COMMENTARY
By Jim McCabe
NBCSports.com contributor
 | Jim McCabe |
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SAN DIEGO - Where there is a chance to win, there is also a chance to lose.
Unless your name is Tiger Woods, that is. Somehow, with him, there is no flip side to the equation. The only option is to win.
OK, so his victory in the Buick Invitational yesterday at a grueling Torrey Pines was only No. 47 — meaning that he has failed to win 153 other times on the PGA Tour — but there's no plausible explanation as to why he prevailed in a playoff against Jose Maria Olazabal and Nathan Green other than to surmise that he does not know how to lose.
He knows how to swing a driver at 125 miles per hour. He knows how to work a golf ball left-to-right and right-to-left. He knows how to hit down on a wedge so that it comes screaming off the clubface, only to stop on a dime once on the putting surface. He knows how to rip a 2-iron so that it can pierce a howling win.
Tiger wins his 2006 PGA debut |
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What he doesn't know is how to lose.
If he did, he'd have been lodged in a tie for third or fourth or fifth or sixth yesterday, his final-round score of 72 giving him a check equal to those handed out to lads named John Rollins and Lucas Glover, Arjun Atwal and Henrik Bjornstad, even Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson. All of them had a chance to win, same as Woods. All of them had a chance to lose, something Woods didn't have.
He wouldn't let himself have that chance, even though he suggested that his playoff victory over Jose Maria Olazabal and Nathan Green was a surprise.
"Quite frankly, I shouldn't have even been in the playoff," said Woods, who finished at 10-under 278. "I figured guys would probably get to 12- or 13-under and I wasn't puttting very good at all."
On this front, he is giving himself a bit too much credit, for the truth is, he was putting horribly. He never came close to making a makeable birdie putt at the first hole, then he three-putted for bogey at the fourth and three-putted for bogey at the fifth. On a bright note, the scenes out on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific were spectacular. "My speed," said Woods, "was terrible."
Fortunately for him, others had good speed — in reverse, that is. There was plenty of backup up and down the leaderboard, so even a front-side 37 that featured one birdie kept Woods in contention. Maybe he didn't smell blood, but what he sensed was that it was a day to grit the
teeth, take some punches, and maintain composure.
"The guys weren't running away. I was just trying to hang in there," said Woods.
Hanging around is about all he's been doing for the last five or six weeks, his self-imposed hiatus from competition having started Dec. 6, the day after his Target World Championship ended. Three tournaments were played without him — Mercedes, Sony, the Hope — and while they were nice, tidy events, there are truisms that are understood by all around this circuit: The Masters doesn't start until the back nine on Sunday is one; the PGA Tour season doesn't start until Tiger tees it up is the other.
That Woods chose the Buick Invitational to open the 2006 campaign should come as no surprise. After all, he's played Torrey Pines since he was 12 and he had won it three times as a pro. The fact that he's now won it four times would be amazing if not for the fact that nothing he does should be categorized as amazing. He's overcome a seven-shot deficit over the final seven holes to win, so what's the big deal of surviving three three-putts to win?
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