Prediction: Tiger Woods Dominates the Player's Championship This Week

[Mr3Wiggle]

I have a feeling this guy shows up and has complete control of his game.  Reminds the golf world he's not done yet.  Wins going away.

[Ernest Jones]

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

I have a feeling this guy shows up and has complete control of his game.  Reminds the golf world he's not done yet.  Wins going away.

Could happen, he could also miss the cut. Tiger is pretty unpredictable these days. Personally I hope he's in the mix come sunday morning but there are so many fun guys out there now that it will be a great tourney with or without him.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Could happen, he could also miss the cut. Tiger is pretty unpredictable these days. Personally I hope he's in the mix come sunday morning but there are so many fun guys out there now that it will be a great tourney with or without him.

I don't see him having to hit a ton of drivers this week.  If his distance control with his irons is there, it should be fun to watch.

[michaeljames92]

It's a course with a pretty average success rate for Tiger, he's only won the Players once, however he won the US Am back in his younger days. I don't reckon he'll be great, perhaps top 10. My money is on Lee Westwood and Rory Mcilroy. Rory is like the Tiger of old, manages to play well and find ways to shoot low on courses that don't exactly suit his eye.

[Mr3Wiggle]

Originally Posted by michaeljames92

It's a course with a pretty average success rate for Tiger, he's only won the Players once, however he won the US Am back in his younger days. I don't reckon he'll be great, perhaps top 10. My money is on Lee Westwood and Rory Mcilroy. Rory is like the Tiger of old, manages to play well and find ways to shoot low on courses that don't exactly suit his eye.

Why did Rory skip the event last year?

[Mr3Wiggle]

Interesting comments about Tiger Woods from Peter Alliss and Dan Jenkins:

Peter Alliss:

“I do not understand the thinking of Tiger Woods,” Alliss said. “I think his golfing brain, for some reason or other, is completely addled.

“Perhaps the good part of his brain for a period drained from here, down to here,” Alliss said, motioning from his head to his groin. “And that caused him great distress, probably a modicum of enjoyment at the time. But he’s gone.”

“I’m not saying I’m a great teaching guru, but I’d love to have about a half an hour [with Woods]. If he couldn’t be put right in an hour, I’d go home and stick my head in a bucket of ice water, because it’s so simple. You stand and you swing.”

Dan Jenkins:

"...The thing I always thought, and I don't know if it's true or not, but everybody wants to win and everyone says they want to win, but the great champions absolutely despised the idea of losing. I think that's what Ben Hogan had, what Arnold had, Jack certainly had it. I frankly don't know whether Tiger Woods has it or not because he has never had to come from behind. Every major he won he was in front and everyone, most of them, dropped dead."

[brocks]

Interesting comments about Tiger Woods from Peter Alliss and Dan Jenkins: "...The thing I always thought, and I don't know if it's true or not, but everybody wants to win and everyone says they want to win, but the great champions absolutely despised the idea of losing. I think that's what Ben Hogan had, what Arnold had, Jack certainly had it. I frankly don't know whether Tiger Woods has it or not because he has never had to come from behind. Every major he won he was in front and everyone, most of them, dropped dead."

Heh, Jenkins. He's been trashing Tiger for years. But besides being the guy who collaborated with Jack (back when sportswriters were important in golf) in getting "most majors" established as the ONLY thing that matters, Jenkins is obviously senile. The boards are full of threads about what a gracious loser Jack was, and how surly Tiger is about finishing second. He's also factually wrong. Tiger has come from behind several times to win majors; he just hasn't been behind at exactly the 54-hole mark. But he was something like four behind DiMarco when play resumed Sunday morning (in the back nine of the third round) at the 1975 Masters, and he needed a birdie on 18, twice, to get into and then to extend the playoff with Rocco in 2008, to give just two examples of winning after being behind in the late stages of a major. Besides, the explanation is simple. If he's on his game, he gets ahead and stays ahead, and that's why he has more 54-hole major leads than anyone in history, if 54 is supposed to be a magic number. Maybe Tiger should announce that 54-hole leads are the new standard. As for opponents who "dropped dead," guess who said this in his 1997 autobiography? "The truth is that most players give tournaments away, particularly major championships. In at least a third of my major wins, I was simply there to accept the gift."

[Zeph]

Based on last week, I doubt Tiger will dominate anything this week. His game seems to come and go at this moment. It could come back for a week and he can contend, but I doubt we'll see him in full control for four days.

[BallStriker]

I actually like both Peter Alliss and Dan Jenkins but, as for their respective comments about Tiger, they can go blow it out their respective *******s......Tiger may have made some mistakes, but he deserves much better treatment given what he has done for this game... PERIOD

[newtogolf]

Jack must have been pretty miserable given the number of times he finished 2nd, especially in Majors (won 20, finished 2nd 19 times, 3rd place 9 times).

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

Interesting comments about Tiger Woods from Peter Alliss and Dan Jenkins:

Dan Jenkins:

"...The thing I always thought, and I don't know if it's true or not, but everybody wants to win and everyone says they want to win, but the great champions absolutely despised the idea of losing. I think that's what Ben Hogan had, what Arnold had, Jack certainly had it. I frankly don't know whether Tiger Woods has it or not because he has never had to come from behind. Every major he won he was in front and everyone, most of them, dropped dead."

