I think our culture goes nuts over those who win, and never stops to think about the person they are rooting for. Marketing is also part of the answer - he’s been a one man show from day one, so most of the attention is focused on him.

I think last year Tiger, with one major and a short season, scored PR points by conceding the obvious to Harrington. Four players have a major with no much else, he has none, but he’s politicking hard for his big TV season, I believe, in an effort to be voted POY. I think there is a lot more of the politican in Woods than most realize.

Feinstein said basically 6 TVs are worth less than a major. It’s all hypothetical unless some weighting scheme were created for TVs and majors other than FedExCup points and WGR points. Even 10 is, I suppose, too many to trade for one major. Interesting concept.

Six minus the Buick (minor league field) = five - O’Hair & Harrington = Three. That’s the number of TVs he would have won if today’s player’s weren’t such choke artists

Clearly majors are more important than TVs. Tiger is not alone in thinking so. That’s why they call them “majors,” after all.

That said, I can’t abide by the notion that ANY major win is better than ANY NUMBER of TVs. To take an extreme case, let’s say a player won 25 TVs in a single year, but no majors (all 4 of which were won by a different player). Would anyone seriously argue the player WASN’T the most dominant golfer that year, and deserving of every imaginable accolade?

The question then becomes deciding what number of TVs in a given year are as impressive as a single major? Obviously, adjustments to the scale may be appropriate depending on the major in question — I rank PGA a notch or two below the U.S. Open, for example — the tour events in question, and the player’s other accomplishments for the year (like winning the FedEx Cup, for example).

Even though there are a lot of regular tour events during the season, the fact remains that most players DON’T win any events and very few win more than two in a year. Winning 6 is a very big deal. Without looking it up, I would imagine at least 50 different players have won at least 1 professional major in the last 50 years. How many different players have won 6 times on Tour in a year? Five? (Is it EVEN five???) The point is, winning that many events a year is a much rarer accomplishment for the simple reason that SOMEBODY has to win each of the 4 majors but nobody has to win 6 events (or even 2).

I focus mostly on what Woods does in the majors because they are really what count to him and Nicklaus. Some make a big deal about his tour victories, but other than the majors, nobody remembers them, except that he won tons of them on a select roster of pet courses. I have about 10 good (no, excellent) reasons why TVs are a poor metric which I will talk about at length at a future date.

Last year, Tiger said Harrington got his vote for POY because “he’s got two.” Majors. This year TVs and not majors are what counts because he wants POY and is making his case.

Mike

The evidence is showing that Tiger is not performing as well in the bigger event and may be feeling the pressure - I may write more on this.
Good roster of names that should make us excited for 2010! 7+ months and counting till Augusta!!

To me the most interesting aspect of Tiger’s year is that he has shown signs of cracking in the final rounds, as Phil pointed out. Most obviously and shockingly in the PGA, but in a couple of “lesser” tournaments, as well. And his temperament at the Masters, to me, showed signs of stress and strain. I think the pursuit may be getting to him — not to mention the stresses and strains of trying to couple professional golf with fatherhood.

I can’t wait for next year! With a refreshed and confident Phil (as of Sunday anyway) and a resurgent Paddy, I think we’re in for some historic battles in the majors. Maybe O’Hair and (dare I say?) Stricker and a few others (Glover? McIlroy? Garcia? Bueller?) will step it up, as well. It would not shock me to see Tiger go major-less again in 2010.

Not an official prediction, mind you. I’m just sayin’ …

My other problem with your analysis is that you’re implicitly criticizing Tiger for publicly taking the position that regular, non-major Tour events matter to him. This is simply wrongheaded for a couple of reasons. First, I can’t even tell you what kind of ass Tiger would sound like if he “honestly” came out and declared that winning a regular Tour event was so easy or boring for him that he didn’t really care about those events. Second, while everyone understands Tiger’s principal goal is to break Jack’s record, it doesn’t follow that he doesn’t care about his career win totals. He obviously wants to get Snead’s record too, and possibly win 100 times for his career. For that matter, it’s safe to assume that any time Tiger tees it up, he wants to win. The idea that his sole objective in golf is to win majors — and non-major events mean nothing to him — is just silly.

I agree that Tiger’s year was disappointing to both him and his fans. However, it doesn’t represent a backward step in his career. He accomplished a lot even if he didn’t win the expected 1-2 majors.