CHICAGO, ILLINOIS JUNE 16, 2003

Although there was little drama the rest of the day, it was pretty cool watching Jim Furyk walk the 18th fairway on Sunday when he realized he was going to win the tournament.  The big moment for me was when he was waiting for his opponent to hit, he crouched down in the middle of the fairway and just stared. He was obviously overwhelmed- thinking of what was about to happen.  On a couple occasions he covered his face with his lid as if he were trying to disappear for a moment.  I also liked the way he attacked the pin on his approach shot, although he three-jacked to kill some of the drama.

Regarding Tiger Woods.  He is still by far the best player in the world, but now there is talk of slumps and people wondering if Phil Mickleson's comments about Woods using inferior Nike equipment have some merit.  This could get interesting as the major tournaments pass by without a Tiger victory.  He doesn't seem to be very patient with the press: wouldn't it be something if all the "when are you going to win" talk shifted from Mickelson to Tiger?  I wonder how Tiger will handle it.

Bottom line: People still want to see Tiger win, and tournaments without Tiger on the leaderboard are not nearly as exciting.  We want to witness the phenomenon of Woods, and anything else is WEAK.