For the past month or so the local hacks at the Tampa television network affiliates have been trying to convince their viewing audiences that there was a great possibility that Tiger Woods would actually tee it up in this week’s Valspar.
“He likes Innisbrook!”
“He finished second last year.”
Yeah sure. Those guys know about as much about golf and the modus operandi of Tiger Woods as they do about nuclear fusion.
It wasn’t until last Friday came and went without a Woods commitment that they were finally resigned to the fact that Eldrick would not be among us this week.
Fact is Tiger over-played last year in a desperate attempt to climb the rankings high enough to get back into the coveted WGC events. Took him all year but he got it done and he paid the price. By year’s end, after his 80th victory at the Tour Championship, Woods was totally out of gas.
Now he can rest up this week before he gets his three guaranteed matches in Austin next week at the WGC Match Play.
No worries, as a consolation prize, they have the world’s No. 1 roaming the tower pines at Innisbrook Resort this week.
Dustin Johnson is the feature attraction. D.J. comes in off a T-5 at The Players. At 13-under par, D.J. was only three strokes short of Rory McIlroy’s winning total and Johnson basically made nothing all week. His putter was on strike, he missed at least two short ones on Sunday and many more earlier in the week. Still, just three back.
Jim Furyk put on an amazing Sunday show, falling a shot short of McIlroy. Still, Furyk took home $1,350,000 and that’s probably a bigger check than he made in a lot of his PGA Tour wins over the years.
Jon Rahm made a miserable decision Sunday afternoon when he tried a miracle second shot from the left trees on the par five 11th after his caddie tried to talk him out of it. Rhambo should have listened to his looper and it’s just another bit of proof that the young star from Spain needs more experience.
Speaking of Spain, Sergio Garcia’s playing and so is Jason Day along with current Masters champion Patrick Reed.
Overall, not a bad field considering this event falls between The Players and a big-money WGC event.
Defending champion this week is Paul Casey.
