Tiger's Loss Is Good for Golf

There wasn’t supposed to be any drama at the Hazeltine National Golf Club yesterday. Tiger Woods with a lead on Sunday “is like Kristie Alley with cheesecake on her plate,” writes Dan O’Neill of NBC. “You can bet it’s going to be put away.” Woods typically puts away the driver and goes on cruise control, daring opponents to beat him. And until yesterday, they’d folded, one by one.

Until yesterday, Woods was a perfect 14-for-14 if leading after 54 holes. “Golf is not supposed to be like that,” writes O’Neill. “It should not be so predictable, so monotonous, so irrefutable. Finally, someone reminded us of that.” Y.E. Yang, a no-name pro, played like Woods’ win was anything but inevitable. This should be good for golf, and for Woods. Hopefully next time we’ll see him with “his foot firmly on the pedal.” (More Tiger Woods stories.)