Friedman: Yes, and some of us thought he would have won at Bethpage if not for his unlucky tee times.
Evans: If the weather is perfect at Turnberry, Tiger wins by a dozen. If he gets the bad end of the draw on a windy or rainy day, he could finish tied for fifth and some guy from Argentina not named Cabrera could win.
Bamberger: Everything Alan says is true, but he's missing one point: For Tiger not to win, someone still has to shoot a lower 72-hole score. Firing on all cylinders for four rounds or not, who is going to shoot a lower score than Tiger? Sure, any of a dozen or so players can get white-hot and do it. But really, there's just not that many people for Tiger to beat. Either Tiger's way better than Nicklaus and Watson, or this era is not as competitive as when Jack and Tom dueled and sweated it out 32 years ago.
Van Sickle: Bamberger is dead on. Tiger is much better than his peers, maybe much better than Jack or Watson, it's hard to tell with the different equipment although clearly, Tiger's short-game shots far outclass those of Jack, who drove it much better than Tiger. Watson had the short-game shots but Tiger has Jack's dominating length. He's a hybrid of the two.
Shipnuck: Plus, he has Nicklaus's brain, Hogan's will and Snead's athleticism.
Herre: If the year's first two majors are any indication, Tiger's success or failure at the British should be all about his putter. Tiger simply putted poorly at Augusta while all the rain threw him off at Bethpage.
Bamberger: And a British Open is less about putting than any other major, which lends itself to Tiger right now.
Shipnuck: This also helps: Who's gonna beat Tiger? Only Lucas Glover and Hunter Mahan seem to have any form these days.
Van Sickle: Great comment by Shippy. If Lucas Glover and Hunter Mahan are now the guys for Tiger to beat, well, they've got three career wins between them.
Hack: Sean O'Hair, anyone?
Shipnuck: You can have him.
Hack: He's ahead of Mahan. I know that much.
Evans: Sean is getting there but he's still growing into a new swing crafted by Sean Foley.
Van Sickle: Let me know when O'Hair has at least five wins. Then maybe I'll consider him a contender.
Lipsey: Would anybody here pay $40 and drive one hour to watch Sean O'Hair?
Shipnuck: I think only Tiger and maybe Phil pass the $40 test. I learned via Twitter that LPGA player Erica Blasberg endured days of rain at the U.S. Open because for years she had been dying to see Tiger play in person. Pretty cool.
Shipnuck: The mighty reporting resources of SI/Golf.com have uncovered a brewing mutiny on the LPGA tour. Earlier this week, after the news broke of the cancellation of October's Kapalua Classic, a dozen or so top players convened for dinner and it was commissioner Carolyn Bivens who got roasted, as the players aired their various grievances about her leadership. If she can't win back her most important constituents, you have to think her days as commish are numbered. What's everybody's take on Bivens?
Herre: Yes, the natives are restless, and who can blame them? The LPGA is becoming less and less of a U.S.-based tour. That might be a good thing in the long run, but I'm sure the American players are not happy about it.
Bamberger: Ms. Bivens has all the charisma of ... Tim Finchem, and the personal charm of ... Tim Finchem. But it would be a major admission of a goof for the players to fire her in a bad economy after an exhaustive search. I think they only can her if they really know who they want to succeed her, and group decisiveness is not their communal strength.
Shipnuck: It's clear Bivens's hard-charging personal style has rubbed a lot of players and corporate types the wrong way, but you can't fault her original vision: raise purses, improve the pension and retirement benefits, and expand the tour's TV presence. The problem seems to be that Bivens has stuck to her hard-line negotiating even as the economy has imploded. Sponsors are hard-pressed to maintain their current commitments, and she's asking for them to pour in more money for next year and beyond. Something had to give, and it's being reflected by the tour's contracting schedule.
Evans: Bivens can't turn rotten grapes into Bordeaux. She's got a good Yellow Tail wine. She has good players and she's doing her best with the marketing and promotional options allotted to women in sports.
Van Sickle: Bivens had a worthy goal, to kick the LPGA up a notch financially. Problem is, that's the wrong goal at the wrong time. It's not gonna happen now. Her hardball tactics to raise money coincided with an economic downturn — some might say depression — that could have long-lasting and disastrous results for the tour. Sponsors are dropping like autumn leaves. She didn't cause this problem but her tactics made the problem worse, and quicker. I wouldn't be surprised if the rank-and-file LPGA players go into a kill-the-messenger mode. It's not the messenger, it's the message: Your tour isn't selling in the U.S.
Friedman: Wouldn't it be possible to accept lower overall sponsorship dollars in return for keeping the events alive? As Don Corleone said when Michael told him that a certain move would be a sign of weakness, "It is a sign of weakness." Maybe you don't want a wartime consigliere, but someone who will accept the reality and work with it — sweet-talking sponsors and players alike.
Shipnuck: Yeah, you don't want Sonny Corleone giving advice in a down economy.
Van Sickle: I think Greg Norman was right on earlier this year when he said the PGA Tour should cut every purse $1 million across the board to show some support for struggling sponsors and send the message that the tour gets it. The LPGA is taking lumps now because it arranged for many of its sponsor contracts to expire after '09. The PGA Tour feels safe because many of its sponsor deals run through '10. I wonder if what the LPGA is experiencing now is going to repeat itself with the PGA Tour next year.
Gorant: The Kapalua Classic was locked in until '12. Oops.
