that he exists or anything. If he's in the mix every story will be Tiger related, and everyone should expect that. If he's not in the mix, then rattle off the leaders/top ten and add "Tiger Woods is 45th" and move on. I don't think there are that many all or nothing Tiger fans anymore, but I may be wrong about that.

[shnsajax]

Spieth -6 today and now tied for the lead with an amateur.

 

Of the top 57 players only Dustin Johnson is over par today. At least he can go home to Paulina and some blow.

[Guest]

Spieth -6 today and now tied for the lead with an amateur.

 

Of the top 57 players only Dustin Johnson is over par today. At least he can go home to Paulina and some blow.

 

The last 7 major winners each at least held a share of the lead after 36 holes. Johnson took care of that one pretty quickly today.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

And Zach Johnson wins the playoff.