It all revolves around Tiger, of course.
There’s a certain type of course and course setup on which he’s not the best player in the world - extreme tests of target golf like Winged Foot, Oakland Hills, South Hills, Oak Hill, Baltusrol.
Almost all of his worst performances in majors have been on such courses. He finished 82nd in an Open at Oakland Hills, 39th in a PGA at Oak Hill, 29th in a PGA at Winged Foot (perhaps the quintessential sample of the kind of course I’m talking about) and of course, missed the cut in last year’s Open at Winged Foot. He’s had decent finishes but did not contend in majors at Southern Hills, Congressional, the Olympic Club and Baltusrol.
I know, it’s hard to remember more than one or two majors in which Tiger didn’t contend, but look it up. These are courses where you continually have to shape long tee shots to fit into clearly-defined spaces, and that’s the only part of golf Tiger isn’t great at.
What’s totally unique about Tiger in the history of the sport, though, is that when it’s not on that kind of course, he’s usually gonna win. Not contend. Win. And Oakmont isn’t really that kind of course, especially since they moved 5,000 tress off the thing. It’s more of a sprawling parkland layout, ridiculously long (advantage guess who) with savage rough (again, advantage Eldrick) and roller-coaster greens (advantage, well, you get the idea).
If you can get the field or Tiger, take Tiger.
