The Golf Blog: Video Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy on friendship–has Woods lost the “eye of the Tiger” to make major run?
The Golf Blog says: Tiger Woods seems to genuinely like young Rory McIlroy. It’s a strange sight to see. In the past, Tiger’s main friends on tour (Steve Stricker, John Cook, Mark O’Meara) were not his chief rivals. In those days, Tiger couldn’t barely stand, much less be friendly to his rivals, like Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, and Vijay Singh.
It’s nice to see Tiger become more friendly. But the big question is: will Tiger’s friendship with Rory diminish the mental edge–the eye of the tiger, if you will–Tiger needs to win majors and beat Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors? We fear it might. Jack Nicklaus wasn’t chummy with Arnold Palmer while they were competing. Nor is Roger Federer good friends with Rafael Nadal. For Tiger to be such good friends with Rory McIlroy, who is undoubtedly his chief rival in winning a bunch of upcoming majors, may dull some of the competitive edge Tiger will need to win 5 more majors.
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