Rory McIlroy Talks Trash to Tiger Woods

Flex on that fool!

A good friend of mine and avid golfer made me aware of an article the other night about a small spat between a young golfer and Tiger woods. Instead of writing about it myself I will post his thoughts on the situation. From BK:

Now, for those of you who don’t know who Rory is (i.e. 99.999999999% of you), Rory McIlroy is a 21 year-old golfer on tour. His career includes one PGA tour win and one European Tour win. He’s had a very good year, including a win at Quail Hollow and ending up in the top 10. He also looks like a 16 year old kid, and apparently he talks a hell of a lot of trash.

“I would love to face him [at the Ryder Cup],” McIlroy said in an interview with the BBC on Monday. “Unless his game rapidly improves in the next month or so, I think anyone in the European team would fancy his chances against him.”

Rory, Rory, Rory… Where do I start? Who is Rory to talk about Tiger? Do you honestly think RORY MCILROY has standing to compare himself to TIGER WOODS, greatest of all time? This is akin to when Raja Bell talked trash about Kobe, except replace Raja Bell with a kid from the JV team of a public high school in Utah. Let’s compare careers:

Tiger won 3 consecutive U.S. Amateurs. Rory won 0.
Tiger won his first major at age 21 by dominating the Master’s. (He did it against Rory’s current Ryder Cup coach who choked all over the course.) Rory has a couple of Top 5s this year, after choking in the British Open and PGA Championship.
Tiger has 3 grand slams. Rory has 0.
Tiger has won 128 tournaments worldwide. Rory has won 2.
Tiger has 14 majors. Rory has 0.
Tiger’s name is Tiger. Rory’s name is Rory.
Tiger won the 2008 US Open with a broken leg. Rory didn’t make the cut this year.
Tiger is a 6’1″ black man with fitness articles in men’s health and is known for extreme sports in his free time (rally car racing, shark diving, etc.). Rory is a 5’9″ Irish pre-teen.
Tiger won the first 2 FedEx Cups he played in. Rory did not.
Tiger was beatable for one season. Rory McIlroy is beatable.
Tiger’s crisis was that he had too many porn stars throwing themselves at him to stay faithful to his Swedish model wife. Rory probably hasn’t lost his virginity.
Tiger is a billionaire global icon. Rory McIlroy is… Rory McIlroy.

So what happened here? Why does this kid think he has the right to say anything? He had a good year. Top 5’s in the 2 majors Tiger didn’t play well in. Had a better year than Tiger in almost every category. Seriously, though? Seriously? Tiger has a long history of carrying grudges and beating the pulp out of trashtalkers out on the golf course.

Tiger’s year was average for the PGA Tour. In Tiger’s worst career year, he was average. On his worst day, he is the average PROFESSIONAL GOLFER capable of beating you on any given day. The PGA players have benefited from his life-crisis by actually getting a chance to win when he’s not on the course. Most of them have kept their mouths shut and just went ahead winning some money for once.

Rory, on the other hand, has now opened his big mouth. He’s given Tiger the will to win. He’s given the most dangerous player ever to play the game some extra motivation. Rory McIlroy would love to face Tiger Woods. Tiger has one thing to say:

“Me too.”

BK

Tiger and Elin Finalize Their Divorce

Tiger Woods’ and Elin Nordegren officially ended their marriage today according to reports in the Calgary Herald and ESPN.com. We are all very familiar with the events leading up to this moment so I won’t rehash them here. Hopefully Tiger and Elin will be able to move on from this in a way that is most beneficial to their kids. The final terms of the agreement are unclear but the Calgary Herald reports that Elin may be taking anywhere from $100 – $500 million.

What has gotten much less coverage than this divorce is Tiger’s abysmal play since returning to golf at the Masters where he finished fourth place. He looked like he would return to form during this tournament after hitting the ball well and contending for the duration of the event.

Since then, Tiger has looked a lot worse, missing the cut at the Quail Hollow tournament later on in April and having some of the poorest performances of his career. He finished 13 shots behind the winner of this year’s British open, a major that he dominated in 2000 and 2005 and about two weeks ago, he shot his worst score ever with an 18 over par at the Bridgestone Invitational.

