I'm listening to golf fans this morning, one day after Trevor Immelman captured his first major by winning the Masters yesterday, and many of those fans are tending to be a little hard on Tiger Woods.
These are Tiger Woods fans as well, but they've become so accustomed to seeing him win, that even Tiger's 5th runnerup finish in a major just isn't good enough.
Woods has won 64 PGA Tour events and 13 majors, that's 5-away from tying Jack Nicklaus' all-time major victory milestone.
Why do we expect Tiger to win everytime he sets foot on the course? I'll tell you why!
It's because everywhere we turn when it comes to golf, we get Tiger Woods thrown at us. The Networks have determined that all the viewing public wants to watch is Tiger Woods. And ratings would probably back that up. Afterall, he's the best player in the world.
Personally, I want to see Tiger, but when I watch golf, I'd like to see more than just Tiger.
Tiger takes weeks off at a time to rest and prepare himself to win majors. Certainly other top golfers do as well to a certain extent, but nobody takes more time off then Tiger. He doesn't have to golf on tour every week. He makes all the money he'll ever need through endorsement deals and appearance fees, plus the money he earns on the tour.
And hasn't Tiger won something like 8 of his last 10 events, prior to the start of the Masters last week? He dominates, and even when he's not golfing up to standard, he still finishes near the top, just like his 2nd place finish yesterday.
And then when somebody as smart as Tiger Woods goes off and tells America that winning all four majors in the same calendar year is well within his reach. Why shouldn't fans be disappointed when it doesn't happen?
Tiger's standard may be unfairly set too high and disappointment when he doesn't win may not be fair. But nobody should be surprised at golf fans disappointment. Tiger raised the bar and set new standards.
It's great to see a player like Trevor Immelmen win a major. You can't help but feel good for the man, who has already gone through so much.
But now Tiger, now that you let this one get away, put your nose to the grindstone and let's see you get the next one and the next one and the next one after that. Afterall, it's what the golfing public expects!