Here is something interesting you can ponder while browsing through this story -- Tiger Woods has never won a U.S. Open when arriving at the championship with less than two previous wins that year. Ever. He has three U.S. Open titles, and his first, in 2000, came on the heels of four wins prior to the USGA event. In 2002 he already had two wins to his credit. Last year, during that gutsy victory at Torrey Pines, Tiger had already accumulated three wins before heading out to San Diego.
This week, Tiger will again be doing what he does best at the Memorial, hoping to find that magic he had in the early portion of this century when he won three straight at Jack Nicklaus' tournament from 1999-'01. Since then Woods hasn't found that same gusto at Muirfield Village, "struggling" to just three of five top-10 finishes.
It isn't regularly that Tiger isn't the top story in golf, but right now the travails of Phil Mickelson and his family and the hopefulness of John Daly's return to the PGA Tour have pushed Tiger back down the golf storyline.
While you will never hear me utter the words "slump" to a man who hasn't finished out of the top-10 in a single stroke play event this year, I do believe that, for his own sake, Tiger needs to find something this week in Ohio. Even the greatest can doubt themselves at times, and Tiger seems to be at that point right now. He's shaking his head after tee shots. He looks utterly confused on the greens. He was in the final group of a golf tournament and didn't win!
Bethpage Black is in three weeks and can expose even the greatest player's flaws. Tiger won the first ever U.S. Open at this course back in 2002 after winning the Masters. So far this year, he hasn't been at that level.
A win this week, like Tiger has done many times in the past, will erase any doubt from critics and make believers out of everyone once more. It isn't a time to panic at Camp Tiger, but it is time for Woods to do what made him famous to begin with -- winning tournaments.
