Golf World Monday - January 31, 2011

tim rosaforte for tiger, the process continues

the smiles were so rare from
tiger woods last week at
torrey pines that his stage
exit provided comic relief to
another tournament where he
wasn’t a factor.
in this case, the set-up man
at the farmers insurance
open was peter kostis, the
cbs analyst who has never
been on tiger’s a-list, for no
other reason than the bizhub
swingvision camera. kostis’
job is to break down swings
in super-slow motion, includ-
ing tiger’s, especially when
it’s under construction. super
sensitive about his swing,
woods has taken offense and
there were conclusions drawn
when he blew off a saturday
interview with kostis.
here he was in his first net-
work appearance of the year
and you’d think it was his duty
to give a few words. but tiger
being tiger, was disgruntled
by a bad day on the course.
sunday was actually worse
by one stroke, resulting in a
74-75 weekend at a tourna-
ment he has won six times.
torrey, like firestone, pebble
beach, and st. andrews, is
where tiger once buried op-
ponents. in this current phase,
he’s getting lapped.

unless he adds events, woods will play four times before the masters: the dubai desert classic, the wgc-accenture match play championship, and his two usual starts in florida, the wgc event at doral and arnold palmer’s tournament at bay hill. depending on how many matches he plays at the ac-centure, and how many cuts he makes, that doesn’t appear to be enough golf to break a five-year winless streak at augusta.