Sunday, September 16, 2007

Tiger Transcendent

SI’s Alan Shipnuck says it best:

…We are in the midst of one of those stretches in which Woods is making history in real time, a day-after-day display of unrelenting brilliance that is as dazzling as any golf he has ever played. Enjoy it. Wallow in it. This is the kind of transcendent athlete that comes along once every quarter century, if you’re lucky…

Indeed. In retrospect, golf fans needn’t have worried about understanding the FedEx Cup point system. Was there any doubt that Tiger would end up winning it all? His lead was such, and his late-season play so sharp, that even with a week off, followed by a week where he was out-dueled by arch-nemesis Phil Mickelson, he was able to shift into another gear and win easily, coasting across the finish line, roughly the equivalent of Secretariat roaring down the stretch at Belmont Park, 31 lengths in front. One is left only to wonder whether, a la Ron Turcotte, caddie Steve Williams looked over his shoulder as Tiger walked down the 18th fairway to see where the competition had disappeared to.

Because at this point, there really is no competition.

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