Tiger Woods: Is Firestone Still His Kinda Place?

If you’re looking for some unbiased, honest, truthful reporting, especially when it comes to Tiger Woods,  The Golf Channel  is not your place.

If you put your ear to the ground long enough, you might hear the distant rumors that they are thinking about renaming the channel to, drum roll please, — The Tiger Woods Network.

Yes, Tiger Woods is back in action this week thanks to that nifty tie for sixth at the Open Championship.  No truth to the rumor that Brandel Chamblee and Trevor Immelman were decked out in black garb to mourn the failure of Woods at the 11th and 12th holes that fateful Sunday at Carnoustie.  Even Chamblee, an oft-critic of Woods, has fallen under the spell of Tiger-Hysteria.

If you were willing to listen long enough, Chamblee and Immelman had you convinced that major No. 15 was on its way.

Oh the nerve of that Francesco Molinari, who had the unmitigated gall to win his first major and make Woods watch every shot on that Sunday at Carnoustie.

Obviously Francesco did not get the memo that you are supposed to crumble up and fold like a cheap tent when you are alongside Tiger Woods.

Which brings us to this week in the fair city of Akron.

You may know the Firestone Country Club.  It’s been famous for seemingly forever, always a great stage until the PGA Tour decided to poop on it and move this WGC event to Memphis next year.  The reason is simple — follow the money trail, which leads straight to FedEx headquarters.

So back in Akron, they’ll be out in mass to bid adieu to the regulars, Tiger included.  It was here that Tiger won more than 10 percent of his tour victories — eight to be exact.

Which brings us back to  The Golf Channel  and its enduring love for the seemingly eternal allure of Tiger Woods.

Obviously the talking heads at  The Golf Channel  have fallen into that love for the past because that is the way everyone wants to remember Tiger Woods.

They want to remember his wins in 1999, 2000 and 2001.  They long for his three straight in 2005, 2006 and 2007.  Actually, if you want to get technical about it, he won four straight.  After missing 2008, he won in 2009.

Things were testy with that T78 in 2010, the T37 in ’11.  Things got better with a T8 in 2012.  Number eight came in 2013 then there was the injury withdrawal in 2014 — the last year anyone saw Woods at Firestone.

Add it all up and you have a mind-boggling eight wins in 16 starts which probably has  The Golf Channel Goobs  figuring they have a 50-50 chance of getting this one right.

Yeah, this is the week Eldrick ends that dreadful drought.

Bobby Damron was drooling all over himself Tuesday morning on site:

“Didn’t I say something about destiny and Tiger?  He could win by 10.”

Thanks Bobby, we’ll pass that on to the rest of the field.

The Golf Channel’s weekly “stock watch” feature was even more to the point:

“It’s time. Strong form, limited field, course history – the pieces are there for Woods to break a five-year winless drought.”

Thank-you stock watchers.

You gotta give it to everyone on air, they don’t even pretend to hide their bias.

They are  BEGGING  for Tiger to win.

We’ve figured out their game plan.

If they pick Tiger Woods to win each and every week he tees it up — eventually they’re going to be right.

Maybe.