Weekend Wrap

It was quite a disappointing weekend..... Not in Tampa, but here in Utah our rock start mogul skier had a tough go of it.  While I'm back to work, there is something of a hangover...

T2 For T2.0 - Good to have him back, no?  No, we'll get to him in a bit:

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — A long victory drought on the PGA Tour finally ended Sunday, just not the one a raucous crowd was expecting. 

Ick, who knows where that trophy's been?

Paul Casey closed with a 6-under 65 and won the Valspar Championship, but only after watching from the locker room as Tiger Woods came up one putt short of forcing a playoff. It was the closest Woods has come to winning in nearly five years. 

Casey, who started the final round five shots behind, ran off three straight birdies early on the back nine at Innisbrook to take the lead, and he closed with four par saves to post at 10-under 274. 

No one caught him, giving him his second PGA Tour title and his first since the Houston Open in 2009.

Casey is one of those guys whose career has been defined by not winning, but along with Tiger and Patrick Reed showing signs of life, Paris in September shapes up as must-see TV.

Casey has long been one of the best interviews in the game....  He was very clear that if he didn't win, he wanted Tiger to.  Those old guys tend to stick together....

Shall we see what the Tour Confidential panel has to say? 

1. Tiger Woods was winless since 2013, less than a year removed from a fourth back 

surgery and playing in just his fifth event in four months, yet he still surprised the golf world when he finished T2 at the Valspar, one behind winner Paul Casey. Woods contended on Sunday but a mediocre iron game and cold putter hampered his run at PGA Tour win No. 80, but his play was still encouraging. Is this the new and improved Tiger we should now come to expect? Or was this more of a one-off that might appear from time to time?

Dylan Dethier: It's possible I was just getting caught up in the Tampa Tigermania, but I think I'm done being cautious. Everything I saw this week suggests that he's here to stay. Surreal, isn't it? 

Michael Bamberger: Ah, youth! Dylan, Tiger is 42 and his back is 60. He's swinging so hard it makes your back ache. But he can, it is obvious to say, contend, in majors and in minors. If he contends enough he'll win some percentage of them, just like all the other good players. It's remarkable, how far he's come so fast.

The question is oddly framed, but history tells us that only two guys have won consistently in their 40's, those being Sam Snead and Vijay Singh.  Those guys had long, fluid swings to die for (more Phil than Tiger), and were never injured.  

I think this is the best answer here:

Josh Sens: Michael's apt comment above puts me in mind of something the great baseball color commentator Jerry Remy said when he was told that one of the Sox was "day to day." His reply: "We're all day to day." Nothing's guaranteed. To answer the question more directly: both possibilities seem true at the same time. He IS the new and improved Tiger Woods. But he may also only appear from time to time.

Well, some of us are more swing to swing....

2. What did you learn about Tiger this week that you didn't know before?

Dethier: That he's as locked in as ever. The putter slams, the biting curse words, the stalking around the green — he's so emotionally invested in every shot that it tires me out just imagining it. 

Bamberger: That he's all-in on this second act thing. One day he was in the Innisbrook gym at 3:30. In the morning. 

Sens: I was struck by the intensity and how comfortable he looked being back in the hunt. At the same time, though, he also has mellower air about him. Fewer expletives and histrionics at poor shots, more acceptance of results.

Didn't we know that when we saw him grinding to make the cut at Torrey?  Here's John Woods, who caddies for Kooch:

Wood: That this comeback is very different, but not for his much-improved health. What I saw on Saturday and Sunday was the return of Tiger the artist, and in previous comebacks we have seen Tiger the scientist. Gone were the multiple rehearsals of mechanical feels and talk about getting reps in. Back was the Tiger who was imagining golf shots with his eyes and just letting his body follow. I know he's put in a TON of work to get his golf swing, his short game, his putting, where he wants them to be, but I would guess that many times in the last year he's sat down by himself quite a bit and remembered how he used to PLAY this game, and made a point to forget how others have told him to play this game. I don't think I'm crazy when I say I think meditation and visualization, getting his mind right and getting his creativity back has at least as much to do with his return to form as a sound golf swing and a good short game.

