At the pizza parlor tonight, where they serve food at the bar,
which is where I was sitting with my girlfriend, the guy next to me said
to the bartender: "That Sox bet isn't looking so good now." I wasn't
able to figure out what that bet was, but I bet it was made after the
Yankees swept the Red Sox in five at Fenway, and I bet it was that the
Sox will still make the playoffs, despite the massacre.
"You want to double down on Tiger not winning the Deutsche Bank?" the guy next to me continued. He'd ordered the chicken parm and a beer when he walked in. The trash talk would last beyond his house salad.
The bar tender went to another customer, maybe because he didn't want to deal with a double down offer, maybe because he didn't want to bet against Tiger, maybe because he didn't know that that would be a pretty good bet. I don't know.
He came back in the vicinity of us and the guy said, "He's won four in a row." The bar tender went to the other end and filled a beer. "He's won four in a row?" I asked. My neighbor said, "Four. He lost the U.S. Open." I said, "I think he's won five----the Western, the British Open, the ..." He turned away from me and asked the bar tender how many straight Tiger has won. The bar tender, still busy, put up his hand and opened his fingers. "You're right," my neighbor said. I wasn't, though. Tiger finished T2 at the Western. It's been four straight since. I'm not proud of not knowing that---I oughtta be able to hold my own in a very rare tavern discussion of golf, of Tiger's results. But, the fact that the bar tender thought he won five straight, too, and that the guy next to me was quick to agree, quick to second guess himself, gives some indication of the run Tiger's on now. It already seems like he's won more in a row than he actually has.
"Why do you think he's not going to win this week?" I asked the guy who was right but didn't know it. "Because he doesn't know the course, it's new to him."
I'm more of a momentum picker than horses for courses, but if I was the latter, I might have told my neighbor that I was pretty sure Tiger had done well in the recent life of this tournament. I would have been right because in the three years the Deutsche Bank has been played at the TPC of Boston, Tiger's finished T7 ('03), T2 ('04) and T40 last year, when he shot a 65 on Thursday, best round of that day. I'd say he doesn't have too many problems with the course.
The bar tender has a 50-50 chance, and probably better, of winning with Tiger. With Sunday's playoff win at the WGC event, he did, in fact, win his fourth in a row, and his sixth out of only thirteen tournaments played this year. The "probably better" aspect is the four in a row, the fact that the Tiger of 2000, a version of which I'd predicted we'd see at the start of the year, has now come. He may better those gaudy 2000 numbers by the time November rolls around, as he won 9 of 20 in 2000, and if he wins out this year he'll have a higher winning percentage. The only question is if this jaunt to Ireland before the Deutsche Bank is going to catch up with him after a round or two. But I have to figure that since he outlasted a late charge by Stewart Cink last Sunday, then took advantage of Cink's inability to close it with putts on the first two playoff holes, followed with a dart in the rain to Cink's approach in the sand on the third playoff hole, that since he won despite his best game, he feels pretty much invincible right now, and may be looking to Thanksgiving the way Warren Zevon thought about life: I'll sleep when I'm dead. Jet lag? Fatigue? Not now.
In the short time left of this golfing season I'm thinking what I thought at the beginning of the year: everyone out of the pool, it's his tournament to lose, which, the fact that I can say that, and it can be true for four weeks now, given the fact that 150+ golfers enter any given tournament, speaks to how absurd, ridiculous, pick-your-adjective Tiger has been of late. He's on a roll, a roll that only one person in recent years has had---Vijay Singh---who won his nine in 2004, followed up that campaign in which he briefly wrested No. 1 in the world from Tiger with four wins in 2005, but hasn't been heard from much since.
Anyhow, by now you've figured out who I'd like to pick to win this week's Deutsche Bank. At 5-4, put a half unit on Tiger to win.
In the head-to-head, put the unit on him to finish higher than Adam Scott (2-5).
