[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Sports See other Sports Articles Title: US Open 2009: A win for Tiger Woods would be bad for golf Pure golf fans will hope that Tiger Woods is not back to his annihilating best at the US Open. By Mark Reason Last year was one of the best for golf since Seve Ballesteros was in his pomp and the reason was an injured Woods. Sport thrives on competition. If you want a procession, go to the Lord Mayor's Show. With Tiger playing on a broken leg last year's US Open became a compelling duel between the world's greatest player and Joe the Plumber. With Tiger not playing, the Open and the PGA became genuine contests with unknown outcomes. Hot dog, these must be exciting times, living in the glow of the greatest golfer and the greatest tennis player who have ever lived. Hot dog, where's the mustard? For all the dazzle of Woods and his friend Roger Federer, how predictable have golf and tennis been compared to the golden age of the seventies? It is a familiar chant from someone approaching their bar-stool years. Back in 1959 the great Henry Longhurst wrote: "The leading American professionals no longer venture across the Atlantic as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen did in the golden age of golf." No doubt in 30 years time today's kids will be looking back at Tiger's era as the golden age. They will remember the fist pumps with rheumy-eyed nostalgia and they will be saying: "There's no one to get excited about any more." Funny how sport always has a golden glaze in the sunlit years of our youth. But genius can be dull if it doesn't have another genius to give it lustre. Bobby Fisher would have been nobody without Boris Spasky. The best of all sport is at the very least a double act. The problem with Federer and Tiger is who have they beaten? In Federer's case the answer lives next door to nobody. In his 14 Grand Slam finals Federer has beaten Mark Philipoussis, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick (three times), Lleyton Hewitt, a 35-year-old Andre Agassi, Marco Baghdatis, Rafael Nadal (a future great, but twice on grass at the age of 20 and 21), Fernando Gonzalez, Novak Djokovic (aged 19), Andy Murray (aged 21) and Robin Soderling. The greatest of all time? How could you possibly know? Federer may have the most beautiful forehand the game has ever seen, but would the Swiss be tough enough to beat Bjorn Borg at his peak? The Swede won six French Opens when Guilermo Vilas was a master on clay. He won five consecutive Wimbledons in the age of Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe. He won 33 consecutive Davis Cup singles in the days when it mattered. The black mark is that Borg failed to win the US Open, but he lost in four finals to Connors and McEnroe with a New York crowd behind them. Above all it was pop-star funky. Borg was followed by screaming girls wherever he went, coach Lennart Bergelin was a cat from another planet and Vitas Gerulaitis was turning the circuit into a night club. The Federer Express does not stop at any of these stations. Jim McKenzie, the golf director at Celtic Manor, thinks golf has been just as drab in the age of Tiger. He said: "I was brought up in the era of shotmakers like Seve and Sandy Lyle. Golf was exciting. "Now the guys are six foot plus, dressed in Scandanavian-type clothes, white belts, they go to the gym, they drink Red Bull, they get their yardages, they hit club X. I don't find golf as exciting to watch as I used to." There are not enough John Dalys and there is not a serious rival to Tiger. Jack Nicklaus had countless assassins lurking round the next dune, but who lights Tiger's fire except his own need to chase down Nicklaus's record of 18 majors. When Borg retired McEnroefelt an emptiness because his big rival had gone. It is a void that Woods and Federer have never known. At least tennis now has some serious rivals for the Fed as the sport heads into a new golden era. When Tiger is on full battery, he lacks an opponent even close to the Palmers, Watsons and Millers of this world. If Tiger is still recharging, then we are in for a thriller at this week's US Open. But if he is back on full voltage, then sit back and admire – but you won't be choking on a pretzel.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||