Tiger Woods Deutsche Bank: Time for Tiger to Actually Live Up to His Odds

Tiger Woods has been the perennial favorite in virtually every tournament he's played in this year.

And yet, when it matters most, he hasn't been able to live up to the oddsmakers' predictions.

As the Deutsche Bank Championship kicks off, the clock is ticking down for Tiger. There isn't much time left for him to prove himself, and as he lingers in third place in the FedExCup standings, the time has come for him to prove himself in one of the events that really, truly matters.

Throughout the course of his resurgent 2012 season, it has seemed like it would only be a matter of time before the best golfer in the game pulled out a win on a big stage. Now that all the majors have elapsed, the second stop of the PGA Tour playoffs would be the perfect opportunity.

According to Covers.com, Tiger and Rory McIlroy are the co-favorites to win at TPC Boston. That's nothing new. Tiger is always favored—at the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship. And yet, he hasn't been able to grind out a win at any of those showcases.

Yes, Tiger does have three wins this year, but they were at the Arnold Palmer Invitational (March), the Memorial (June) and AT&T National (July). He hasn't been the picture of consistency, obviously, and he hasn't been someone who's been able to sustain his dominance throughout the entirety of a major.

The Deutsche Bank Championship obviously isn't a major, but it might as well be. With the Ryder Cup looming and FedEx Cup points at stake, its importance cannot be understated—especially in the case of someone like Tiger, who hasn't won anything meaningful all season.

At this point, even McIlroy—who struggled worse than Tiger for much of the year—has registered a big win. That leaves Tiger out in the dust, still gunning to prove he's worth the odds he always gets yet never seems to live up to.

So what's the problem? Consistency, mostly. Tiger has shown a devastating tendency to come out of the gates strong only to drop off over the final couple of days of a tournament. He hasn't yet found a way to sustain his dominance past the second round.

Maybe these things just take time. After all, Tiger isn't too far removed from the knee surgery (and, obviously, a whole bunch of personal issues) that threatened to derail his career. Only recently has he shown signs of a resurgence, to the tune of a few PGA Tour wins.

It will take time before he once again snags a meaningful win. But Tiger doesn't have much of it left before the world once again starts doubting that he has it in him.