The Zone Interactive Golf Magazine (UK) The Zone Issue 25 | Page 10

GOLF NEWS
bully. On courses where he has always been comfortable, he continues to be. A classic examply is the Firestone course at Akron, Ohio, where he recently won for the eighth time. People will point to the fact that the rough is thick and that the course is tree-lined. Yes, there are trees, but the rough is nowhere near as penal as that which he faces in the majors. The harsh truth is that while he still seems able to will putts into the hole in run-of-themill PGA Tour events, he can no longer do so when it really counts, in the majors. And he still misses far too many fairways to expect that he will ever have a genuine chance of winning The Open, US Open or US PGA. His best chance remains The Masters, at Augusta, where the penalties for wayward shots are not as severe. But here’s the thing. Woods used to win majors as he wished, going away from the field. Now, he just seems to try too hard, and the harder he tries, the worse he plays. And the worse he plays, the more foul-mouthed and badly behaved he becomes. Now take a look at Phil Mickelson. He played really poorly at Oak Hill, especially during the third round, when he shot a 78 that was littered with mistakes. Did he spit, throw a sulk and storm past fans waiting patiently for his autograph? He did not. Instead, he signed every autograph book, every peaked cap, every golf ball that was thrust under his nose. There is a huge difference between class and classless and the preceding sentence sums it up perfectly. Maybe it is time that Woods takes a leaf from Mickelson’s book, takes time to smell the flowers and tries to enjoy his attempt to close in on Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors.
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THEZONE / ISSUE 25