http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/s...dopt-hogans-schedule.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
May 20, 2011
To Challenge Nicklaus, Woods Could Adopt Hogan’s Schedule
By LARRY DORMAN
Until now, most comparisons between Tiger Woods and golfers from other eras have focused on Jack Nicklaus, whose record of 18 major championship victories has been circled on Woods’s to-do list since he was a skinny kid living in the Los Angeles suburb of Cypress, Calif.
But now it appears that a comparison to Ben Hogan might be more applicable. Should Woods reduce his schedule, as Hogan did in the 1950s after a horrific car accident in 1949, to maximize his chances of adding four majors to catch Nicklaus?
The possibility of playing less to win more could have crossed Woods’s mind as injuries have piled up — the latest a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee sustained at the Masters, along with a nagging Achilles’ tendon. Both were aggravated on his first official swing at the Players Championship last week. He withdrew after shooting 42 on the front nine, and reported on his Web site that the injuries were irritated but that he incurred “no new damage.”
At best, the Woods injury report is opaque. He does rehabilitation for a month between the Masters and the Players Championship, and the knee acts up and the hamstring is twanging on his first tee shot? Will another month of rest prepare him for the rigors of the United States Open, beginning June 16, at Congressional Country Club?
Or will Woods ultimately have to decide to rest until he is certain to be ready?
With the PGA Tour playing this week at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, the first course to be called Hogan’s Alley for his mastery of it, it is an appropriate time to consider whether Woods will take a page out of Hogan’s book and scale back his appearances. In 1953, Hogan played only six times, winning five events, including the three majors in which he played, and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Before ardent Hogan disciples erupt in outrage, no one is suggesting here that Woods’s injuries are comparable to Hogan’s in severity. But consider this: Should Woods, rather than pushing himself to play more in order to get stronger, follow the Hogan option and play less to conserve strength?
Hogan was 36 when his car had a head-on collision with a bus on a foggy morning outside Van Horn, Tex. His injuries included two fractures to his pelvis, a fractured collarbone and left ankle, and life-threatening blood clots. Time away from competitive golf: 11 months.
Woods had his first operation at 19 to remove a benign cyst from behind his left knee. He is now 35 and has incurred no life-threatening injuries, but consider the cumulative effect of four operations on the knee, including the major reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament in June 2008; twin fractures of his tibia; a ruptured Achilles’ tendon; and neck injuries of indeterminate severity. Time away from competitive golf after his ’08 surgery: 10 months.
Woods came back and played well in 2009, winning six times. But he won no major championships and, beginning Nov. 27 of that year, went into a personal and professional tailspin after news of a one-car crash outside his Florida home in the early morning after Thanksgiving led to revelations about his multiple marital infidelities.
The self-inflicted injuries to his psyche may have had the biggest impact. There is no way to quantify the effect the months of embarrassing revelations, the painful divorce and the loss of parental control of his two children have had on Woods. Friends say it has been considerable.
It is nearly three years since Woods’s last major championship victory and almost two since his last Tour win. Hogan won the 1950 United States Open at Merion only four months after his return. He was two months short of his 38th birthday and proceeded to win five of his nine major titles after that Open.
It is highly unlikely that Woods is unaware of how Hogan handled his comeback.
Do not think for a moment that Nicklaus, the man who has been in Woods’s crosshairs all these years, has not calculated the likelihood of Woods’s catching him. Nicklaus told The Palm Beach Post this week: “He’s got a lot more golf in him. I promise you, he’s not done.”
Woods may be done with some things, but chasing Nicklaus is not one of them. Mindful that Nicklaus himself won his final major at 46 — and that Hogan won his last at 40 — Woods will no doubt work out the best way to catch him.
May 20, 2011
To Challenge Nicklaus, Woods Could Adopt Hogan’s Schedule
By LARRY DORMAN
Until now, most comparisons between Tiger Woods and golfers from other eras have focused on Jack Nicklaus, whose record of 18 major championship victories has been circled on Woods’s to-do list since he was a skinny kid living in the Los Angeles suburb of Cypress, Calif.
But now it appears that a comparison to Ben Hogan might be more applicable. Should Woods reduce his schedule, as Hogan did in the 1950s after a horrific car accident in 1949, to maximize his chances of adding four majors to catch Nicklaus?
The possibility of playing less to win more could have crossed Woods’s mind as injuries have piled up — the latest a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee sustained at the Masters, along with a nagging Achilles’ tendon. Both were aggravated on his first official swing at the Players Championship last week. He withdrew after shooting 42 on the front nine, and reported on his Web site that the injuries were irritated but that he incurred “no new damage.”
At best, the Woods injury report is opaque. He does rehabilitation for a month between the Masters and the Players Championship, and the knee acts up and the hamstring is twanging on his first tee shot? Will another month of rest prepare him for the rigors of the United States Open, beginning June 16, at Congressional Country Club?
Or will Woods ultimately have to decide to rest until he is certain to be ready?
With the PGA Tour playing this week at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, the first course to be called Hogan’s Alley for his mastery of it, it is an appropriate time to consider whether Woods will take a page out of Hogan’s book and scale back his appearances. In 1953, Hogan played only six times, winning five events, including the three majors in which he played, and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York.
Before ardent Hogan disciples erupt in outrage, no one is suggesting here that Woods’s injuries are comparable to Hogan’s in severity. But consider this: Should Woods, rather than pushing himself to play more in order to get stronger, follow the Hogan option and play less to conserve strength?
Hogan was 36 when his car had a head-on collision with a bus on a foggy morning outside Van Horn, Tex. His injuries included two fractures to his pelvis, a fractured collarbone and left ankle, and life-threatening blood clots. Time away from competitive golf: 11 months.
Woods had his first operation at 19 to remove a benign cyst from behind his left knee. He is now 35 and has incurred no life-threatening injuries, but consider the cumulative effect of four operations on the knee, including the major reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament in June 2008; twin fractures of his tibia; a ruptured Achilles’ tendon; and neck injuries of indeterminate severity. Time away from competitive golf after his ’08 surgery: 10 months.
Woods came back and played well in 2009, winning six times. But he won no major championships and, beginning Nov. 27 of that year, went into a personal and professional tailspin after news of a one-car crash outside his Florida home in the early morning after Thanksgiving led to revelations about his multiple marital infidelities.
The self-inflicted injuries to his psyche may have had the biggest impact. There is no way to quantify the effect the months of embarrassing revelations, the painful divorce and the loss of parental control of his two children have had on Woods. Friends say it has been considerable.
It is nearly three years since Woods’s last major championship victory and almost two since his last Tour win. Hogan won the 1950 United States Open at Merion only four months after his return. He was two months short of his 38th birthday and proceeded to win five of his nine major titles after that Open.
It is highly unlikely that Woods is unaware of how Hogan handled his comeback.
Do not think for a moment that Nicklaus, the man who has been in Woods’s crosshairs all these years, has not calculated the likelihood of Woods’s catching him. Nicklaus told The Palm Beach Post this week: “He’s got a lot more golf in him. I promise you, he’s not done.”
Woods may be done with some things, but chasing Nicklaus is not one of them. Mindful that Nicklaus himself won his final major at 46 — and that Hogan won his last at 40 — Woods will no doubt work out the best way to catch him.
