LA JOLLA, Calif. (June 14, 2008) - After Tiger Woods put on one of the greatest shows in golf with not one, not two, but three shots in one U.S. Open round that will all forever remain on golf’s permanent highlight reel, one golf writer compared him to Jesus near Torrey Pines’ glass-enclosed scoring room. And he didn’t seem to be joking that much.

Of course with one ridiculous extreme on the kind of day that just makes you happy to be a sports fan, there’s always another.

So there were a few other writers in the mammoth press center - guys who never left to actually follow any of one of the most incredible moments in sports history despite their inside-the-ropes-access sleeves - declaring that they were going to write that Tiger will still not win tomorrow.

Look, I’m all for taking a contrarian viewpoint and not following the sheepish follow-the-dots rote that sports writing so often seeps into. But at least, I always believe it when I say something that old school geezers like WorldGolf.com’s Tim McDonald find shocking - like the new Chambers Bay being 10 times the course this Torrey Pines is or declaring that Paula Creamer’s better than Michelle Wie now, will always be better than Wie back in July 2005 when guys like McDonald were still riding the Wie Love train harder than Star Jones is all over Dwyane Wade.

You can’t realistically believe that Tiger is not taking home his 14th major now. And if you do, you have worse beer goggles than Wade. Come on.

This theory that Tiger’s knee will get worse overnight and stop him from finishing like he always does is nearly laughable. Sure, the surgically-repaired knee was clearly bothering Woods worse than it had all Open in the third round. But it didn’t really become an issue until late in his round, especially starting on 15.

Here’s predicting that Tiger will build up his lead to such a commanding margin early that any late round discomfort will mean diddly. And even if he doesn’t, do you really think Tiger cannot gut out a few more keep-the-shocked-losers-at-bay moments. Please.

Forget for a moment that Tiger is getting treatment from some of the best trainers - and whatever other healing gurus agent Mark Steinberg’s called in - in his San Diego area batcave right now. I told you this was done last night. It’s even more finished now.

You’re not being “different” by saying otherwise. Just dumb.

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