Last week: I picked Jim Furyk and Stuart Appleby in the outright because I figured they had a shot. Furyk finished a close third. I picked him in the head-to-head, too, over Lefty. That was over by the weekend. So, it was a double win week.
"You want to double down on Tiger not winning the Deutsche Bank?" the guy next to me continued. He'd ordered the chicken parm and a beer when he walked in. The trash talk would last beyond his house salad.
The bar tender went to another customer, maybe because he didn't want to deal with a double down offer, maybe because he didn't want to bet against Tiger, maybe because he didn't know that that would be a pretty good bet. I don't know.
He came back in the vicinity of us and the guy said, "He's won four in a row." The bar tender went to the other end and filled a beer. "He's won four in a row?" I asked. My neighbor said, "Four. He lost the U.S. Open." I said, "I think he's won five----the Western, the British Open, the ..." He turned away from me and asked the bar tender how many straight Tiger has won. The bar tender, still busy, put up his hand and opened his fingers. "You're right," my neighbor said. I wasn't, though. Tiger finished T2 at the Western. It's been four straight since. I'm not proud of not knowing that---I oughtta be able to hold my own in a very rare tavern discussion of golf, of Tiger's results. But, the fact that the bar tender thought he won five straight, too, and that the guy next to me was quick to agree, quick to second guess himself, gives some indication of the run Tiger's on now. It already seems like he's won more in a row than he actually has.
"Why do you think he's not going to win this week?" I asked the guy who was right but didn't know it. "Because he doesn't know the course, it's new to him."
I'm more of a momentum picker than horses for courses, but if I was the latter, I might have told my neighbor that I was pretty sure Tiger had done well in the recent life of this tournament. I would have been right because in the three years the Deutsche Bank has been played at the TPC of Boston, Tiger's finished T7 ('03), T2 ('04) and T40 last year, when he shot a 65 on Thursday, best round of that day. I'd say he doesn't have too many problems with the course.
The bar tender has a 50-50 chance, and probably better, of winning with Tiger. With Sunday's playoff win at the WGC event, he did, in fact, win his fourth in a row, and his sixth out of only thirteen tournaments played this year. The "probably better" aspect is the four in a row, the fact that the Tiger of 2000, a version of which I'd predicted we'd see at the start of the year, has now come. He may better those gaudy 2000 numbers by the time November rolls around, as he won 9 of 20 in 2000, and if he wins out this year he'll have a higher winning percentage. The only question is if this jaunt to Ireland before the Deutsche Bank is going to catch up with him after a round or two. But I have to figure that since he outlasted a late charge by Stewart Cink last Sunday, then took advantage of Cink's inability to close it with putts on the first two playoff holes, followed with a dart in the rain to Cink's approach in the sand on the third playoff hole, that since he won despite his best game, he feels pretty much invincible right now, and may be looking to Thanksgiving the way Warren Zevon thought about life: I'll sleep when I'm dead. Jet lag? Fatigue? Not now.
In the short time left of this golfing season I'm thinking what I thought at the beginning of the year: everyone out of the pool, it's his tournament to lose, which, the fact that I can say that, and it can be true for four weeks now, given the fact that 150+ golfers enter any given tournament, speaks to how absurd, ridiculous, pick-your-adjective Tiger has been of late. He's on a roll, a roll that only one person in recent years has had---Vijay Singh---who won his nine in 2004, followed up that campaign in which he briefly wrested No. 1 in the world from Tiger with four wins in 2005, but hasn't been heard from much since.
Anyhow, by now you've figured out who I'd like to pick to win this week's Deutsche Bank. At 5-4, put a half unit on Tiger to win.
In the head-to-head, put the unit on him to finish higher than Adam Scott (2-5).
Last week: I picked Jim Furyk and Stuart Appleby in the outright because I figured they had a shot. Furyk finished a close third. I picked him in the head-to-head, too, over Lefty. That was over by the weekend. So, it was a double win week.
Jeremy Church is a documented member of the Professional
Handicappers League. Read all of his articles at
[http://www.procappers.com/Jeremy_Church.htm]
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