More Tiger Woods Praise for 2008

More people jump on the Tiger Woods bandwagon for '08

Though Tiger Woods chose not to compete this week at the Mercedes Championship, it appears, that Tiger is still the talk of the town. Yahoo!Sports and USA Today both chose to do a feature on how Tiger Woods will dominate 2008 despite Tiger not playing this week.

Here are some quotes:

Thus, one can envision a scenario in which Woods shows up in August at Oakland Hills Country Club outside Detroit, site of the PGA Championship, needing one last win to finish the Slam. The magnitude of such a moment would be unlike anything golf has ever witnessed, and Woods may be the one player equipped to handle it.

“For Tiger, it’s the ultimate challenge,” said former British Open champion Ian Baker-Finch. “I think champions like Tiger want to put themselves under the gun. They’re searching for the ultimate goal, and really the only thing left for him is that.”

“The length brings less players into contention,” said Ken Venturi, a two-time Masters runner-up. “With Woods, they talk about his length, but it’s more that he has the best short game out of anyone. That's what really serves him there.”

“I do think there’s an edge in having won five times there,” said Joe DeBock, Torrey Pines’ head professional. “But he’s still going to be shaking his head like everyone else, because the game plan he’s had isn’t the game plan he can use this time around.”

“You need a lot of imagination in links golf in general and at Birkdale in particular. I think Tiger has as good an imagination as anyone,” said Baker-Finch. “He proved that with his win at Hoylake. He just knows what it takes.”

“What would make it really difficult, and Tiger’s been able to handle it already, would be the media presence,” said the tour veteran Brad Faxon. “He is under all this pressure and he looks like he’s playing for fun. He says he gets nervous. But you can’t really tell from watching him.”

"The man is a freak of nature," Masters champion Zach Johnson says. "He's a normal person, but he's so not normal."

When asked if the gap can be closed, Colin Montgomerie says the talented pool of chasers is getting better. Trouble is, he adds, "so is Tiger."

"I always feel his best time was in 2000 when he held all four majors at the one time, and I think he's getting back to that level again," Montgomerie says. "And who says that 2008 won't be the time that he does all four, you know? We just hope that there will be somebody else that would come through. There's no one of that ilk right now."