pga tour Tag

It has been quite some time since you could say Tiger is the best golfer in the world and be accurate.  Whether or not he is the best is up in the air right now but his world ranking indicates that he is currently the top dog.  Tiger climbs to number 1 after a 29 month hiatus from the top spot.

He does so by claiming his record tying eighth victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.  He already owns the record for most navy jackets but this time he ties the record with Sam Snead for most victories at a single event.  Woods also continues to chip away at the all time victories record which is also held by Snead.  Woods earned his 77th victory and is now just 5 behind Snead.

It has been a hot minute since we checked in with the world of golf so this week we are going to reconnect with that pesky little white ball.  There has been some early excitement thus far in the PGA season.  Tiger has already pulled off another dominating win at Torrey Pines and Phil Mickelson was a lipper away from breaking 60 in the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

We are just 6 tournaments into this young season and the action picked up again this past weekend at the famous Pebble Beach Resort.  The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am has been a tradition since the mid 1900's.  In modern times it still a great tournament that offers up some entertainment with celebrities and gives golfers a chance to begin fine tuning for the Master's.  The defending champion of this event was Phil Mickelson but he was unable to take the win to give him back-to-back victories in 2013.  Instead, Brandt Snedeker took the win and has put together a nice run in the last 3 weeks.  Snedeker finished second to Tiger at Torrey Pines and Phil at the Phoenix Open.  Pretty impressive 3 tournament run.  One might goes as far to say that Brandt is a favorite heading into the Masters this year.  I won't go that far, but some might.  So in light of this recent surge from Snedeker, lets take a look at the current world rankings in golf.

Every other year we get the chance to see the best golfers in the world compete in the Ryder Cup and this year the tournament blows through the Windy City.  The 2012 Ryder Cup will be hosted by Medinah Country Club in Medinah, IL.  Medinah is a small suburb of Chicago that is located about 15 minutes west of O'Hare airport.

The regularly scheduled alternating bid for the Ryder Cup brings international competition back to the Midwest in September.  The last Ryder Cup on U.S. soil was hosted by Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, KY.  The 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla also marks the last victory for the U.S. and the only yankee victory in the last 5 Ryder Cup competitions.

Three years ago, a victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational would just have just been another notch on Tiger Woods' belt.  Today it marks the first win on the PGA Tour for Tiger Woods in 26 tour events.  According to ESPN.com, the gap in between Tiger victories was a total of 923 days and it was longest drought of Tiger's career by far.

Difficult to assign a lot value to this latest win but it may very well be the most important victory of his illustrious career.  Granted any major, especially the Masters, is way more important than a run-of-the-mill invitational.  And in the end, the number of majors won will ultimately define Woods' career, but his victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this weekend could be the moment we all look back on.

Most of the country has been experiencing surprisingly in-climate for the last week or so and no one is complaining.  With the weather getting warm early this year I can't help but think about cutting work early and squeezing in 9 before darkness poses as a bouncer of the links.  It is the middle of March and you could have golfed in the most northern parts of Maine this past week.  Needless to say, golf fans everywhere have a jump start on the excitement generated every year by the hopes of a new season and getting better.  I'm still anxiously awaiting the getting better part.

Luckily for me I don't have to feel too bad when I see Tiger Woods in the same boat.  Of course our talent levels are a far cry from comparable and the situations have less to with each other than my golf score and numbers below 100, but it is nice to know that even the best can struggle... for a while.

This Thursday the PGA will host the fourth and final major of the 2011 season at the Atlanta Athletic Club-Highlands Course.  The 93rd running of this annual event is full of excitement and intrigue.  All the buzz around this tournament comes from a few different angles, but they all seem to center around Tiger Woods.  I could write a short novel on Tiger's shortcomings but I will leave El Tigre alone for a moment.  Although, it is hard to ignore the impact Tiger has on golf whether he is playing golf/playing well or not.