Rory Lets a Major Roar at Royal Liverpool

Everyone looked for the next Tiger Woods. Just like people looked for the next Michael Jordan. Like others looked for the next Brett Favre. Golf thought they found it with Rory McIlroy. He blazed through the 2012 season winning four tournaments including a major victory. This became his second major at age 23. People rushed to great overreactions about what Rory could be or would be in his future. He took a major step back in 2013 without any wins and had a great deal in major tournaments. McIlroy started to show signs of life in 2014 again with a European win in May and broke through with another major championship winning the third leg of the Grand Slam of Golf.

Golf is such a tough spot to predict the future for a variety of reasons. One minute, people are predicting Adam Scott will be the next great golfer, or Bubba Watson is the new face of golf replacing Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The next minute, we are talking about Rory being the next greatest thing to come walking through golf's door. McIlroy is a star without question and doing things in majors that almost no one did in golf throughout the years. He has the chance to be the future of this sport, but it is not a given which is what really does make golf great. 

Even with a player of McIlroy's caliber, everyone waited for the bottom to fall out for him on Friday's round. The recent narrative about him has been he plays a great round or two then it all goes to shit in one of the four rounds costing him a shot at the title. This didn't happen with McIlroy at Royal Liverpool as he stayed steady.  What made it more impressive is this leaderboard wasn't a host unknowns in the golf world. It featured former major champions and other great players of the world. It didn't even phase McIlroy. He sliced through the leaderboard like a hot knife through butter. Rickie Fowler had four rounds in the 60's and didn't win the tournament. Hell, he didn't even come very close. Fowler ended up finishing three strokes behind Rory. That's how dominant the performance was for the Northern Ireland product. He completely housed the entire field. 

Speaking about the future and the trends of golf, 2014 turned the narratives completely around. For a couple years, we had first-time major winners and this year features all former major winners.  Another new trend is one player going out and completely dominating for the entire tournament. This trend could end in August for all of us whom enjoy watching on Sunday afternoons with a hangover. Sure, what McIlroy, Martin Kaymer at the U.S. Open and what Watson did at The Masters were all great golf feats, but it is truly boring to watch when we know what the outcome will be at the end of the tournament. Golf has become that predictable television program you keep watching even if it becomes predictable halfway through the episode. 

Is McIlroy the next great golfer?  Who knows. He could be the best in the world for the next decade where Rory gets multiple majors. The attitude is not liked by everyone which makes him a great sports figure. Golfers cannot be loved by all. They need those who root for them and those who cheer for the Sunday collapse. It is one of the many things that makes golf great.  

Charlie.  

The Return of Tiger Woods

As of now, Tiger Woods has not follow up what was a successful 2013 season albeit not winning any majors, with a good 2014 campaign. He is hampered by a bad back and missed both majors this season. Woods decided to come back for the Quicken Loans National, a tournament hosted by Woods himself. Some people are critical of the move thinking Woods is doing for his sponsors. But Tiger believes he can get himself ready for the Open Championship in a couple weeks and needs practice in preparation for the final two majors of the season.

Woods might not be ready to play this week but looking at the upcoming schedule for the PGA season, this is his best option. It happens to be his own tournament which is a major factor in all of this plus Congressional is a major-like golf course giving him a good challenge. The Greenbrier Classic next weekend has a significant payout, but the course doesn't present as much of a challenge as what the players should be dealing with this weekend. Additionally, Woods' sponsors would have been irate had Tiger spurned this tournament for Greenbrier therefore it is a no-brainer for Woods to use this tournament as a tune-up. Although I wouldn't be shocked if he played Greenbrier next week.

Tiger isn't one of those guys whom always plays in back-to-back weeks, but if he feels good or feels like he needs more preparation against competition, he will be in The Greenbrier Classic as well.  Then he gets two weeks off before heading overseas for The Open Championship, a tournament he hasn't won since 2006 at Royal Liverpool Club, where The Open is taking place this season. Further, Woods finished third in 2012 and finished sixth in this major tournament. It could argued this is one of Woods better major tournaments in the last five years. It is obvious he wants to try to capture the magic again even though he's battled a back injury all year, and it could be a thorn in his side.

Woods claims he will be changing his approach to the game. ESPN's Farrell Evans described him as 'relaxed' and 'laid-back' talking about how he wants to change how he plays citing Michael Jordan as the player he looked towards in terms of changing it up. Now we heard this before from Phil Mickelson this year at the U.S.Open, and Phil went away from it on Thursday afternoon so until we actually see some change from Woods,  it is not a given Woods will actually change things. Another thing to watch is if Woods struggles with new stuff, he might revert back to his old ways which is exactly what Mickelson did at Pinehurst. Now for the horrible play on words... It is hard for a tiger to change his stripes.

My expectations for Woods is he will play all four rounds and not be threat to the leaderboard. I could see him getting cut this weekend, but a part of me wants to believe he will play well enough to hang around all weekend. If he ends up near the top five, it will cause an avalanche of overreactions. But Woods seem poised to make a run at getting his first major win since 2008.

Charlie.