[brocks]

Based on last week, I doubt Tiger will dominate anything this week. His game seems to come and go at this moment. It could come back for a week and he can contend, but I doubt we'll see him in full control for four days.

I agree. It looks like he may need another year or so to get comfortable with his swing, and as he said, the TPC course is not forgiving of mishit shots. Plus, the fact that he drove it so poorly his last two outings means that he has to work on that, which means less time for short game practice. I still think he could win five times a year if he just forgot about his driver and hit his 2-iron stinger about 280 into the fairway, even on par fives, if he'd practice enough to get his old short game back.

[SamCreamer]

I saw Jenkin's and Alliss' words on Tiger and it was far less rude when they said it orally (it seems a lot worse written out). From what I got from it, was that he should not mess with success. Alliss gave the example that last year at Augusta one of Tiger's guys (maybe Foley) was teaching Tiger how to chip correctly and Alliss was saying that's absolutely ridiculous because Tiger was the best chipper in the world for quite a while.

Back on track, I think he can win this week. I'd like to see him go up against Rory. I foresee a really fun Sunday with Tiger, Rory, Phil, and Lee, and probably one more player that nobody expects.

[newtogolf]

Haney mentioned in his book that after the November accident, Tiger seemed less committed to golf and practice.  Tiger was always known for his work ethic and the time he put in on the range.  Haney also indicated that Tiger was fairly needy and frequently required Hanks attention - does Foley have the bandwidth to cater to Tiger the way Butch and Haney did?

It seems to be taking Tiger longer to transition to the Foley swing and he has admittedly had issues with his old swing creeping in at times.  I'm sure there are multiple reasons for this, but if a lack of committment to practice is one, it would explain a lot of the inconsistency we're seeing.

[jamo]

Why did Rory skip the event last year?

Scheduling. He wasn't (isn't?) a member of the PGA Tour, so he only had a limited amount of PGA Tour events he could play. Also, he said he doesn't particularly care for the course layout and he has never made the cut. "It's a Pete Dye course and I find it very awkward off the tee. You're hitting across fairways all the time. It creates angles and visually it's very tough off the tee. He makes you feel uncomfortable because it looks like you've only got a little bit of fairway to hit, but actually once you get up there it's a little bit wider." [quote name="michaeljames92" url="/t/57870/prediction-tiger-woods-dominates-the-players-championship-this-week#post_709657"]It's a course with a pretty average success rate for Tiger, he's only won the Players once, however he won the US Am back in his younger days. I don't reckon he'll be great, perhaps top 10. My money is on Lee Westwood and Rory Mcilroy. Rory is like the Tiger of old, manages to play well and find ways to shoot low on courses that don't exactly suit his eye. [/quote] Lee could play well, his last finish at the Players was a T4. I see Tiger finishing in the top 10 at the highest. As a pro TPC Sawgrass is one of Tiger's lowest win rates of all courses that have yearly tournaments. The showed a graphic a year or two ago at the Players that said his record at TPC Sawgrass is worst of courses he's played at least a few times except for only Riviera (a course Tiger doesn't even play anymore).

[Zwick]

It will be a middle of the pack tournament for Tiger, anything from something like 8th to 46th. A good first round (68), mediocre second (71), bad third (74) and mediocre 4th (71). But everything other than a missed cut or a win will not surprise me. I think Mcilroy won't really contend too, missed the cut everytime he played here so far.

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

"...The thing I always thought, and I don't know if it's true or not, but everybody wants to win and everyone says they want to win, but the great champions absolutely despised the idea of losing. I think that's what Ben Hogan had, what Arnold had, Jack certainly had it. I frankly don't know whether Tiger Woods has it or not because he has never had to come from behind. Every major he won he was in front and everyone, most of them, dropped dead."

This might be the wrongest thing (hyperbole of course, there is so much to chose from) that has ever been stated about Woods. You can question his game at the moment or whatever but implying he might not be a great champion or doesn't care about losing is just too much.

[dsc123]

Rory on why he skipped the players....

That wasn't all that clear a year ago when you and Westwood declined to play the PGA Tour's flagship event, the Players Championship.
Yeah, that's another example of being involved with Chubby and ISM and maybe being led down the wrong path, or a path that I didn't want to go down. It was something I sort of felt like I had to do.

Because Chubby said so?
Well, because of -- yeah, a little bit. I think just spending a little bit of time around Chubby and Lee and hearing their view of the PGA Tour -- obviously they're very pro-European Tour, while I've always been one who wanted to play over here and wants to play on the PGA Tour. Maybe that was one of the decisions I look back on and regret a little bit.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

“I’m not saying I’m a great teaching guru, but I’d love to have about a half an hour [with Woods]. If he couldn’t be put right in an hour, I’d go home and stick my head in a bucket of ice water, because it’s so simple. You stand and you swing.”

I definitely have to get to the range now.  Why did I not think of this before?

Brandon

[Motley01]

When pigs fly?

Tiger will be lucky to make the cut. He's just got too much going on in his head. He needs to listen to Faldo. Get off the range, and go play the actual golf course.

And tell Foley to quit video taping him, and giving Tiger immediate feedback. It must be driving him crazy. I would tell Foley to STFU.

I mean come on, we all have not seen Tiger act this way EVER. He is clearly have too many swing thoughts, if he can't even hit a pitch onto the green from 50 yards!!!!

Either that, or he's thinking about his next Vegas trip. LOL