I'm not buying the meditation thing, but we've all seen Tiger get overly-analytical in the past, so this is a welcome change.

And the inevitable:

3. Did Tiger just prove he's a legitimate top 10 favorite for the Masters? Dare we say top five?

Dethier: In Vegas, he'll be top five, and he'll get more bets than the rest of the field combined. 

Bamberger: Ten is a lot of favorites. I'd be surprised if, come Sunday afternoon, he's not within two or three shots of the lead. 

Sens: Speaking of Vegas, last I checked he was listed at 12 to 1. That's not a good value proposition, as the gamblers say. But I do think he'll be close enough to be in the camera's eye throughout much of Sunday, which, given the way the camera gravitates toward him, basically requires him to make the cut and then stay upright the rest of the way. I'll give him a finish somewhere in the top 20.

My concern with Tiger at Augusta is that he's going to want it so badly....  I would feel better about his chances once he posts a decent number on Thursday.

Now the wide, historical arc query:

4. How does Phil's win last week and Tiger's play this week change the overall landscape of the sport this season and in the foreseeable future? Could this become one of golf's greatest three- or five-year stretches in history?

Bamberger: It's astounding, what's happening on Tour right now. Sam Burns, 21. Tiger Woods, 42. Phil Mickelson, 47. Jordan Spieth, showing himself and us that this game is not that easy. Justin Thomas, showing us that it is. Much to like about it. Dare I say love? 

Dethier: Throw in a win for 40-year-old Paul Casey and things are looking up for the aging crowd! Three or five years? That's tough to say. But this pre-Masters prologue has been incredible, with several of golf's varied cast of characters showing flashes of their best stuff. As writers and as fans, we like storylines — that's kind of the point. We've got ‘em.

Mike, you lede with Sam Burns?  You slay me....

Burns is an interesting player to watch, for sure.  I felt bad for him and with that triple on No. 16 yesterday, but he doesn't yet belong in this answer.  For anyone unfamiliar with the young man, he stayed in school to play on the Walker Cup team, and the USGA simply hosed him on their secretive selection process.  I do hope he wins a U.S. Open at some point, and tells the suits what he thinks of them as he accepts their trophy.

Again John Wood with the win:

Wood: I know this is a place for predictions, but I just want to watch it all play out. More than anything, I want all these great young guns to feel what happens to the temperature in the room when Tiger is in the hunt on Sunday. Not to prove anything, but for them — it's just one of the coolest experiences they will ever have, win or lose.

Couldn't agree more...  Golf predictions are just crazy impossible, but all I can think of is how great the week at Augusta will be.

So, the inevitable:

6. The Masters concludes four Sundays from today. Give us your early picks for a winner and dark horse.

Dethier: Winner: T. Woods. Dark horse: Keegan Bradley.

Keegs?  OMG, that's a howler.... And Dylan, stick to your guns, don't be put off at all by the fact that he's not, as of now, qualified for the event.

Bamberger: Winner: Rory. Dark horse: Langer. 

Sens: Winner: Rose. Dark horse: Kuchar. 

Marksbury: Winner: Tiger. Dark horse: Bryson DeChambeau.

Rory?  That's only slightly less funny than Keegs....  Mike, have you seen him play lately?  You'd have to tune in on Thursday or Friday, because the Tour has been giving him weekends off.

Timing Is Everything -  Just when he seems to have his mojo back.....

In 2003 in South Africa, Woods and Els were pitted against each other in a sudden-death playoff to decide the Presidents Cup. After three holes, most of it in near-darkness, the match was declared a tie, the only one in the event’s history. 

“It definitely isn't going to hurt, considering what happened in South Africa,” American Jim Furyk said of the Els/Woods captaincies. “We're going to see that [2003] tape 4 billion times.”

I'm sure he plans on being a playing captain, and that could be good fun.  Especially since in the Prez Cup the captains guide the match-ups..... What are the chances of Stephen Ames making the team?

There's more, but I'm in decompression mode.  I promise a deep dive on the rules announcement and everything else of note tomorrow.