With the candor that golf fans love and golfers have learned to get used to, NBC analyst Johnny Miller said that Tiger Woods has many majors left in him, but he doesn’t think Woods will break Jack Nicklaus’ mark.
“If Tiger sticks with it, stays patient, he’ll have a second career,” Miller said of Woods, a 14-time winner in the majors. “It won’t be like the first. It could be like a Phil Mickelson career. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him win three, four more majors. I don’t see him winning a fifth one, the big one.”
Miller, a two-time major winner and member of the sport’s Hall of Fame, also gave his thoughts on who he thinks will win the Tour Championship, how the younger players view his “tell it like it is” style, and the search for the perfect golf swing. Questions and answers have been paraphrased.
Q: Who is your pick to win the Tour Championship?
A: I really do believe that the guys that have the most "mojo" going right now would be Matt Kuchar, being a Southern boy, and Webb Simpson. They are the guys I think can win it. Simpson is playing the best golf. He's totally balanced in his game. He's driving well, putting great, great chipper and great attitude. If you checked off boxes with those attributes, those are the only two players I could check off.
Q: The Atlanta Athletic Club took some flak for the course set up. How would you critique East Lake?
A: East Lake is a lot like Doral and the World Golf Championship courses. It seems like the best players win. It's not tricky. There's nothing to complain about. It's a really fair golf course. It's a lot like Firestone, Torrey Pines, Doral. They are just about golf. There's no weird railroad ties. There's no weird water.
Q: What could be the deciding hole this week?
A: I think possibly 15 is really an important hole because it's an eagle possibility. That hole, a guy could make par and you could have a two-shot swing. Numbers 17 and 18 could create a bogey-birdie situation. All those holes you could have two-shot swings. It's got a good finish. It's not overly scary. No. 16 is the hardest driving hole to hit out there. No. 17, it's easy to be in the right bunker or snap-hook it into the water.
Q: Do you think the FedExCup is succeeding in adding drama to the post-PGA Championship golfing world?
A: I think so. I don't think it's a knockout success, but it's definitely a success. The players have bought into it. They love the money they are playing for. They want to win the whole thing. Look at Jim Furyk last year. Probably things he's enjoyed most in his career are the Ryder Cup, U.S. Open, Tour Championship, Player of the Year.
Q: How is your relationship with the current players, particularly the younger players who grew up watching you an analyst and not as a golfer?
A: The younger players know where I come from. I was really the first guy to get real, so to speak. They've grown up watching me. They may not love it, but they know it's more entertaining. I have a good relationship with the young guys, better than the old guard that are used to being complimented for the good stuff and ignoring the bad stuff.
It’s the way I do it, it’s the way I critiqued my own game. If I messed up, I would say so. It’s not like I changed when I got into the booth.
Q: Do you agree with Greg Norman that Tiger won’t win another major?
A: I don't agree with that at all. I think Tiger is going to have a second career. All the dust is going to settle in his life. If he keeps his nose reasonably clean and gets a good caddie, he'll win more. All this stuff with Sean Foley is great. Look at the guys he works with ... they have the best swings on Tour.
Right now, it’s tough. I had a run that was pretty good myself. You have a standard with that you’re not happy unless you reach it. Tiger doesn’t want to admit that 2000 or 2001 was an apex. He wants to be better than that. But he needs to know that at 35 the hole is starting to shrink up a bit. He can still win a bunch of tournaments, 20 tournaments, three, four majors if things go well.
Q: Historically, guys after 35, 36 years old don’t win that much, although Vijay Singh was different. Is Mickelson’s window closing?
A: It's a lot like a prize fighter: You only have so many fights left in you. Guys like Steve Stricker cruised along, they go into their 40s fresh. Guys that have been in a lot of fights, by the time you get into 30s, it wears on you. The responsibility of being Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson wears on you. It's hard to be joyful, optimistic. It's hard to do.
Q: What is the next big thing in golf?
A: One of these young guys like Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Nick Watney or Simpson. They can have a career like Phil Mickelson if they can start winning three, four, five times a year for a period of time. Like last year, Jim Furyk won the Player of the Year, and he only won a couple of tournaments. It's like 'Where'd that come from?' What happened to the guys who would win, five, six times? The mentality of the young guys needs to change that they can win more than one or two times a year and not get so giddy they can't see straight.
Q: Talking about swings, Woods changed his swing and other guys started tinkering, guys like Sergio Garcia, and it hasn’t worked as well. Should guys just stick with what got them on the Tour in the first place?
A: People say Sergio changed his swing, but it looks slightly the same to me. Tiger's intellect is such, that he's so curious you can tempt him into trying something that might be the nirvanic swing. If there's a weakness for Tiger, he's looking for that pot of gold. Well, he's had that pot, but he can't resist trying new swings. If he had stuck with his Adam Scott swing, he never would have had a lull.
But talking about changes, everybody wants to blame everything on the swing when it’s not always the swing. The real great players, Greg Norman, Billy Casper, Nicklaus, have very few swing keys. They never touched those swings.
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