Tiger won at Hoylake hitting only one driver all week. He gave up, cumulatively, hundreds (possibly in the thousands) of yards to his competition that week and beat them. I have no doubt that if Tiger wanted to win at Colonial, he could have formulated a game plan that would have resulted in a win. He was the best iron player in the game for more than 10 years.
He won the PGA at southern hills.
Good lord. He finished 12th in the US Open there. That’s not losing “big time.”
I still love Jesper Parnevik's observation on that situation: "Next time, use the driver."
I am no Tiger fan at all but you clearly don’t know anything about golf. He could have, and would have, won on any course in the world in his prime.
I’ve heard there were multiple things that occured the week he was here having to do with colonial and fuzzy zoeller. Basically Fort Worth screwed themselves on ever getting tiger to come back.
I’ll throw my two cents worth in this conversation. There were all sorts conflicting things that at the early stage of Tigers professional career in 1997 that gathered to a congruence of circumstances negating his opportunities here at Colonial. Some were/are hard facts. Sponsor conflicted obligations. Mastercard/American Express. European Tour appearance money. Other aspects were rumored friction from the Colonial Professional staff during his one appearance here along with the Fuzzy Zoeller “Collard Greens”comment that somehow is forgotten. That comment and the continuous questioning about that from the media all week (and previous weeks) had Tiger stressed and reeling emotionally and psychologically. Colonial in one season/year/tour event turned Tiger completely negative towards Colonial to the point he never wanted and found excuses to never come back. IF he had a positive outlook on Colonial he could have absolutely won IF he wanted it. He did not! That is the way it happened as I remember it without trying to be subtle about it!
I’ve heard many of those stories over the years, but still believe it came down to schedule and prioritizing big events. If you look at his history, he played the California events, then went to Florida. After the Masters, he usually played the Nelson ( because of Byron), then went to the Memorial (for Jack, and as his tune-up for the US Open). He’d sprinkle in a tournament or two in the summer in between majors (World Series was a must for him), and the Buick tournaments (because he endorsed them), or he later played in the AT&T National because he hosted the event. When the playoffs began, that, too, limited his desire to play other events.
The Zoeller comment in ‘97 was made at the Masters six weeks before Colonial. And Tiger played and won the Nelson the week prior to Colonial.
The Fuzzy aspect is basically just [ deposit from a bull that looks like Art Briles ] made up by people reaching for a reason beyond the obvious
“so what exactly did Colonial do to Tiger that none of the others did?”
| Majors | 4 |
| Players Championship | 1 |
| Tour Championship | 1 |
| Sponsor Events (Buick / AMEX / AT&T, etc.) | 3 |
| California Events | 3 |
| Florida Events | 3 |
| Can't Miss Events (Memorial / World Series / Western Open) | 3 |
| Total | 18 |
| Tiger's Events By Year | Events |
| 97 | 21 |
| 98 | 20 |
| 99 | 21 |
| 00 | 20 |
| 01 | 19 |
| 02 | 18 |
| 03 | 18 |
| 04 | 19 |
| 05 | 21 |
| 06 | 15 |
| 07 | 16 |
| 08 | 6 |
| 09 | 17 |
Again - the obvious answer to why he never came is really simple - Amex was paying him millions to represent their brand and for the first 10 years of his career their competitors sponsored our event - MasterCard and then BofA…
Not disagreeing with what you stated but also sounds as if protecting the Colonial Staff from supposed inappropriate behavior.
Tiger didn’t do what Tiger wanted when he first turned pro - he did what his dad told him and his dad is the one that did the deal with IMG and approved the Amex and Buick deals
I know this may come as a major shock but the Colonial staff plays a relatively minor role in the execution of the tournament
