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DORAL, Fla. -- Forget the guys auditioning for the role of Tiger tamer, those lining up to be streak busters or to write an NCAA basketball-type story with a Cinderella-magnitude upset.
We have found the guy most capable of ending Tiger Woods' indescribable unbeaten streak, which stands at seven months on the calendar and five PGA Tour events in succession on green grass.
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| Tiger Woods has some work to do if he is to win for the fourth straight time at Doral. (Getty Images) |
Yeah, that guy.
Underscoring the caprices of the toughest game in the world and the insane notion that he could finish the season undefeated, Woods on Saturday sputtered in the third round of the CA Championship and was effectively run over by half the field.
No question, given his pedigree and three consecutive wins at Doral Golf Resort & Spa entering this event, Woods can still win the tournament. But a sloppy Saturday stood as a stark reminder that golf, even for those competing at the highest level, is a hard thing to handicap if you're a realist.
Woods' day, not to mention months of momentum, began with a U-turn and didn't get much better. Starting the day one shot behind leader and playing partner Geoff Ogilvy, Woods missed a four-footer for birdie on the first hole, watching in frustration as the ball lipped out of the cup and spun back toward his toes.
Shockingly, the same thing happened 15 minutes later from four feet for par on the second green ... and an hour later on the fifth from 15 feet for birdie. The hottest athlete on the globe had contracted a mean case of "liprosy," as Woods has dubbed it in the past. The first two were three-putts.
"To three-putt the first two right out of the gate, never a good thing," Woods groused.
For a moment, there appeared to be volcanic ash leaking out his ear holes, he was so hot. His fortunes on the short grass never really changed.
"He was hitting it very well, he just couldn't putt like he normally putts," Ogilvy said. "He hit good putt after good putt and they just didn't go in. It was one of those stretches that was probably frustrating the hell out of him. He played fine. He just didn't make anything."
It was as though months of bad mojo was dumped on Woods in the same round. Then the clouds dumped some rain on his dome for good measure. When a large thunderstorm blew through South Florida and halted play, Woods' final group had played 11 holes. Of the 21 players listed on the electronic leaderboard in the media center Woods was -- as ever -- standing alone. This time, it was for the wrong reason.
He was the lone guy listed who wasn't under par for the day, and had dropped into a tie for third with Vijay Singh and Tim Clark, all three strokes behind Geoff Ogilvy. On a day when Doral was utterly toothless, offering nary a breath of wind, the biggest gust generated by Woods was when he exhaled after all those makeable putt skimmed the cup.
