Wednesday, April 1, 2009

No Need to Be Ridiculous


Sometimes our love and expectations of Tiger Woods can get the best of us. We sit in our comfy little couches thinking up new and interesting ideas about what Tiger can do (I heard he can lift a Mini Cooper with one arm!) and a lot of the time, they are even incredibly ridiculous even for Woods.

Damon Hack of Sports Illustrated had a shot of over-Tigering Tiger in his latest article, with this paragraph that nearly made me choke on my Chipotle burrito.

After more than a decade of chasing and breaking records, the arithmetic for Woods comes down to this. If he peaks during those four weeks, he could tie Jack Nicklaus's record of 18 professional majors — Woods's holy grail — and at the same time match the Grand Slam that Bobby Jones claimed 79 years ago. The hazards are many, and the competition on the Tour may be the deepest Woods has ever faced. The math, however, is right.

Hey, I'm not one to sit here and knock Hack. He is expected to write about golf and the Grand Slam isn't nearly as crazy as saying Woods could do 4,000 push-ups in a row or dunk on Dwight Howard. The point is, sometimes, even us foaming at the mouth at Tiger's accomplishments can overstep our allotted boundaries.

Woods won last week. It was incredible. He even surpassed my expectations. If he wins at Augusta in two weeks, it would be absolutely incredible. Why don't we just accept what he's done for us and not pile on all this Grand Slam weight just because he had a good week.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

"...Chipolte burrito."

Way to rub it in, Shane. We don't have Chipolte in Augusta. Nearest one is 2.5 hrs away in Atlanta. Damn.

spencer096 said...

dude...you live in augusta. i'd gladly trade the seemingly 50,000 chipotle's we have here in cleveland to live there*.

*provided i got to play one round at augusta

Upcheshaw said...

I don't think it's all that unreasonable to think Tiger could win the Grand Slam this year and not just because he won last weekend. The reason being he is on a stronger knee and has had a long layoff. My thinking is he should get stronger through out the year. If that's the case, then yeah he could win the GS, why not?

Marc said...

no chipotle? oh well, nothing like some Bojangles before taking in a practice round.

Shane B. said...

First off, yeah Lucas, you can kiss it. You live in Augusta. Everyone hates you now.

Second, Upcheshaw, I just think it is rather ridiculous to ever think someone "could win the Grand Slam." It is the toughest thing in golf, by FAR! That would be like a par-5 on the PGA Tour only playing 515 yards and the announcers saying, "I can't believe he didn't double-eagle that hole!"

Upcheshaw said...

Shane, ridiculous is a pretty strong word. After all there are a lot of people that think he has all ready one the Grand Slam (me included). When you have all four of the trophies at one time you've got a GS. FYI, it's difficult to win the US Open too. He's won it by 15 shots. Yeah I think he can win a Grand Slam.

Shane B. said...

No, I'm not saying that. I think he can win it as well. I just think it is a lot to ask and even talk about before he has even won ONE this year. Shouldn't Paddy be landing more discussion at this point about a Slam-type moment?

Unknown said...

Blaaaaaa Blaaaaaa Blaaaaaaa. Tiger is / isn't / won't / will /gonna / shoulda / woulda / gotta. He is the man. The force to be reconned with. Whether or not he does or doesn't break so-n-so's record is pretty much null and void. None of the prior records were achieved on these present courses against the talent of todays competition. Its like comparing apples to Space Shuttles. Consider yourselves fortunate to witness one of the greatest achievements of mankind. This man is a freak of nature, he is responsible for the fact that I and millions of other missguided souls are even playing the game. When I was younger I could not ever imagine playing let alone watching this sport on TV. Now I am ADDICTED.

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