2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational Discussion Thread

[brocks]

simply an amazing shot, one of his best ever IMO. Had to have been tough for GMAC to witness that and think, how in the hell am I going to beat Tiger this time?

I agree it was a great shot, but GMac was the one who came away with an eagle.

[jhwmusic]

I agree it was a great shot, but GMac was the one who came away with an eagle.

And 2nd place! :-)

[turtleback]

Originally Posted by MSchott

But he didn't and in the past he was a player who didn't blink against Tiger.

Apparently it is one thing to not blink when you are at the apex of your career and the other guy is still in a deep trough if HIS career, and quite another thing when that guy has assimilated his swing change, gotten healthier, and regained his form.

All these young guys who we have been hearing are ready to compete with Tiger have never had to compete with a full force Tiger before.  Now they will get their chance and we will see what happens.  Could be a bloodbath, figuratively speaking.  Especially if between now and the Masters he irons out his proximity difficulties with the wedges, an area he has been traditionally strong in.  Even in 2004, a swing change year, he was top notch in the 50-125 yard area.  So it should not take much for him to get this back.  It seems to be the only weakness right now.

Originally Posted by brocks

I agree it was a great shot, but GMac was the one who came away with an eagle.

Kind of reminiscent of the great shot Tiger played out of the fairway bunker in the '08 US Open playoff against Rocco where he was well inside of Rocco but Rocco made the putt and he didn't.  REALLY reminiscent when we recall who won in both cases.

[jhwmusic]

Apparently it is one thing to not blink when you are at the apex of your career and the other guy is still in a deep trough if HIS career, and quite another thing when that guy has assimilated his swing change, gotten healthier, and regained his form.

All these young guys who we have been hearing are ready to compete with Tiger have never had to compete with a full force Tiger before.  Now they will get their chance and we will see what happens.  Could be a bloodbath, figuratively speaking.  Especially if between now and the Masters he irons out his proximity difficulties with the wedges, an area he has been traditionally strong in.  Even in 2004, a swing change year, he was top notch in the 50-125 yard area.  So it should not take much for him to get this back.  It seems to be the only weakness right now.

Kind of reminiscent of the great shot Tiger played out of the fairway bunker in the '08 US Open playoff against Rocco where he was well inside of Rocco but Rocco made the putt and he didn't.  REALLY reminiscent when we recall who won in both cases.

I agree...we will see how these confident young players who aren't scared of Tiger hold up when he gets it going. I think they are going to crumble like those before them. I mean, half these guys like Dustin Johnson crashed and burned in majors when he wasn't even in the field. Greame even said himself in the post round interview... he said something like "I know it's cliche to say Tiger's back, but all the players out here are well aware of it" I don't think players like Greame are necessarily intimidated but they know he what he is capable of...and that running away from the field in pretty much any event he enters.

[Zeph]

Classy stuff from the NYP. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/image/id/241507/width/640/height/480][IMG]http://thesandtrap.com/image/id/241507/width/640/height/480[/IMG][/URL]

[brocks]

All these young guys who we have been hearing are ready to compete with Tiger have never had to compete with a full force Tiger before.  Now they will get their chance and we will see what happens.  Could be a bloodbath, figuratively speaking.

I may have posted this here before, but IMO it bears repeating: the press has been saying that the competition is much tougher now than it was a few years ago, and for proof, they point to the likes of Rory, Luke, and Lee fighting for #1, separated by only a few tenths of a point. But they're wrong. Their rankings are almost exactly the same as the rankings of the number 2, 3, and 4 golfers all through the Tiger era. In fact, for several fairly long stretches (and I mean years, not months), guys like Vijay and Ernie and Phil had higher WGR averages than Luke and Rory ever have. But nobody noticed it, because they were fighting for second, while Tiger was ten or 15 points ahead of them. IMO he's good enough right now to reclaim #1 by the end of the year. But if he can stay healthy and continue to improve --- and as you noted, there are still areas of his game that have lots of room for improvement --- he'll not only be #1 again, he will dominate again. Rory will be the next Mickelson, not the next Watson.

