Thousand Oaks, California - The Masters 1998, where the golf world is starting to try to make sense of Tiger Woods, tournament leader Fred Couples told reporters: "I wish I had the age of Tiger, but when I was 30 years I think it's going to be spent. "
Or not. Woods is coming to the end of 31 (he turns 32 later this month), and on Tuesday announced that the PGA Tour Player of the Year for the ninth time, the surprise of virtually anyone. It was the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, the host of his World Challenge tournament destination, when the news was announced.
"This year we only had a great year for golf and golf course even better," said Woods, who wants to defend his title at the destination.
Woods was virtually all that was laid in 2007. He won seven tournaments, including his big day 13 in the PGA Championship, two events in the playoffs at the end of the FedEx Cup season, and along the FedEx Cup season, collecting $ 10 million in compensation Deferred. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average again led the money list again, and is now the most important player of the year again.
There were some bumps in the road, some of them unprecedented. He made his way to Sunday's final group in both the Masters and U.S. Open, a position he had been a virtual shutdown of his career, but lost both tournaments. In the British Open at Carnoustie, he got the worst shot in search of his career, a surprisingly bad pull-off of iron hanging from the starting area of random limited first drink.
He lost the Deutsche Bank in Boston for Phil Mickelson, the first time Woods had never yielded to his rival as the two were paired in the final group on Sunday. Mickelson said earlier this week that new coach Butch Harmon had told him the secret to beating Woods in Boston and it seemed to work. (No word on whether Mike Weir introduced the same methods to beat Woods in the Presidents Cup match single careless, excited the crowd deafening in Montreal.)
"I was just a couple of blows to the head at the bottom of what I did in 2000, how many seconds I had, was not far," said Woods, referring to his best season, when he won three majors. "What am I going to end, the second by Phil, and then the two major leagues? If I did them, you can get them squared away, probably over 2000 people, if not better."
Yet every time Woods has shown signs of vulnerability, he returned to crush the competition, as usual. He shot a 63 in the second round of the PGA in sweltering Southern Hills in Tulsa, then put it on cruise control to hold off an outbreak of Woody Austin and dropping large numbers 13 (Mickelson tied for 32nd.)
Mickelson and as he may be in the driver's seat to win the first FedEx Cup simply Woods stormed back with victories in the BMW at Cog Hill and the Tour Championship (eight times) in East Lake , winning the Cup in a cake.
He was a child. He signed a contract to design his first golf course in the United States and face down amicably ended long-standing American Express. We have created an official Tour event back in the AT & T National in Washington, DC, while his wife, Elin, gave a blow against irresponsible sensationalism, winning a libel suit against an Irish magazine.
It 'was, as usual, a busy year but very successful. Along the way, Woods has distanced himself from his coach, Hank Haney, a step toward the ultimate goal of owning your swing, and that we can solve the problem on the fly. Not that there's a lot to repair.
