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Is Tiger losing it?

June 11, 2003;  Source: AnyoneForTee.com
Major concerns ahead of US Open as golf world wonders if Tiger can maintain his focus

CHICAGO. As Tiger Woods prepares for this week's US Open at the North Course, Olympia Fields, experienced Tiger watchers are wondering if the great man's motivation and legendary powers of concentration, which have taken him to eight major championship victories in his short career, are still intact.

Rumours of strange behaviour in the week before the Open, when Tiger would normally be honing his game ahead of what is considered the toughest major of the year, are reaching the world's press and, more importantly, his main rivals for the title. "You'd expect Tiger to be really pumped up just before the Open, but from what I've seen he seems to be so laid back, he's almost taking this lying down," said an incredulous, but happy, Phil Mickelson.

I wonder where he got that taste for wearing red on the last day?"It's not easy being Tiger," said Ernie Els. "He may still have problems with his knee, he's got huge business commitments to his sponsors, he has his own charity and, of course, he has a beautiful Swedish girlfriend that his mother is very fond of (pictured right). It's tough just to focus on his golf."

Anyone For Tee has obtained exclusive pictures of Tiger at last week's rainy FBR Capital Open (left), not as a player, but trying to stay incognito as a spectator. His reaction, when challenged by our intrepid reporter who had seen through the disguise and who asked if Tiger was assesssing his opponents' form for the US Open, was uncharacteristically aggressive and definitely not media-friendly (right).

Tiger has not won a major championship since the 2002 US Open, and his poor showing in the final round of this year's Masters was seen by some as a sign that he may no longer have the intense desire needed to win. But observers close to him are quick to refute this.

Commenting on the rumours, Mark Steinberg, head of 'Team Tiger' at the late Mark McCormack's International Management Group, told AFT, "People say Tiger could get carried away with the whole Tiger Woods phenomenon, maybe let it go to his head, but he really has his feet solidly on the ground. Come Thursday and the first round of the Open, and you'll see that he's back to normal, just a regular day at the office".

Fans will be hoping Steinberg is right.

 
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