[brocks]

Classy stuff from the NYP.

Actually pretty good timing on Tiger's part, to get this crap out of the way the same week Haney's book comes out. Let's just hope Haney didn't record something Tiger muttered about Hootie. He might set the sprinklers to go off during Tiger's swing.

[bobsuruncle]

Great to see TW "back", and the scary part is he's not "all the way back" yet.  Did Sean Foley say only 50%?  Wowza ... let's see if TW gets to 19 majors by the time he turns 40.

Look out Rory and Luke.  Not sure why Lee is even mentioned as I think his best chances of winning a major have come and gone (much like Monty).  Let's face it - 3 (?) runners up in the Majors in the span of a year plus - that could be a career for some of these guys.

I think Rory will be the closest competitor for TW in this 2nd phase of his career, much like Els, Phil, and VJ were before.  But unlike Phil, Rory is ahead of his (non-TW) peers, so a tally of 5-9 majors for Rors is a strong possibility.

[jamo]

Look out Rory and Luke.  Not sure why Lee is even mentioned as I think his best chances of winning a major have come and gone (much like Monty).  Let's face it - 3 (?) runners up in the Majors in the span of a year plus - that could be a career for some of these guys.

I agree with you that I doubt Lee will win, but he's still third in the OWGR. He's got a chance.

[k-troop]

Lots of great comments and observations about Tiger out there...but guys, just want to point out something.  It's just one win.  If one win is enough to establish a trend, here's another for you:  he's withdrawn with an injury in 50% of his last two tournaments.

This win for Tiger certainly didn't come out of nowhere.  His swing and ballstriking have been solid all year, and his short game has been getting better and better.  His putting and his distance control--both problems all year--were really good this week.  I hope it continues, especially with his putting.  It's going to be tested next week.

But let's get a little reality check:  we still honestly can't say with confidence that he'll even finish the Masters, much less win the darn thing.

I'm cautiously hopeful.

[RONGIL]

I think you used too many words that started with "S" in that last sentence. As for people refering to Arnie as "Mr. Palmer" what do you expect? He is one of the main reasons that the Golf Channel exists. Also, he has earned the right for people to call him by that respectful term. Another thing, I like Kelly and wish that she was doing all of the tournaments.

[RONGIL]

Did anyone watch the post tournament press conference? Tiger "corrected" several people when he was asked how it felt to have won for the first time in 2 years on the PGA Tour. He stated that this was his second win (obviously including the win at his own tournament). I would like to now correct Mr. Woods. His tournament is not part of the PGA Tour. It is not a sanctioned event. It does not grant the winner an automatic birth into the Masters. It does not grant FedEx Cup points. It does not go to the tour money title. And it does not grant the winner a 2 year exemption on tour. It is not a Tour event, Mr. Woods. The only thing that his tournament grants the winner is a paycheck and world standings points.

[jamo]

Did anyone watch the post tournament press conference? Tiger "corrected" several people when he was asked how it felt to have won for the first time in 2 years on the PGA Tour. He stated that this was his second win (obviously including the win at his own tournament). I would like to now correct Mr. Woods. His tournament is not part of the PGA Tour. It is not a sanctioned event. It does not grant the winner an automatic birth into the Masters. It does not grant FedEx Cup points. It does not go to the tour money title. And it does not grant the winner a 2 year exemption on tour. It is not a Tour event, Mr. Woods. The only thing that his tournament grants the winner is a paycheck and world standings points.

Yeah, I did watch. He was being facetious, while still talking up his own tournament.

[zipazoid]

I'm sure Tiger is well aware of all that, rongil.

In his mind, which in this instance is all that matters to him, he won for the 2nd time. A win is a win. That's what he plays for when he plays a tournament. It matters not to him the quality of the tournament & what winning it brings. The W - that's what he wants.

