My favourite golfer is … David Feherty. Yes, I realize that he retired in 1997 after a blotchy and alcohol-stained career that included 10 Euro Tour wins and an appearance in the 1991 Ryder Cup (where he inexplicably beat the late Payne Stewart in singles).
But I love his approach to golf (and I applaud his recent sobriety), even more so now that he is commentating both on TV and in print. (One of my very few claims to fame is that I finished second to him in a golf-writing competition. To me, that was winning.)
Anyhow, to the matter at hand. For years, Feherty has been saying the same thing: That Tiger is otherworldly.
To wit: In his hysterical collection of columns, Somewhere In Ireland A Village Is Missing Its Idiot, published in 2003, the Irishman says: "I have the greatest respect for all the men who paved the way for the great players of today, but none of them ever competed against anyone like Tiger Woods …
"When I think about the countless times I've watched Tiger at close quarters, hitting a previously inconceivable shot with an unfeasible club from an indescribable stance out of an unplayable lie to within a few feet of an unattainable flag, it strikes me that I may not have done a good enough job of describing the scene."
So it was halfway through Friday's second round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines when I saw Tiger standing on a concrete cart path in steel spikes, declining to take a drop because it would have put him behind a tree. He hammered the shot to the green and when the camera swung back to him, he was limping and grimacing from the pain in his surgically repaired left knee. As he headed up the fairway, he was using his club as a cane.
"That's it," I thought. "He's done."
His score card at that point read 5-3-5-3-4-4-4-5-5-38, with four bogeys and an eagle.
Video: Watch Nike's new Tiger ad before it airs at the U.S. Open
He made the putt on his 10th hole after hitting from the cart path, for a birdie. In fact, he birdied that one and three more of his first five holes on that nine, for a 68. His back-nine card looked like this: 3-3-3-3-3-4-4-3-4-30.
When the USGA sets up a U.S. Open, they aspire to offer the field an exhaustive examination of every aspect of their game. To make it into the field requires an awesome amount of talent. But talent alone doesn't win majors.
As Feherty goes on to say, Tiger wins majors "with unbreakable focus, relentless resolve, and equal parts artistic impression and technical merit."
He's right and I know I couldn't have said it better. Lord knows I've tried.