Superstar Field at Abu Dhabi This Week

[Jmdmbike]

Woods missed another fairway! Advantage Rock. Too bad Gmac ran out of holes - he's been hot on the back nine.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by Zwick

Robert is playing Rock solid

He will not be denied on this day.

Brandon

[Zwick]

Take the drop please.

For a moment I thought he sliced his 3rd into the water. Would have been a tragedy

[bplewis24]

He'll take the drop.  Tiger has to be thinking, "if I would have just driven the ball average, I would have won this" while watching Rock playing for a 6 on the final hole.

Brandon

[brocks]

Bonehead play to go with driver off the tee, but it looks like he'll get away with it. I guess he doesn't remember Tiger using iron off the tee on the 72nd hole of the 2000 US Open, to get a safe par when he had a 15 shot lead. :-)

[Zeph]

Anyone got the GIR and fairways hit of Tiger through the week?

[Zwick]

Great tournament, great start to this year of golf.

At the turn, I thought Rock was going to slowly fade away, but he didn't make the big mistakes. He seems really happy, nice to see

I am a bit dissapointed that it didn't come to a Rory - Tiger duel.

For Tiger's stats this week: http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012004/leaderboard/index.html (here you can see them).

Tiger scrambled like there's no tomorrow, hold it together pretty good today, just didn't quite have it.

[bplewis24]

Bad news for Tiger is that he lost and his swing went to crap on the last day of the tournament.  The good news is that the short game is back to being pretty damn good.  That he saved par on the final 8 holes while probably only hitting a few greens would have been impressive had he not been strokes behind.

I think he'll be ready for the Masters.  Congrats to Rock.  He definitely caught lightning in a bottle this weekend.

Brandon

[Zwick]

Tiger just needs to groove in his swing under sunday pressure, you can't do that on the range.

[colin007]

i hate you, Rob Rock.  i hope you get alopecia.

[uttexas]

Congrats to Rock.  He definitely caught lightning in a bottle this weekend.

Don't think he's a one hit wonder--he's got two Euro Tour wins, a T7 in the British Open 2011, and played really well in the US Open last year. Alopecia, unlikely, samples of his hair are used by Lloyds of London to test the quality of diamonds.

[TourSpoon]

In describing Tiger's ball that came to rest in a fairway bunker on hole 14 the announcer said, "...Tiger on the side of the ball, always a number one Nike. There are those around the world that would like to get their hands on one of Tiger's balls."  That had to be the statement of the tournament.  I almost bust a gut just thinking what Feherty or McCord would have done with that one. I think it would have involved a fine.

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by uttexas

Don't think he's a one hit wonder--he's got two Euro Tour wins, a T7 in the British Open 2011, and played really well in the US Open last year.

Time will tell.  How long has he been on tour?

Brandon

[uttexas]

Time will tell.  How long has he been on tour? Brandon

Born 1977. On tour since 2003. 4.3 million US dollars in career earnings (sources wiki and yahoo sports)

[newtogolf]

I thought Rock would crack under the pressure, but instead it looks like Tiger did.

[Chilli Dipper]

Originally Posted by uttexas

Born 1977. On tour since 2003. 4.3 million US dollars in career earnings (sources wiki and yahoo sports)

To be more specific, Rock was a journeyman on the European Tour until 2009, when he claimed three runner-up finishes. He then had six top-tens in 2010 (including one at the British Open), and won for the first time at the Italian Open last year. I'd say he's a late bloomer.

[iPutt]

I just can't decide if this is a good or bad showing for Tiger this week. On one hand, he scrambled extremely well today to grind for an even par round, even though he never seemed to have it. He had no melt down days (not even any above par days). Every day it seemed like some part of his game was completely on fire, and he actually managed two bogey free rounds. However, on the other hand, he just couldn't keep the momentum going on the final day even with a share of the lead, and to me that just seems un-Tiger like. What do you guys think?

[newtogolf]

I think it's too early in the season to assess anyones game long term.  The "concern" is that Tiger used to thrive on the final and recently he's lacked that killer instinct he had during his best years.  It's hard to tell if it's because the competition is better or Tiger has lost a bit of his mental and physical edge.

Originally Posted by iPutt

I just can't decide if this is a good or bad showing for Tiger this week. On one hand, he scrambled extremely well today to grind for an even par round, even though he never seemed to have it. He had no melt down days (not even any above par days). Every day it seemed like some part of his game was completely on fire, and he actually managed two bogey free rounds. However, on the other hand, he just couldn't keep the momentum going on the final day even with a share of the lead, and to me that just seems un-Tiger like. What do you guys think?