Clark Deserves His Due

Executives at NBC aren't smiling right now. On the other hand, my wife is.

You see, Tiger Woods lost in the second round of the WGC Match Play Championship to Tim Clark yesterday in Arizona. That means television ratings won't go through the roof, as NBC will carry the WGC on Saturday and Sunday. It also means that my wife gets her weekend back.

My original plan was to sit home this weekend and watch Tiger and some college hoops. That plan (outside of the college hoop) has been blown out of the water.

Maybe it was unreasonable to expect Woods to shake off eight months of inactivity and be the same golfer that has been so dominant over the course of his career. Actually, there are no maybes about it. In retrospect, it was always unreasonable to expect that Tiger would win this tournament simply because he's Tiger. He is in his thirties, and he was playing in his first tournament since June. Tiger's great, but he is also human.

Watching the round yesterday, Tiger looked somewhat erratic off the tee. When he left the driver in the bag he was fine. When the big boy came out to play (for the most part) there were problems. A couple of years ago, Tiger found that he was better off leaving the big boy in the bag. If he continues to be this erratic, then it might be time to see if that strategy would work now as it did a few years ago.

Woods' short game also left a little something to be desired. His finest moment didn't come with the putter. It came from the sand wedge. Woods' birdie on fourteen will go down as yet another of Tiger's big moments.

I'm sure there will be some who (because they are anti-Tiger) will say that he came back to soon. Those same detractors will take great delight that Woods isn't playing this weekend. But, as I pointed out yesterday, the big picture goal was not winning the WGC (something Tiger's done multiple times in the past). It was about getting his game in shape for The Masters.

It's not that Woods played badly yesterday (he was one under par). The story that most columnists and talk show hosts will tell their readers and listeners is that Woods was off his game. That would not be the story that came out of yesterday's match.

The story that did? Well, that would the Tim Clark winning.

Instead of piling on Tiger, as some will do (I have no doubt my old friend Peter Brown at Sporting News Radio will be gloating all weekend long), the right thing to do would be to give Clark all the credit in the world. No one gave him a chance. On paper, it didn't look like he should've bothered walking the same course as Mr. Woods.

But Clark, who has never won a PGA tournament (but has come in second six times and owns thirty-two top-ten finishes) applied pressure from the start. He was playing with house money. Essentially, Clark didn't have anything to lose. No one expected anything from him, and because of that he didn't appear as nervous as Tiger's first round opponent did (that would be Brendan Jones for those of you wondering), and never trailed by more than a hole.

Clark hung around, and got red hot on the back nine with five birdies. Woods had just one birdie on the back nine, and that was the difference.

Again, Tiger losing as early as he did is a huge story. But, instead of piling on, give credit to the guy that beat him.

And by the way, if these two were to somehow meet again - maybe on a beautiful April Sunday in Augusta- my money would be on Woods.

Check out today's podcast and find out why I do not believe that this off-season is make or break for Ted Thompson!