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/ Ralph Ellis / 20 March 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Ralph won't be backing Tiger at Augusta
"In the Tiger Specials market he’s [1.27] to go through 2012 without getting any closer to his dream of catching the 18 majors of his boyhood idol Jack Nicklaus."
Tiger Woods has enjoyed a mini-resurgence of late and remains a popular in the Betfair markets. However, Ralph Ellis doesn't believe the former-world number is worth backing this spring...
Often it seems we enjoy knocking down the heroes we have so lovingly built up. But that theory doesn't apply to Tiger Woods.
It is more than two years now since the fateful Friday night when the life of the greatest golfer of the 21st century began to unravel, yet still most people can't accept that he has returned to the ranks of the mere mortals.
His game probably hit rock bottom last year when he dropped out of the world's top 50, and since then he's been slowly and solidly rebuilding. He won the World Golf Challenge - his own charity event - shared third at Abu Dhabi at the start of the 2012 season and was then second in the Honda Classic after shooting a 62 on Sunday. Yesterday he was producing a decent round alongside Justin Rose in the Tavistock Cup on behalf of the Albany Golf community in the Bahamas that he helped to build and finance.
He has climbed back to number 18 in the latest rankings, and it's a decent enough run of form, but that's about the right word: 'decent'. You could find other adjectives like 'solid', 'respectable', 'promising', or 'reasonable'. But they are the sort of way that somebody like Bo Van Pelt in 25th place is used to being described. For a man like Woods, who has lived his life with superlatives, none of them have the resonance of the way the Tiger of old was spoken of in exalted terms.
Yet the Woods aura remains. He is [9.2] favourite to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational this week. And he's second favourite at [9.6] behind Rory McIlroy in the betting for The Masters. For the life of me I can't understand why.
He's only just recovering from yet another injury, and while the latest Achilles problem might have come and gone relatively quickly it is still a sign that his overall physical fitness isn't right. He's going from one minor problem to another and that's no shape to be in ahead of a gruelling four day walk round Augusta.
What's worse there's another storm about to break across his personal life, with revelations from a kiss and tell book by former coach Hank Haney about some of the reasons behind his failed marriage. It brands him selfish and arrogant, a man so isolated from others that if he went to the fridge to get an ice pop he'd never get one for his coach at the same time.
The advance publicity suggests it will be a pretty tawdry volume. Having seen some exerts I'm not sure I'd bother to get Haney an ice pop either. Tiger has already said he 'won't waste my time reading it'. That's as may be, but he will find himself having to waste his time answering questions about some of the stories the book contains, and none of that is going to help a man trying to win his first Major since that amazing US Open in 2008.
Betfair's punters know that really. In the Tiger Specials market he's [1.27] to go through 2012 without getting any closer to his dream of catching the 18 majors of his boyhood idol Jack Nicklaus. But still the hope lingers that the old magic will return. It seems we know we will wait in vain - but we still won't stop waiting.
Five things you might not know about Bo Van Pelt
1. Born May 1975 in Richmond, Indiana, his father Bob was drafted for the NFL by the Philadelphia Eagles after a successful college American Football career
2. As a college golfer at Oklahoma State he got bored with the game and gave away his clubs - thankfully after three months he had a change of heart and the college coach Mike Holder found him some new ones.
3. He always insists on marking his own ball rather than letting his caddie do it - but always uses the ball marker on his glove because he hates to carry nickels in his pocket.
4. He's only ever won one PGA Tour event - in Milaukee in 2009 - but his career earnings top 13 million dollars.
5. He promotes a new range of clothing branded Alial Fital and designed by his friend retired NFL quarterback Gibran Hamdan.
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