How can Tiger's yardages from 120 and in be so off?

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

What would you say if you had to answer questions from the press after every bad round of golf you played?

I'd tell them to play the tape of the last time they asked.

[Apoc81]

I have no doubt that Tiger is just a bit of time away from being back to form. He still has it, we saw that thursday and friday. He needs time. Not many people went through the massive change he has, both in golf and in life.

[newtogolf]

The swing changes might affect his ball spin, maybe he needs to go back to Titleist balls.

[saevel25]

Dynamics of his swing. He might be hitting it lower now, he might be hitting it more solid now than he use to. Its hard to change 10 years of hitting a wedge with a new swing and just be able to gauge distance. He's pretty good when he's not hitting wedges because they are standard distances, choke down a bit maybe. But you get under the distance on your longest wedge, its hard to tone down a club from 120 to 100, when your changing your swing.

[carrx]

Originally Posted by Zeph

The Memorial is a better indication than the last two days this week. He's still off here and there, but when he knows the course, he can hit it on the number.

I think this nails it.  Tiger has become a horse for certain courses.  Even in his "prime" he only played certain courses (like how he continually skips Riviera), and on those tracks he doesn't seem to have the same problem as he had this week.

I remember at the beginning of this year the "experts" were suggesting this would be a tough year for Tiger at the majors because (other than Augusta) the setups didn't really suit his game.  Well, so far they're right.  He couldn't get any putts to fall, and eventually his flaws were exposed.  It's like we get collectively butthurt (or pleased) when Tiger struggles, but let's face it, other than a 45 minute brain fart (front 9 on Sunday) Tiger played a very tough course pretty darn well.

[brocks]

He was also playing one of the hardest course setups known to man.  Also, the way coverage shows Tiger's every shot we see the good and the bad.  For the most of the other guys we only see their great shots or guys in the lead that are in the zone.  How often do they show every shot for someone else when they aren't really in contention?

Exactly. A typical TV shot sequence on a Thursday or Friday, when Tiger is the only superstar on the course and is having an off week, is this: Joe Blow sinks a 50-footer; Joe Schmoe holes one from the bunker; Joe Dough sticks one to within a foot from the fairway; Tiger flubs a chip. I'm kind of surprised that casual viewers don't think Tiger is the worst player in the world. But seriously, who is better right now? Simpson, who missed two cuts coming in? Rory, who has missed three of the last four cuts? Westwood, who hasn't won a strong event (50 OWGR points or more) for over three years (although he's cleaning up in the likes of the 20-point Indonesian Masters)? The only guy you can really make a case for is Luke Donald, and he was watching the US Open on TV over the weekend. It's obvious that Tiger is still struggling with his short game, but even doing that, he's got two strong wins and a strong second after just 10 PGA events this year, and is first in total driving and second in ball striking. If Ricky Bieber was having a season like that, people would be hailing him as the next Messiah. But Tiger is a bum if he doesn't win every time he tees it up. Majors are tough. There are typically only a dozen or so players who make the cut in all four majors in a given year, so expecting Tiger to contend four times a year, especially while he's still internalizing his swing, is just dumb. Many experts have opined that Tiger's technique for getting more distance with his long irons makes it difficult to control distance with his short irons. If that's his problem, he'll figure it out. If the problem is simply that he hasn't practiced his short game enough while he was working on his driving, that will take care of itself. He is now able to practice full time, and needs to spend less time on his driving (which, by the way, would have been VERY sharp on a normal course last week). IMO there is no question that he is one of the top three players in the world today, and is trending upward. I expect that he'll have at least five PGA wins this year, more than anyone not named Tiger has had since 2004, and I expect that still won't be enough for his critics.

[Tomi Hawk]

Originally Posted by dsc123

I think miller was spot on regarding not being able to adjust to the conditions.  Though woods denied it post-round.

I was very upset on Saturday when I saw that how receptive the greens were.

It was obvious The USGA had syringed the greens. I'm not sure that it's a "must tell" to either caddies or players.

But I believe by not letting anyone know, it messed with alotta players heads. LOTS of short shots Saturday.

It appeared that the shots they hit, they were expecting them to release and for the most part, they didn't.

The greens looked like they were rolling around 15 on Friday, but on Saturday, they had obviously slowwwed dowwwn, quite a bit.

That's gotta be a "major" adjustment.