What Will Tiger’s Excuse Be at the Quicken Loans National?
By Matt Cochran
The TOUR rolls through the DMV this weekend for the Quicken Loans National, an event benefitting the Tiger Woods Foundation. So it’s fitting that most people will have their eyes on Tiger Woods himself, as we continue to figure out what in the world is going on with him.
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The last time we saw Big Cat, he was walking off the Old Course after missing the cut at consecutive majors for the first time in his career. It’s become a season of firsts for Woods, and the kind of ‘firsts’ he’d like to not be associated with.
Every poor outing we’ve seen from Tiger this season has been followed up with an excuse of some kind.
When he was battling injury every other tournament, it was a new body part to blame. When he finally got healthy, it had to do with adjusting to swing changes.
Then the excuses got even more bizarre when he resorted back to failed body parts and deactivated glutes.
Woods’ most recent excuse was another one for the ages and it had to do with his ‘spin rates.’
After his horrendous outing at The Open Championship, Woods was asked if he learned anything from his game that week. His response:
"You know, it’s kind of funny because I didn’t — we were talking about that the other day; I hit the ball solid. It’s just that it wasn’t getting through the wind. I don’t know what was causing that, and it’s something that we’re going to have to take a look at, look at my numbers, see if the spin rates are on or not, but it was so frustrating because all my shots that I hit solid and flush into the wind, they just weren’t carrying at all."
It’s becoming excuse after excuse with Tiger, so that begs the question, what will his excuse be this week at the Quicken Loans National?
Tiger started the year at the Waste Management Phoenix Open with an Official World Golf Ranking of 25th. Since then, he has dropped all the way down to 258th.
We started the season tuning in to see if Tiger will turn things around and get back on the winning train, but now we tune in just to see if he can save himself from embarrassment.
The Quicken Loans National is a tournament Eldrick is familiar with, but it has a new venue this year at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. While it’s a new venue for the event, the course is not new for Woods.
The RTJ has hosted four President’s Cups, with the most recent being in 2005, a year in which Woods was part of the team. However, we can’t just assume that because Tiger’s played a course, he will have better chances. We saw what happened at St. Andrews, a course he’s won two major championships at.
Tiger continues to tell us in press conferences that he is close finding his game again, but there is yet to be signs of that in competition.
"“It’s frustrating not to be able to win golf tournaments. I’m not really there in contention very often and so that part is frustrating. But I know how close it feels and I know that I just need a couple shots here and there and it turns the tide,” Woods said."
Woods enters this week as host and a two-time winner of the Quicken Loans National. While he’d like to add on to the win total, Tiger has to make the cut first and that has been a rare thing for him this season.
Until then, all we can do is sit back and prepare for another excuse from the man we used to know as the greatest golfer in the world.