Three in one night!?!?! Are you kidding me?

Nope. Here it is. Almost unprecedented out of me, but this one’s worth it.

I was going to hold off on a Tiger Woods-related rant tonight, mostly because the more I thought it out, it sounded like sour grapes. That and I couldn’t think of any other way to segue into it out of Kansas basketball or Fletch jokes at a company dinner. But here goes.

I used to hate Tiger Woods. Part of me still does. I think he’s grown up alot, and its shown, maybe his struggles of the last year or so humbled him a little. I don’t know that the part of me that hates Tiger hates him, or the people that are licking the sweat off his… um… coat tails. Mostly, I mean announcers and fans here. The announcers have waited for, and commented on, every step where it looks like Tiger might “be back”. A first round birdie at the “Bank of Fort Wayne Father/Son Classic” is a sign that “he’s the Tiger of old again”. Today’s final round at Doral was some great stuff, but it got old in a hurry. Tiger got hot and finished the round off. Phil Mickleson didn’t have a BAD round, he just didn’t have as good of a round as the man he was playing with. Yet what comes out of the weekend is that Tiger is back to his dominating ways (which he may very well be, I’ll reserve that judgement for July or August), and Phil is back to being a “choker”. I actually heard these lines today in recaps of the tournament.

But if the announcers aren’t bad enough, I wanted to punch each and every fan that cheered putts Mickleson missed by inches, opening the door for Tiger to pick up a stroke or stay even with Phil. It’s not just that they’re rooting for who they want to win, it’s that they’re the ones on the course turning my “quick round” into 5 hours of waiting for a foursome on the teebox that “better wait for ’em to clear the green” before hitting that custom 3-wood 150 yards dead left on a 500 yard hole, or the ones driving carts over the fringe and not replacing their ball marks. I can’t wait to get out golfing again, but this afternoon was a stark reminder of what awaits me when I step up on the tee.

However, while I may get over Tiger’s win today, maybe it really was a kick in the pants for Lefty:

Then again, maybe that guy in the background was just showing Phil his “O” Face…