Here’s a re-print of an article by Oliver Brown in the Telegraph.co.uk that I thought hit the mark.
Can golf survive the ‘indefinite’ loss of Tiger Woods?
By Oliver Brown
Published: 7:26PM GMT 26 Dec 2009
Tiger-less 2010? golf may have to do without Tiger Woods after he goes on indefinite leave Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Can golf survive the “indefinite” loss of Tiger Woods?
Absolutely. If you try to forget, or at least gloss over, the travails of the sport’s top player for a moment, you find that the next 12 months promise enough intrigue and jealous rivalry to keep even Tiger-hunters entertained.
Will the Ryder Cup in October be one to remember?
Some say this biennial bonfire of the vanities is over-hyped, but that simply is not possible in a year when Colin Montgomerie could be the captain of Ian Poulter.
For all the Scot’s façade of good grace and statesmanship, Montgomerie’s leadership will be its own source of fascination at Celtic Manor. Will Poulter, assuming he qualifies, be ordered to go easy on the peacock hairstyle? Will he be allowed any say on the European team’s dress code for the final-day singles?
A performer of peerless Ryder Cup pedigree, Montgomerie is little versed in the management of such egos. He remains acutely vulnerable, too, to the raucous banter and cat-calls that have tended to disfigure – or enhance, depending on your point of view – this event. That ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ soubriquet still stings.
The dynamic with Corey Pavin, the United States captain, has a similar potential to be explosive. While Pavin’s official pronouncements have so far been studies in blandness, his apologists tend to forget the fiery, moustachioed renegade he used to be – not least when he revved up the Americans to memorable effect at Kiawah Island in 1991.
No one could fail to romanticise the prospect of 50,000 people galvanising 24 players for three days amid the splendour of rural South Wales. The one imponderable is how sodden and bedraggled those people will be after braving the Usk Valley in October.
What are Westwood’s chances of breaking his major duck?
Within a few minutes of holding aloft his Dubai World Championship trophy, Europe’s No 1 was articulating his strategy for 2010. In the absence of those fashionable mind gurus whose advice he eschews, this could be pithily expressed: to win a major. Any major. The US Open at Pebble Beach or the Open at St Andrews could hardly be better places to start.
What are you most looking forward to in 2010?
Tiger’s return. All the sensible money is on a grand entrance for Woods at Augusta in April. You could say that four months represents an indecently short sabbatical for a man on “indefinite” leave. But the Masters offers a crucial advantage above all other early-season set-pieces on the US Tour, by its notoriously strict policy on media access. The National Enquirer would not be welcome down Magnolia Lane.
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