After all this, he is still the number one ranked golfer in the world. At one point should we wonder whether or not he will ever return to form. Golf is an extremely mental and personal sport. While some level of fitness is required to walk the course at the pro pace and hit the ball hard and consistently, one’s mind must be clear, confident and in tune with the body. Tiger Wood’s mind is probably gelatin right now. He has destroyed himself in the eyes of nearly everyone who knows his name including himself, and hurt his family in a way few could ever understand. This must be weighing on him and in a sport where mental clarity and confidence are so important it is no surprise that he’s out there looking like an amateur on the golf course. He has only been back at it for about 5 months or so but we have yet to see flashes of the Tiger of old. Only time will tell if he will ever return to form.

Congrats to Phil Mickelson

Lefty played a great final round on Sunday and won the Masters by 3 strokes. Not only did he win his third coveted Green Jacket he also pockets the $1.35 million purse that goes along with it. Not too bad for four rounds of golf. I wasn’t able to watch as much as I wanted to over the weekend but I caught most of the final round and it did not disappoint. At one point, it seemed like every other shot was coming from the trees. For a second those guys looked like me, frustrated as hell while trying to hit the golf ball off of pine needles from the woods. The difference is that they made it directly to the green when it would have taken me an additional 3 shots. Highlights of most of the leader’s final rounds can be found here.

For those of us watching Tiger Woods (everyone with a pulse) it felt like he had an awful final round. He couldn’t hit the ball straight, his followthrough fell apart as the day went on and he just seemed completely frustrated. After one of his tee shots the microphone picks up his voice saying, “Tiggeerrrr, come on.” Hearing him say his name reminded me of the voicemail he left for one of his pals a couple months ago.

That said, he finished tied for 4th place 5 strokes behind the winner. Not too bad considering he hadn’t played any golf in 5 months. It’s scary to think of what he may be able to accomplish once he really gets back into it. He is taking some more time off for now and I think I will too. Someone give me a heads up before he plays his next tournament.

The Tiger Woods Masters of 2010

My coverage of the Masters is going to be slanted. I want to watch Tiger Woods play golf and I am very interested to see how he does at Augusta. There are some other great golfers in the field but none of them are making their return to the sport after a 144 day hiatus while trying to piece their life back together with things like sex rehab and public apologies. That’s what Tiger is doing and it makes for some incredible drama.

He shot a 4 under 68 and is currently tied for 7th place and 2 strokes off the lead. Throw in his two eagles and this is the best first round that he has ever had at the Masters. I was at the gym yesterday and people were crowded around the T.V. to watch his every move. He looks a lot more relaxed on the course than I have ever seen him. He said he was not going to display any negative emotion during the Masters but he let it slip out a couple times. All things considered he looked very composed and confident. This should be a great weekend of golf…

I can’t believe I just said that

Anyways today’s coverage starts at 4pm on ESPN and ESPN3.com. ESPN is broadcasting the Masters in 3D for the first time ever. How long will it take for this to become the new high end TV standard? I would hold off on buying any HDTVs for a little while and let this new format settle into its niche…

Tiger Tees Off

I couldn’t embed the ESPN.com footage but check it out at this link.  The gallery seems electric. Listen out for the voice that sticks out of the crowd. He’s currently 1 under through the first 3 holes. Check out the leaderboard which has links to more highlights.

Tiger

Augusta, Georgia will be the site of one of the most anticipated returns in sports history. What Tiger Woods did to his family is awful. Most people can probably agree on that. He is also one of the best golfers of all time and arguably one of the most dominant athletes in the history of sports. Tiger Woods has won 71 PGA tour events and 14 Majors. He also has 4 Green Jackets from Augusta National and his 2008 U.S. Open win was one of the most amazing performances in the history of sports. He went out there on a torn ACL and won it after an eighteen hole playoff and one sudden death hole.

We all know what happened on the day after thanksgiving last year when he crashed his Cadillac Escalade into everything he could find. The days, weeks and months that followed were filled with blonde bartenders, hostesses and porn stars coming out about their affairs with Tiger. I don’t think anyone expected this. This guy turned himself into a corporation and successfully shut the world off from his personal life. That’s what made all of this so shocking. None of us thought that this turbulence lied under the persona that was known as Tiger Woods.

The past 4 months will all boil down to the next four days when Woods and the rest of the players on the tour take to the course at Augusta National. I’ll be watching and hoping that some of the magic is still there and I am positive that there will be millions of other viewers tuning in to watch his return to the sport. Golf has not been the same without him. I haven’t watched a single hole since he took time off from the tour. Tiger tees off for his first round today at 1:42pm. Welcome back Tiger. You should really stop cheating on your wife and get your personal life in order but I am happy to have you back on the course.