Padraig Harrington, You Are Not Tiger Woods

I'm sure you've heard by now.  The greatest golfer in the world just missed the cut at the first event of the PGA Tour Playoffs. Wait...you didn't?  Then you're not alone.

I'm referring, of course, to Padraig Harrington, officially ranked No. 3 in the world rankings.  His impressive back-to-back major championships (make that two leaves of the four leaf clover slam) have inspired some to compare him to a certain Tiger Woods.

Listen to Ben Curtis, former British Open Champion and recent T2 finisher at Padraig's most recent leaf, the PGA Championship.  When asked about Padraig's three wins in the last six majors, he said "That's Tiger-like".

Padraig has responded to such attention appropriately, as he appears just honored to be considered in Tiger Woods's stratosphere. 

I will take a different viewpoint.  PADRAIG HARRINGTON IS NOT TIGER-LIKE!

Those of you who were starting to believe the hype should be brought back to reality by Padraig's missed cut yesterday at the Barclays. 

Tiger Woods, in general, does not miss cuts.  According to tigerwoods.com, he has only missed four cuts in his professional career. 

The dissimilarities do not end there, however.  On the  par-5 17th hole yesterday, Padraig was on the cut line at 1 over par.  He promptly hit a poor tee shot and eventually made a 7. 

I will concede that the 17th at Ridgewood is a difficult hole, but I will not concede that Padraig was anything like Tiger yesterday. 

Tiger making a 6 on a par-5 is a rare enough occurrence.  If you want to see him make a 7, even when he is healthy, you will be waiting a long time.

Padraig was anything but Mr. Clutch yesterday, and we all know how well Tiger does in pressure-packed situations.

Even more telling was that Padraig's failure didn't even make headlines.  The golf page on ESPN.com displays Steve Stricker, the leader of the Barclays after the second round.  If Padraig truly was Tiger-Like, there would be more reaction to his missed cut. 

So how far behind is Padraig?  Well, look at the standings.  In the FedEx Cup, Tiger finished the regular season with 22,695 points and Padraig had 15,555 points.

Remember that Tiger played half as many events as Padraig played (six to 12, respectively),  and he did so with a ruptured ACL.  The world rankings are further evidence.

Currently, Tiger at 17.99 average points more than doubles Padraig's 7.90 average points.  Essentially, the world rankings say that Tiger was more than twice as good as Padraig over the last two years. 

I hope that in the future more caution will be used before someone is called Tiger-like.  After all, there is only one man who has won more majors in the history of the game than Tiger Woods.