The Effect of the Tiger Woods Syndrome

What I am referring to here has nothing to do with the problems Tiger has had with his personal life.  This is about his dominance during his peak years.  From the time he turned professional in 1996 through a span of 10 plus years he was the dominant player.  He won everything when he had his “A” game going and frequently won with his “B” game.

The problem is that now any time someone has a good run with his “A” game the speculation starts about the next Tiger Woods. The problem is that it is all but impossible for someone to be that dominant again.  The caliber of the competition has just risen too high.  Tiger came out and won the Masters by twelve shots.  Jordan Spieth shot the same score and only won by four with twelve people within twelve shots of that number.  Maybe when and if one of the young guns gets seven or eight majors we can have that conversation.

The players today remember how dominant Tiger was and they want to do the same and can’t.  This makes them have unrealistic expectations and start looking for that swing change that will make them unbeatable.  Unfortunately that pursuit of perfection can and usually does destroy what they already have.  Tiger is living proof of what can, happen when chasing the non-existent “perfect swing.”

The thing that they have trouble grasping is that your putter is not going to always be hot or you are not always going split the fairway.  In other words, as someone put it the other day, golf happens.  It is impossible to have your “A” game all the time and with the level of competition today you are probably not going to win with your “B” game.  It is more a matter of being patient than getting into swing mechanics.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes that also applies to golf:

“Frequently people mess up something good looking for something better and end up with something worse.”

Jason Day has his game firing on all cylinders right now and it will be interesting to see how long it lasts and how he handles it when one or more cylinders start to miss-fire and they will eventually.

Rory had his run, Jordan had his incredible run and now Jayson is having his.  The point is that someone dominating like Tiger did for as long as he did is all but impossible.

I really like Jason and his focus, drive, and work ethic so it is going to be fun to watch, but if he isn’t careful the Tiger Syndrome will eventually have the talking heads asking what happened to Jason Day.

Cover Image via Flickr