Tiger Woods? Only The 5th Best Golfer

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3309127

Nuf said. Geoff, Vijay, Jim and Retief all better than Tiger........this one tournament.

Seriously, though. These guys almost gave it to Tiger AGAIN! When play was halted yesterday, these guys were well ahead of Tiger. They tried giving it back, but Tiger just missed putts that he normally makes.

Relevant Tom Kelly story -- when the Twins were losing 90-100 games a year in 1995-98, their manager Tom Kelly was asked about his team's chances against the Yankees in a 3-game series. He said, "If you have a guy who usually shoots an 85 for 18 holes playing a guy who usually shoots 75, the 85 guy may shoot 80 and the 75 guy may shoot 81, but that isn't going to happen a whole lot of the time. That 75 guy is gonna win almost every match."

When Tiger shoots par, it is an AWFUL round for Tiger. 3-4 under is an OK round, and he can go 8-10 under on any course if he plays well. That just isn't the case with his opponents. He is the 1996 Yankees, his opponents are the 1996 Twins.

Here is a basketball analogy -- Tiger shoots 90% from the line and 50% from the floor. His best competitors shoot about 80% from the line and 43% from the floor. Assuming that the other factors involved in the game are at all even, for Tiger to lose he would need to be significantly worse than normal and have his opponents be significantly better than normal. Not only does this not generally happen, but the OPPOSITE actually occurs -- when Tiger is leading or close in the final round, his opponents actually collapse and play worse. So, let's move them down to 70% from the line and 40% from the floor. Well, Tiger just isn't going to shoot that poorly. That is why he always wins.