So I am sure he doesn't need corrected. In his mind.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by RONGIL

Did anyone watch the post tournament press conference? Tiger "corrected" several people when he was asked how it felt to have won for the first time in 2 years on the PGA Tour. He stated that this was his second win (obviously including the win at his own tournament). I would like to now correct Mr. Woods. His tournament is not part of the PGA Tour. It is not a sanctioned event. It does not grant the winner an automatic birth into the Masters. It does not grant FedEx Cup points. It does not go to the tour money title. And it does not grant the winner a 2 year exemption on tour. It is not a Tour event, Mr. Woods. The only thing that his tournament grants the winner is a paycheck and world standings points.

Of course it's not a PGA Tour event. It wasn't when McDowell won it in 2010 either.

[TourSpoon]

I am pretty sure he beat Ahmad Rashad when he shot 59 at the Medalist too. :-D I noticed he said that too. For some reason I just let it go in one ear and out the other after the initial "Huh?". This one counts and was way more spectacular.

[jhwmusic]

I 100% agree with you!   I don't feel that competition is any stronger than it was before.   I feel its just something the media says to build a storyline other than Tiger Woods kicking everyone's ass.  He was basically gone for 2 years...so the media had to push these other guys....mainly the golf channel cuz they didn't have anything else to talk about.  And like I have said before...these guys were still blowing it in majors while he was gone...ie Dustin Johnson, Villegas and so on...    I don't think DJ, jason Day, or guys like that will have careers that will even come close to stacking up to Phil, Vijay or Ernie...not a chance.   And that isn't because it is more competitive now...its because a certain guy named Tiger Woods is on his way back...and another guy named Rory is gonna make it even harder on them.  The "Phils, Vijays and Ernies" will be guys like Rory, Schwartzel, Bradley...  Rory is a few notches above those I just listed and will probably get to 7-10 majors by the time he is done...who knows maybe more.  Most of them aren't that young.

Originally Posted by brocks

I may have posted this here before, but IMO it bears repeating: the press has been saying that the competition is much tougher now than it was a few years ago, and for proof, they point to the likes of Rory, Luke, and Lee fighting for #1, separated by only a few tenths of a point.

But they're wrong. Their rankings are almost exactly the same as the rankings of the number 2, 3, and 4 golfers all through the Tiger era. In fact, for several fairly long stretches (and I mean years, not months), guys like Vijay and Ernie and Phil had higher WGR averages than Luke and Rory ever have. But nobody noticed it, because they were fighting for second, while Tiger was ten or 15 points ahead of them.

IMO he's good enough right now to reclaim #1 by the end of the year. But if he can stay healthy and continue to improve --- and as you noted, there are still areas of his game that have lots of room for improvement --- he'll not only be #1 again, he will dominate again. Rory will be the next Mickelson, not the next Watson.

[brocks]

I would like to now correct Mr. Woods. His tournament is not part of the PGA Tour. It is not a sanctioned event. It does not grant the winner an automatic birth into the Masters. It does not grant FedEx Cup points. It does not go to the tour money title. And it does not grant the winner a 2 year exemption on tour. It is not a Tour event, Mr. Woods.

You are mistaken. The Chevron is sanctioned by the PGA Tour, and has been for several years. If you go here: http://www.pgatour.com/r/schedule/ you will see the official schedule of the PGA Tour. All the events listed are official, sanctioned events, including the ADT Challenge, the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge, and the Chevron World Challenge. However, the ones with asterisks by their purses do not count for the money title, and don't get a Masters invitation or two-year exemption. Before now, they also haven't awarded FedEx points, but now that the rules have been changed without deciding what to do about FedEx points for events following the TC, who knows? At any rate, Tiger is well aware that the money wasn't official, but he is also well aware that the World Golf Ranking points *were* official (which is not true of the Wendy's or ADT). To a PGA Tour member, that makes the Chevron as important as the Australian Open, or Abu Dhabi. It was his play in those three events that raised his world ranking enough to make him eligible for the WGCs again, and on that basis he is well within his rights to consider the Chevron his first win since the 2009 JBWere Masters --- which was not sanctioned by the PGA Tour.