Tiger Woods Making a Strong Run…..For Last Place

Yesterday, we talked about the disappointing ventures of Tiger Woods in the first two days of the 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. After all, a 74 and a 72 simply isn’t Tiger-like at Firestone. Well, Tiger managed to top that career-worst 74 at the course, as he struggled to a round of 75, and is currently only two spots away from being in last place on the leaderboard.

Yes, that’s no joke. Tiger sits at 11-over par for the tournament (seriously, when’s the last time you heard “Tiger sits at 11-over“), with the current worst score on the leaderboard being 16-over. I mean, if you’re going to play this bad, you might as well go all out and at least take a shot at last place, right?

Seriously though, this is pretty unbelievable. I think we all knew that this wasn’t gonna be the Tiger romp at Firestone that we are use to seeing, but this? Tiger has plenty of critics out there, but not even they could have predicted this kind of dreadful performance. Almost at the bottom of the leaderboard at a place that he has completely owned in the past? It leaves you shaking your head.

The big question once all the information came out about his affairs was how it would affect his game on the course. I never wanted to believe that it could make that big of a difference, but now it’s looking more and more like it has made a HUGE difference. When he played well in his first tournament back at Augusta, golf fans probably breathed a big sigh of relief. However, now it looks like we may have to come to grips with the possibility that Tiger may never be the same again.

It will be interesting to see where the oddsmakers put him heading into the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits next week. In every tournament that he’s played since he’s been back, he’s been a heavy favorite. I don’t see how you could bet on this man after his performance this week.

I think it’s inevitable now that Phil Mickelson will move into the number one spot in the world rankings. After the calf injury to Lee Westwood, this is Phil’s chance to grab this opportunity by the horns and become number one. I simply can’t see Tiger hanging onto the ranking much longer if he continues to play like this.

The question is, if Tiger loses the top spot, will he ever hold it again? That’s one to think about. Sure, he’s not gonna be at the bottom of the leaderboard every week for the rest of his career, but playing so poorly at one of his favorite events is a little startling. We’ll see if he can bounce back with a good round tomorrow, and head into the PGA with a little confidence.

But if he doesn’t, there’s no way that he’s one of the favorites for the championship next week.

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