Is this the return of a golfing superstar or just another false dawn?

Tuesday 5 June 2012

If you've managed to tear yourself away from all the pomp, pageantry, commemorative tea towels and trays of Victoria Sponges, you may have noticed that there's been a fair bit of activity in the world of golf recently.

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Nick Roger

Rory McIlroy in crisis, Tiger Woods is back, Ross Fisher gets a skelp round the lug for slow play; it's all been happening.

The golfing media can be a fickle old bunch, flipping between gushing adoration and cynical indifference like a hyperactive imbecile playing with a light switch. The other week at Wentworth, the reaction to young master McIlroy missing the cut in the BMW PGA Championship was simply hysterical. "Shocking," "Nightmare" and "Bloody Awful" were just a few of the headlines doing the rounds. It was the kind of slack-jawed, bewildered response that you may have expected had the Queen decided to host her Flotilla in the Rouken Glen boating pond.

Of course, the Northern Irishman went on to miss his third cut in a row at The Memorial on the PGA Tour on Friday, his worst sequence since August 2008. In this little blip – and that's all it is – McIlroy has been a cumulative 19-over-par for the six rounds he has played. The last time he racked up a trio of early exits four seasons ago, the 23-year-old ended the run with an opening 63 in the European Masters and eventually finished second. Normal service was swiftly resumed and, no doubt, it will be again. The fact he defends his US Open title in just over a week will give him the extra impetus to put things right. In the immediate aftermath of a particularly torrid 79 at Wentworth which saw him join the halfway casualty list, he still went about his media duties with patience, honesty and an acceptance that "I may have taken my eye off the ball a little bit." In the unrelenting glare of the spotlight, made even more fierce by his status as a major champion, he can still combine courtesy with class and the recent set-backs are all part and parcel of the challenges that come with being Rory.The din created by the collective cracking of knee-jerk reactions to McIlroy's slump was drowned out on Sunday by the furore that ushered in the latest instalment of the Tiger Woods revival. We've not heard the throaty wail of "he's back" for a while but it's been blurted out again after the former world No.1's impressive triumph in The Memorial which matched the 73 PGA Tour wins of tournament host Jack Nicklaus. As an interesting footnote, the celebrated duo may be matched up on US titles but it's a different playing field in monetary terms. Nicklaus racked up $2,380,277 over the course of those 73 wins. Tiger's tally is a staggering $66,319,241.But back to the golf itself and the current state of Woods remains a perplexing thing. The 36-year-old is capable of producing the extraordinary. His superbly executed flop shot from the greenside rough on the 16th which rolled into the hole for a birdie was a throwback to the shot-making majesty of his pomp and even the watching Nicklaus gushed that "I don't think under the circumstances I've ever seen a better shot." Having led the greens in regulation stats – he hit 53 of 72 during the week – while finding 13 of the 14 fairways during that ultimately triumphant final round, there was plenty of the old magic on show in addition to the defining shot and trademark fist pump.Yet, for all his flashes of brilliant invention, Woods can still muddle on in the ranks of the ordinary. When he romped to a commanding win in the Bay Hill Invitational earlier this year, the raucous reaction was similar to the one that greeted The Memorial victory. He then followed it up with one of the worst runs of his career; a tie for 40th at The Masters, a missed cut in the Wells Fargo Championship and another lowly share of 40th in The Players' Championship. In these times of relative parity in the game – there have been 21 different winners on the PGA Tour in 24 events this season – you can argue that Woods is just another very good player in a long list of very good players and the enthusiastic cries that a return to the all-conquering days of yore are just around the corner need to be tempered again. The Tiger of 2000 is gone but the work in progress that is the Tiger of 2012 is ambling along quite nicely. How far he has come, and how far he has to go, will be highlighted in the major arena and the pressure of the US Open next week."I'm sure by Tuesday I'll be retired and done, and then by the time I tee it up at the US Open it might be something different," he said. "But I'll let you guys [the media] figure that out." We are a fickle bunch after all.

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Is this the return of a golfing superstar or just another false dawn?

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