When I saw the official world golf rankings this week my flabber was well and truly gasted. Adam Scott at number five. I had to pinch myself. Now think Luke Donald, Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy. What have they got that Scott hasn’t this season? Wins! Appelby and Ogilvy have two, and one of Ogilvy’s is a major! So how come Scott is better than them? He’s been consistently good all season, but what does he have to show for it? Sweet FA. No way should he be higher than those guys (You may infer that I think ...

When I suggested the weather would rain on Stewart Cink’s parade in my previous blog I didn’t mean it THAT literally! I feel a bit sorry for him after the way he fought back, with a little help from Tiger Woods, after going three shots behind Sunday. No amount of ill fortune seems to be able to block Tiger’s progress. But good fortune might. How much longer can he keep up this punishing schedule before serious cracks appear? My money is on the coming weekend at the Deutsche Bank. No time for labradoodles - Woods has hopped straight from two winning ...

If you thought your eyes were deceiving you Saturday the stats would confirm it: Tiger Woods has lost his way off the tee and on the putting green. Which is why he posted his first four-bogey-in-a-row stretch since he was a callow rookie back in 1996. Of course his vociferous critics say it’s simply divine retribution for Friday’s lucky finish, which they still regard as unsporting at best. But if you ask me lady luck continues to smile on Tiger. He’s only a shot off the pace and the need to speed things up Sunday means he goes off in the ...

Where’s Michael Moore when you need him? If ever there was a great conspiracy theory movie to be made it’s about Tiger Woods’s approach shot on the 18th Friday. It’s got everything except sex (and that can easily be arranged) - shock (greatest golfer in world suddenly goes bananas), fear (as his ball nearly decapitates half the people in the grandstand), mystery (anyone seen Tiger’s ball?), greed (chef pockets self-same ball), and nail-biting tension (as ball is ‘discovered’ with seconds to spare). I tell you hell hath no fury like a Woods layer scorned by rules officials. Found the ball just ...

“Tiger give us poor layers a break ffs". I won’t translate the last three letters of Thursday’s forum message but you don’t need a PhD to work them out. Layers that chose to take the great one on this week are yet again wailing into their piggy banks. I really don’t understand why. Even after turning things round with two quick birdies at the end, Tiger Woods’s price is still higher than at the start - just. I’m surprised, because it’s looking more likely than 24 hours before that he’s going to win again. Instead, you can quit with no ...

Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods. They talk of little else: how great he is, how boring he is, whether his current utter domination is a huge turn-on for golf or a massive turn-off. My mind goes to Formula One car racing which I used to watch religiously until Michael Schumacher insisted on leading a weekly procession. But that’s unfair: F1 make the roads so narrow you can barely overtake, but anyone’s free to pass the Tiger - if only they could work out how. Maybe he’s not as perfect as some make out, but he’s good enough to see his price ...

The PGA Championship layers are having a laugh aren’t they? Luke Donald at less than 5 to win against a man who’s 11 from 11 for winning majors leading into the final round, that man of course being Tiger Woods? I’d rather put a fiver on my socks not being smelly. Luke’s got it all to do today: not just up against that amazing record of Tiger’s, but against the fact that Tiger has already shot a better round than him at Medinah this weekend and, of course, he will be swept up in all the hoopla of the Tiger circus ...

There’s going to be a lot of sorry heads come Sunday night if Tiger Woods doesn’t win the PGA Championship. Already at the half-way stage there’s all but £2.5m ($4.7m) on his head in the Betfair winner market alone. That’s a confident lot of squidollars with 36 holes to go. To put it in context, his nearest rival in the market is Phil Mickelson. The money on him is less than a 10th of Tiger’s. Now I know stats, like rules, are there to be broken, but the Tiger nugget I like is that the six times he has opened a ...

During the first round of the PGA Championship, It didn’t take some bright spark on the betting forums long to start a “When will Davis Love III blow it?” thread. He should have saved his fingers. Hardly had the pixels formed his words on the screen than Love obliged - in a style he has almost made his own. His triple bogey on the 17th really spoilt his good walk in spectacular fashion after establishing what looked like an emphatic 7 under just after the turn for home. What a shame - for me I mean. There I was, dreaming ...

Vital question of this PGA Championship week: do we believe what golfers tell us? They seem a decent enough bunch, ever eager to prove their sport to be honourable. Face it, if a golfer is going to voluntarily disqualify himself for some minor infringement no one else saw, why would he lie about other things? Okay, not exactly lying, maybe. But “economical with the truth.” Like anyone, golfers like to kid us sometimes. Maybe they are trying to fool themselves also. And, honest as the sport is - Drugs? Who mentioned drugs? - There’s always the little matter of gamesmanship, ...

There was no more playing around with his prey for Tiger Woods on Sunday. Cool and clinical, he executed his game plan and extinguished the opposition with the greatest of ease. So unfortunately in the end we didn’t get our tough battle of the giants. As I feared, Sergio Garcia blew up almost immediately as did Jim Furyk, Ernie Els stuttered soon after, and Chris DiMarco came to life too late to land a serious punch. There was never a point Sunday where I felt Tiger was in any real danger. He was just so focused and controlled, almost like a ...

Is Tiger Woods actually a cat? I mean a pussy cat. You know what cats are like, they love nothing better than toying with their prey. Killing a mouse straight off is just too boring by half, that’s the sort of thing those stupid lions do, only thinking of their stomachs. You could be forgiven for thinking that’s what Tiger was doing Saturday. How many three-putts again? It was not comfortable viewing for anyone who had sunk his all on the Woods’ bandwagon. Okay, yesterday I got it right and wrong at the same time (something of an achievement doncha think?). ...

What a mouth-watering prospect Saturday’s golf is. Okay, in the end Woods-Mickelson wasn’t to be, and maybe Hoylake has put Mickelson more firmly into perspective than Winged Foot. But, hey, I’ll take Woods-Els instead any day. As far as I know, Tiger Woods is 6 wins from 6 pole positions at the half way stage in majors (and 10 from 10 leading the third round). Nor has Ernie Els ever passed him from this position. So the stats (along with the market Saturday morning) already give the Claret Jug to Woods. And you’d be hard pushed to find anyone suggesting ...

Well if that’s rusty, then my name is Ferrous Oxide. Okay, it was not one of Tiger Woods’s finest rounds. Between his wayward tee shots and his flaky putting, the end result was a minor miracle - how he rescued par after fluffing that bunker shot I’ll never know. But of course Tiger Woods doesn’t do minor miracles, he just does Tiger Woods. The eagle flourish on the 18th said it all for me. Winged Foot is already a memory. My only slight concern is that if I recall rightly - I can’t remember for the life of me the ...

There’s no pleasing some people. Usually everyone whines because it’s cold, wet and windy in Britain (like they never have storms in America!). This year they’re moaning because it’s in the grips of an immense heatwave. This isn’t British Open (sorry, Open Championship) weather, they wail. We didn’t cross the pond to get sunstroke. Get used to it. Scorching summers are becoming the norm in the UK - it’s already drier than Syria and Sudan for goodness sakes. But I can understand people’s bemusement. Not only is it really, really hot, and very, very dry. It’s also almost totally becalmed. ...