Tiger Woods's Swing
Well the timing of my news update, Summing up 2004 for Tiger Woods, proved rather odd! For just afterwards, he scored two impressive tournament wins.
In November, Tiger picked up his first strokeplay title of the year, winning the Dunlop Phoenix tournament by eight shots. Then, in December, he prevailed in the Target World Challenge.
Tiger said after his victory: "I was very comfortable with my swing. Every shot I wanted to hit, I hit."
A couple of days ago he expanded on the subject of his swing, saying:
"It's frustrating when you can do it at home but it doesn't carry over into tournaments. Last time it took me two years to get it right - it's part of the process."
After the 2004 US Open, Tiger's former swing coach Butch Harmon had claimed that he was in "denial" over his swing.
Woods added: "I reaped some rewards at the end of the year for my hard work and that was very satisfying. Hopefully my good play will carry over to 2005."
Well, the key question is "will it?"
Two great authorities on golf, Keith Elliott and Jeremy Chapman, seem to have conflicting points of view. I have ordered my copy of Elliott's Golf Form, but as it hasn't arrived yet I am relying on Jeremy Chapman's interesting review of it in The Racing Post to present their views.
As I understand it, based on his last couple of tournaments, Chapman believes that 2005 will be a good year for Tiger Woods, whereas Elliott thinks that 2006 will be an excellent year but not 2005.
Elliott has an interesting theory about landmark birthdays. Vijay Singh flourished when he turned 40, so did Miguel Angel Jimenez. So 2006 looks good for Tiger when he turns 30. But as Woods is 29 one week from now, the signs are not so good for next year, according to Elliott this "can mean that in the space of a single year a guy can age mentally by a decade as he moves from 28 to someone about to enter his fourth decade."
I've no idea whether he's right, but it's certainly an interesting theory!