US Open Golf 2012: Recent Success Nothing More Than Fool's Gold for Tiger Woods

Don’t look at Tiger Woods’ strong performance at the Memorial Tournament a week ago like it will magically transport him to the title at this weekend’s US Open at The Olympic Club in San Francisco.

Sure, he played tremendous golf to land his 73rd career win, tying him with Jack Nicklaus, but you have to remember how much he likes the course.

Tiger has won the Memorial five times in his career because the course is suited for his aggressiveness and it doesn’t punish him for big mistakes. He feels comfortable there.

His other win of the year came at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (formally known as Bay Hill), which he has won a whopping seven times in his career.

Add it up and he has won at the two tournaments a combined 12 times. That’s 16 percent of his wins.

So, his two wins in the last three years have come at arguably his two favorite courses. Now, he’s suddenly one of the favorites once again at a major tournament?

He hasn’t won the US Open since back in 2008 at Torrey Pines, which was also the last time he won a major event period. Since then he has suffered through numerous surgeries, a new swing coach and countless setbacks.

We’ve been here before with Woods. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational two weeks before the Masters, and the “Is he back?” questions were running rampant. Instead, he never broke 72 in all four rounds and finished tied for 40th in yet another setback.

What has really changed?

He still has putting issues, he is failing to consistently hit the green on his tee shots and he still seems to struggle at getting comfortable with his new swing.

Considering he didn’t make the cut at the Wells Fargo, and finished tied for 40th at the PLAYERS Championship in the other two tournaments he participated in before the Memorial, a win at the US Open seems highly unlikely.

Nothing has changed.

He has courses he likes and is still capable of hitting a few memorable shots in a tournament. Yet, the consistency isn’t there, and it’s hard to imagine anything changing this weekend in San Francisco.

Sure, Rory McIlroy has struggled for the last two months, and Phil Mickelson hasn’t done much of anything since a strong performance at the Masters, but that means little heading into a major tournament. They are healthy mentally and physically, and have actually won majors in recent memory.

Don’t be fooled by Woods’ two wins this year, they are nothing more than fool’s gold. Woods still has a ways to go before we can consider him a contender at a major tournament. 

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