Tiger Woods: Five Reasons Why This Could Be His Week

Tiger Woods will continue his play well or go home tour this week at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club just outside of Chicago.

Woods will need to finish within the top five this week in order to advance to East Lake for the Tour Championship in two weeks.

Three years ago a top-five at Cog Hill would have been a given for Woods, but as we all know, a lot has changed since that time.

Woods has struggled for much of the 2010 season, but here are five reasons why this could be his week.

He’s Scoring Better

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NORTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 05: Tiger Woods hits a shot out of the bunker on the third hole during the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston on September 5, 2010 in Norton, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

It may sound trivial, but the object of a 72-hole stroke-play event is to get the ball in the hole with as few strokes as possible.

Sometimes we become so focused on the way a guy is driving the ball or how his swing looks that we lose track of the ultimate goal of this game.

Woods is not the best ball striker of all time, he’s not the best driver of all time, and he doesn’t have the best short game of all time. However, he is probably the greatest scorer of all time.

Woods is the type of player that can often appear to be hacking it around the course yet winds up with a 69 at the end of the day.

The guy just finds a way to turn 78s into 72s and 72s into 68s.

He turns certain bogeys into routine pars and birdies the holes that other guys are typically thrilled to escape with par on.

But somewhere between the Masters and the Quail Hollow Championship earlier this year, Woods lost his ability to score.

Instead of turning 78s into 72s to remain in tournaments, he would turn 78s into 75s or 76s and take himself right out of the mix.

However, he appears to be regaining his ability to score better than anyone else on the PGA Tour.

Four of his last seven rounds have been in the 60s, including his last three consecutive rounds at TPC Boston.

He’s Hitting the Ball Longer Than He Has in Quite Some Time

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NORTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 05: Tiger Woods tees off on the fourth hole during the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston on September 5, 2010 in Norton, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Perhaps it’s the harder golf ball Woods switched to earlier in the year or his new Sean Foley golf swing, or perhaps his left knee is now fully recovered from 2008 reconstructive ACL surgery.

Whatever the reason, Woods is certainly hitting the ball a lot longer than he has in quite some time.

There were times last year when it was looking as if Woods' days of hitting 300-yard drives had passed.

Guys like Phil Mickelson, Nick Watney, and Dustin Johnson were hitting the ball 20, 30, and 40 yards past Woods.

Woods was losing distance when virtually every other player on tour was gaining distance.

But that’s no longer the case.

Last week Woods averaged 302 yards off the tee and hit a few mammoth drives that made us remember the Woods of old, if for just a moment in time.

He’s Won His Last Two Consecutive BMW Championships

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LEMONT, IL - SEPTEMBER 13: Tiger Woods poses with the trophy after his eight-stroke victory at the BMW Championship held at Cog Hill Golf & CC on September 13, 2009 in Lemont, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Woods has won five times in total at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, including his last two consecutive BMW Championships (Woods won the event in '07 and '09 and was unable to play in the '08 championship due to a knee injury).

Cog Hill is a course that demands extreme shot shaping.

Nearly every drive and approach shot calls for some form of a draw or fade.

Players that can only shape their shots one way or the other will be at a severe disadvantage this week at Cog Hill.

Woods, as we all know, can play any shot imaginable, which is probably why he’s won five times at Cog Hill.

His Last Three Rounds at TPC Boston Were All in the 60s

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NORTON, MA - SEPTEMBER 05: Tiger Woods lines up a putt on the second green during the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston on September 5, 2010 in Norton, Massachusetts. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

OK, OK, Woods finished strong at The Barclays and then opened with a poor round at TPC Boston just five days later.

However, last week Woods closed with three consecutive solid rounds of golf—65-69-68—and made just three bogeys in his final 54 holes.

Woods may not be scoring quite as well as others, but he’s at least getting a taste for what it feels like to live in the 60s once again.

If Woods opens with two more rounds in the 60s at Cog Hill, he’ll be right in the mix heading into the weekend on a course he’s dominated over the past decade.

He’s Been Selected for the 2010 Ryder Cup Team

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PARAMUS, NJ - AUGUST 25: Tiger Woods smiles as he prepares to play a shot during the pro-am prior to the start of The Barclays at the Ridgewood Country Club on August 25, 2010 in Paramus, New Jersey. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

The major championships are over, his divorce has been finalized, and on Monday Woods was selected for the 2010 American Ryder Cup team.

Aside from having to play well to advance to the Tour Championship, all extreme forms of pressure have now been lifted from Woods’ shoulders.

For the first time since his run-in with a fire hydrant last November, Woods can take a deep breath and just go out and play golf.

This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. We’ve all seen exactly what pressure can do to golfers throughout the course of the 2010 season...Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, Martin Laird, Phil Mickelson and his quest for No. 1 in the world, Lee Westwood...and even Tiger Woods himself.