Tiger Never Lets Us Down

Every Monday during the PGA Tour season, Monday Pin Placement will run as a wrap-up of the weekend's action. Basically, we'll focus on what you missed while you were out grinding on the putting green.

Tiger Does It Again -- The year was 1999. A young kid named Tiger Woods had burst on the golf scene two years prior at the Masters, when he obliterated the field by 12 shots.

The problem was, people wanted results right now, and Tiger wasn't producing them. He was going through a swing change. He had people wondering if that early Masters win was a bit of a fluke. He was struggling to find that magic he'd had at all the U.S. Amateur events.

Then came the PGA Championship at Medinah, where he took down Sergio Garcia in one of the more exciting final rounds of a major championship in the last 10 years.

The moral of this story is the same as Tiger's 2005 Masters win or his '07 PGA Championship victory or his win on Sunday at the Memorial. Just when people start to doubt his game, for whatever reason, he calmly shakes their hand, looks them in the eye and tells them to kindly screw off.

It wasn't just another PGA Tour victory for Tiger, it was evidence that he still has all of it. Woods was hitting his driver so wildly that some critics were calling for Hank Haney, Tiger's swing coach, to be let go. His talent around the greens will always allow Tiger to be in tournaments even when he doesn't have his best stuff, but even that couldn't keep his erratic golf swing from letting him down.

Three weeks later you'd think Tiger switched places with Fred Funk. Not a lot of athletes can figure themselves out of a slump as quick as Woods, but he did it, and it all came together with the 7-under 65 on Sunday.

Now, we have a week to enjoy some of the other golfers not named Tiger before the sports world heads to Bethpage Black. With the NBA Finals looking like they could be over sooner than later, the U.S. Open will be the main event, and now we have our heavyweight back as the consensus favorite.

On Wednesday, Kenny Perry joked after Tiger holed a putt to force a chip-off in the Memorial Skins Game, "You always make it." After Sunday, when Woods basically pulled off every shot he needed down the stretch, Perry looked like an absolute genius.

Another Close Call For Furyk -- If you only pay attention to Tiger, you'd think winning was damn easy. Jim Furyk is a perfect example of why that theory is hogwash.

On Sunday, Furyk shot a respectable 3-under 69 to give himself a chance at the win, but came up a shot short, marking it his fifth time to finish in the top-3 since his last win, back in 2007. Furyk was once ranked second in the world. He has a major championship to his credit. If the tournament has legs, he is usually around the first page of the leaderboard come the weekend.

What Furyk has shown everyone is that winning a golf tournament is still the toughest feat in sports, just don't ask Tiger that.