Tiger Woods: Another Obvious Triumph Lies Ahead This Week

Tiger Woods had (emphasis on had) a winning percentage of 48.48 in 33 World Golf Championships, meaning he won 16 of them. His stat line in the Accenture Match Play Championship reads like this: 32-7 and three victories, including a record streak of 13 consecutive matches won between 2003 and 2005. The best numbers you will find in for any player in this tournament. You can say that about Woods in pretty much every major tournament on the PGA Tour.

However, in the last 15 months those facts have been useless.

Last year we heard that numerous courses and tournaments was the place for Tiger to get back on track. This year it’s been Torrey Pines and Dubai, according to the experts. Only problem is, that every time we find the perfect spot for Tiger to find himself, it gets even more evident that hes lost right now.

Then why do people, and golf reporters in particular, keep serving up old Tiger statistics when it keeps getting more and more irrelevant? The Tiger that used to win those grand victories is not the same Tiger who prowls the fairways today. Let’s take the WGC tournaments: Last time he won one of those was in 2009 at the Bridgestone Invitational and the last time he won the Accenture Match Play Championship was back in 2008. Should Tiger be named a favorite this week? Heck no!

Golf has been on a down slope the last few years, even though Woods played well, due to the economic crisis. The sport is on its way up again even though Woods is not playing well. Golf has shown that it can manage on its own, even though Tiger still attracts great numbers of viewers, so why do we feel the need to ignore the facts?

The fact is that Tiger is not a favorite this week. He’s not even an outsider. Chances are, on the other hand, that he could be blown away in his first match. Of all the other 63 players, Thomas Bjorn is one of the most dangerous for Woods right now. Bjorn (meaning bear in Danish) won three weeks ago in Qatar, and beat Woods over 72 holes in the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic. If Tiger's history counts, don't others count too? Not really. All we have is the present, and the present represents a problem in golf these days, because we cannot predict the outcome. That’s usually a good thing, is it not? There is nothing like a good surprise. Like when Graeme McDowell holed two monster putts in last year's Chevron World Challenge to take the title from Woods.

It would be a huge surprise if Tiger Woods should win the Accenture Match Play Championship. Period. Nevertheless somebody out there, who has picked Woods as a winner every time in the last year, will nod and say, “See! I told you so!”