Dare we use the “C” word for Tiger’s performance yesterday? In a word, yes. Any time you witness a major upset, the favorite has to play below their capability and the underdog has to play extremely well. What made it so shocking wasn’t that Tiger lost a major when he had the 54 hole lead, you had to figure that would happen sooner or later. But when it did, you had to think it would be to a highly ranked, major winner like Padraig Harrington, VJ Singh, Ernie Els or someone of their caliber. No, what made it stunning was that he lost to a relative no-name journeyman named Y.E. Yang. Perhaps Tiger took him lightly or felt he would wilt down the stretch like all his other Sunday playing partners have. Or, maybe the blame goes back to Saturday where Tiger employed questionable “strategery” as former president G.W. Bush used to say. Instead of playing to widen his lead on Saturday, he played conservatively and settled for pars to maintain his lead. Obviously, this backfired on Sunday but then again, I’m sure Tiger didn’t anticipate he’d be so flat with his flatstick.
This doesn’t tarnish Tiger’s reputation one bit, and he will still go down as the best golfer to ever play when he decides to hang them up. It just shows that he is mortal and anything can happen in a sporting event. After all, isn’t that one of the reasons we watch?