For more than a decade there were several certainties in sports betting: the Pittsburgh Pirates would not make the playoffs, the Detroit Lions would not have a winning record and Tiger Woods would dominate the golf odds action.
The Pirates still haven’t played in a post season in more than twenty years, the Lions haven’t had a winning season since Barry Sanders was in pads but Tiger Woods has been thoroughly dominated this year in the golf betting action.
2010 has been an unusual year on many fronts but in the world of sports betting, the demise of Woods has been the biggest development by far.
Woods has gone from the pinnacle of the profession –the surest thing in the golf odds that the sport has ever seen- to not even being able to make the cut.
Everyone knows about the scandalous tabloid divorce and the call girls, etc, but the fall from grace in the professional sporting world is almost without precedent. It’s hard to recall any top sportsman in his prime falling from such lofty heights so quickly.
To put things in perspective, Woods who entered the year ranked #1, a designation he’s held since 2005 and for most of past decade -aside from a brief time in ’05 when Vijay Singh put together one of best PGA seasons in Tour history- is now #2 in the world and in danger of finishing the year without a single tournament win. Not even the Kiribati Open, the Omaha Pro Am or some other bushwhacker event.
Woods is accustomed to leaving fans in awe with his feats in the golf odds but this year he’s left fans wide-eyed for all the wrong reasons. He failed to win a single Major title for just the fourth time since winning his first Masters in 1997. He’s missed multiple cuts this year for the first time ever in his career and he seems almost incapable of finishing a tournament of late, let alone winning.
If anyone can come back and grab this title as the greatest player in the golf odds action it’s certainly Woods. But unless something dramatic happens soon it’s going to be a long slog back to the top of the sport if he ever gets there again at all.