FROM THE PRESS BOX – Part of me really wanted to spend this week’s column exclusively on the New York Mets.
The Mets’ best hitter, Yoenis Cespedes, comes off the DL, homers his first game back and then announces postgame that he might need surgery on both of his heels and the rehab could take eight to 10 months. Oh, and the Mets had no idea about the latest injury, which is the source of all of the other injurys.
That’s Friday. Fast forward to Sunday. The Mets’ best pitcher (based on raw ability), Noah Syndergaard, lands on the DL with hand, foot, and mouth disease. What!?!
In case you don’t know what it is, because honestly I didn’t, NJ Advance Media did a great writeup on Thor’s latest injury:
Soooo, what's hand, foot and mouth disease? Glad you asked: https://t.co/0iLStLIvsX #Mets
— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) July 22, 2018
Oh, and sandwiched between these two headlines is the fact that the Mets traded one of the best relievers on the market, Jeurys Familia, to the Oakland Athletics for peanuts. I mean “prospects.”
What!?!
Oh. Right. I promised I wouldn’t bash the Mets.
Where was I?
That’s write, I’m here to discuss the return of Tiger Woods. Well, the almost return of Tiger.
Going even into the weekend and a half a dozen strikes back of the lead, it didn’t feel like a comeback was in the cards for Tiger at the British Open. Boy, was I wrong.
He makes this run Saturday to put himself in position to contend on Sunday.
Then on Sunday, the hot stretch continues. Tiger birdies on Nos. 3 and 5 and is set up with the lead heading into the back nine.
THE BACK NINE! ON A SUNDAY! IN A MAJOR!
However, as the competition started to fold around him, there was a blimp in Woods’ afternoon that left a sour taste for both the golfer and all of his fans.
With the lead, Woods double bogeyed 11 and then had a bogey a home later at 12. He went from a stroke up to two strokes back in a matter of minutes.
“I need to try and keep it in perspective because, the beginning of the year, if they’d have said you’re playing The Open Championship, I would have said I’d be very lucky to do that,” Woods said, via USA Today.
“I know that it’s going to sting for a little bit here, but given where I was to where I’m at now, blessed.”
While this proved to be the difference between first and a tie for sixth, Woods was able to recover a stroke before the day was out. If he birdied 18, which was extremely doable, Woods would have finished in second.
While his fade down the back nine left some doubt whether or not Tiger is truly back, this is the closest he’s liked to pre-back surgery form.
Golf isn’t what it used to be. There are stars, but no one is dominant anymore. A guy named Francesco Molinari won his first major on Sunday.
Literally anything can happen. And that means Tiger can win the next major. I’m not saying he will, but he has just as much of a shot as anyone.
He has 16-1 odds for the PGA Championship.
I like them. I like them a lot.
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Enjoying Riding The Rails so far? Here’s Episode 15, which features a sitdown with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders first baseman Tyler Austin.
