Every week of the 2009 PGA Tour season, the editorial staff of the SI Golf Group will conduct an e-mail roundtable. Check in on Mondays for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors.
Michael Bamberger, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: What do you think? The new Tiger: drives it in play, celebrates calmly, waits for others to make mistakes. Quite a double to win Arnold's tournament and Jack's tournament in a single year. Is he really back, like to the golfer he was in 2000? Is Woods on the verge of again becoming the single great overwhelming force in golf?
Jim Gorant, senior editor, Sports Illustrated Golf Plus: If he's really gonna start bringing the accuracy off the tee, it'll get ugly.
Dick Friedman, senior editor, Sports Illustrated: This is the worst possible scenario! Here we were, prepared to spend the next 10 days profitably speculating about why Tiger's troubles had really opened up the Open to all manner of rivals. Now? Uh, who's gonna finish second?
Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: This was a vintage Tiger Sunday — no one is better at converting opportunities — but I was more interested in his Friday round. That 74 was pretty ragged. Tiger can't afford a bad day like that at Bethpage ... or Turnberry ... or Hazeltine.
Jim Herre, editor, Sports Illustrated Golf Plus: Interesting that he says he can now practice after rounds. That's probably what he did on Friday, Alan, and fixed whatever the problem was that day.
Damon Hack, senior reporter, Sports Illustrated: The guy goes from not being able to find a fairway to not missing any. Be afraid, fellow Tour pros. Be very afraid.
Shipnuck: I hate to be Mr. Neg, but Memorial is not exactly a tight, claustrophobic driving course. Tiger hit it nicely for three out of four days, but I'll believe it when I see it at the Open. Don't forget, we were all aflutter after Bay Hill, and Tiger didn't exactly bring his A-game to Augusta. I don't think they should cancel the Open yet.
Bamberger: You can't compare this win to the Bay Hill win. At Bay Hill, the other guy collapsed. Tiger stepped on everybody's neck today, as in the old days, with his characteristic ruthlessness and with every club in the bag.
Shipnuck: Uh, it seemed like every other guy on the leaderboard shot 75 today.
Farrell Evans, writer-reporter, Sports Illustrated: I'm not convinced that he's the same player that he was before the knee troubles. I hope that he's back, but the Memorial is not a major championship.
Herre: Muirfield Village is a tough golf course. The fairways may be wide, but you have to hit it to the correct side to get a good angle at the pin. Plus, the greens are really tough. I wouldn't dismiss the winner of the Memorial.
Shipnuck: To Michael's earlier question about Tiger overwhelming the competition, I think that the top 10 to 20 guys are much, much more complete and battle-tested than the yahoos Tiger was drilling at the turn of the century. He may continue to win at the same rate, but I don't think there will be any double-digit blowouts. Not that Tiger really cares. A win is a win is a win.
Hack: I don't think Tiger is losing sleep about his lack of 10-shot wins. He hit 14 fairways. He beat a great field on a difficult track with Nicklaus watching from a hillside. Considering where his game was at Quail Hollow and the Players — and all the tinkering he's been doing with equipment — it's a pretty remarkable win. I agree with Herre. The Memorial isn't some 25-under, resort-course pushover. Lot of meat on Muirfield Village.
Shipnuck: I'm not downplaying Tiger's accomplishments — I've written as many glowing pieces about the guy as anyone — it's just that this year he's shown a distressing ability to completely lose his swing from day to day. He obviously played beautifully this weekend, but it's 11 days to the Open and I'll be curious to see if he can hold onto his form. And yes, those 280-yard 3-woods down the middle make him way more dangerous than 330-yard drives into the rough. Tiger from the short-grass is unbeatable. There's just not that much short-grass at Bethpage.
David Dusek, deputy editor, Golf.com: He doesn't have to hit 14 drivers at Bethpage in order to be successful. Some holes will be driver holes, others will be 3-woods. If he hits fairways, with his short game and putting, he'll probably win. And FYI, Tiger put an older set of irons in his bag this week in addition to going with a 10-degree driver.
John Garrity, contributing writer, Sports Illustrated: As good as Tiger's driving stats were, I was more impressed with his swing. That Charley Barkley-like head bob is gone, and the lurch has left. He's swinging with his old, smooth, unforced tempo.
Herre: Tiger's head still drops, but maybe not as much. I can see everyone dissecting the head drop for the next 10 years. Bet Johnny is all over it during the Open.
Friedman: Good SwingVision by Kostis showing how steady the bill of the cap was.
Herre: But did you notice how Kostis glossed over the head-drop business?
Bamberger: Johnny Miller told me in a telephone interview this week that all power hitters drop their heads to some degree, and that most of the LPGA players do, in an effort to find more umph. The question is how much, and I'm guessing what we saw on Sunday, as Kostis illustrated well, was close to ideal.
Friedman: Head drop or not, the magic was back, in the form of that chip-in at 11.
Herre: Calling that shot a "chip-in" is not doing it justice. More like a do-or-die flop from, he said, a terrible lie. He had the blade wide open. I think Tiger would admit he got lucky on that one.
Shipnuck: Exactly. If that ball doesn't go in, it rolls off the green and Tiger probably doesn't win. And then we're all writing about what's wrong with him.
Bamberger: Sure it's luck that the ball goes in instead of out, but how about the way he literally backed off the shot in the follow-through, to take something off it, as if making a fade-away jumper? A great shot that few could play. Like maybe five guys in the world.
