As expected Tiger Woods closed out his 8th win at Torrey Pines in convincing fashion. While many columnists and golf pundits prefer to withhold judgement based on this one win, it is hard to deny the impact of winning the first event a player enters to start the year.
Clearly the mental game is there for Tiger as he pushed his lead to 8 strokes on the final day before safely coasting to the finish line. Some may examine Tiger's errant driving during the Monday round and say that nothing has changed and yet there he was on 18 with a tap in to clinch victory.
It brings to mind the epic collapse of Jean Van de Velde in 1999 where even after driving the ball the man managed to triple bogey what should have been the final hole of the tournament by compounding his mistakes. Tiger, on the other hand, appeared to shake off his consistently bad drives by the time he reached his second shot every time. To do this on the money making day of one's first tournament of the year takes a mental agility that few possess.
Would 2010 Tiger Woods have been able to make the same saves?
If Woods can keep this calm quietude of the mind during 2013 he is poised for a real breakout (re-breakout? comeback?) year. Jack Nicklaus at 37 finished with 3 wins and 15 top-10 finishes in 19 tournaments. It doesn't take too much imagination to see Tiger Woods surpassing that win total in his 37th year.
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