DVR alert --- 2000 PGA Final Round Tonight 8 PM EDT on Golf Channel

[brocks]

The Golf Channel is going to show the 2000 PGA tonight (Tuesday) at 8 PM EDT. Since it's 3-1/2 hours long, I assume it's like they did last week for the 1999 PGA, i.e. the entire final round as originally broadcast, not just the highlights. This will be another great opportunity to compare Tiger at his absolute best to the way he's playing now. The 2000 PGA was the third of the four consecutive majors in the Tiger Slam. And it's arguably the best example of Tiger's performance under pressure. It's too bad that Tiger wasn't battling Phil down the stretch, but IMO Bob May played well enough that week to have won all but a handful of all the majors ever played. He shot a 66 that Sunday to Tiger's 67, and most of their birdies were on the back nine. They finished tied, five shots clear of the field, and then Tiger won the playoff. Their 72-hole score of 18 under is still the record for the lowest score to par in a PGA Championship. I saw the "Duel In The Sun" (Watson beating Jack head to head at the British Open) when it was first broadcast, and my memory is not infallible, but IMO this was just as good. I had a thread about the 1999 PGA last week, but evidently I was the only one who watched it. As fascinating as my posts are, it would make for more interesting discussion if everybody watched it, and then we swapped opinions.

[Infamous 273]

i catch these rebroadcasts from time to time.  the last one i saw was the 2002 us open with tiger and sergio paired up.  i'm out of space on my dvr, so i'll probably have this on in the background while i'm brewing a batch of a sierra nevada clone i picked up the other day.

the one thing that struck me when i saw the us open from 2002 was how far tiger was hitting the ball (with the equipment back then the distances would be far even by 2012 standards), and how unbelievably fast his ss seemed.  another thing that stuck out was tiger's ability to hold the greens consistently with 3 and 4 irons, and sergio was blowing them all together.

[brocks]

On the par-5 second, Tiger misses his four-iron second shot to the right, his pitch is long and rolls off the green, his pitch back is long and leaves him a five-footer, he misses that and makes bogey. Meanwhile, May hit his third shot out of a bunker to two feet, and made birdie. Two shot swing, and Tiger is behind after 56 holes. He has to come from behind if he's going to win. I don't understand what is magic about 54 holes. Sleeping on the lead is harder than sleeping within a shot or two of the lead, and coming from behind after 56 holes is harder than coming from behind after 54 holes. But any idiot will tell you that Tiger has never come from behind to win a major.

[turtleback]

Sitting here watching this final round duel between Tiger and Bob May I have to ask.  Does it really matter if it is Tom Watson or Bob May hitting great shot after great shot in the final round and playoff of a major?  Are the shots any less great?  Is the pressure greater?  This showdown is every bit as tough and as good as the 1977 Jack-Tom showdown at Turnberry.  I had forgotten just how great May played in that final round.

[bplewis24]

So, I missed it? :(

[RonTheSavage]

I watched that also, and that Bob May guy hit a ton of good shots. It was funny to see those guys playing drivers with iron shafts. That 350 yard drive tiger hit on one of the finishing holes was insane!

[brocks]

Really? Only two guys wanted to watch the greatest final round battle that was ever broadcast live, with both players shooting 5 under for the last nine holes? And Tiger making 8 birdies in 13 holes? For comparison, the "Duel in the Sun" at Turnberry had Jack shooting two under, and Watson four under, on the back nine. Oh well, I'll summarize the round for anyone who might be interested, and so I'll have an external backup of my notes. Nantz, Venturi, Feherty, McCord, Lundquist, Oosterhuis calling it. I may just use their initials from time to time. Nantz mentioned that Tiger spent Saturday evening on the range with Butch, trying to "tighten up his hip turn", and only quit after it got too dark to see. The final round began with Tiger, -13, and Bob May, -12, in the final group. Scott Dunlap was also -12 after 54 holes, but thank God he finished after May on Saturday, or we would have been denied this battle. Dunlap bogeyed the first hole, and shot a 75 on Sunday. When TW and BM teed off, there were two players at -11 through 1 and two at -10 through 2. Venturi mentioned that Tiger was -11 for the 12 par 5's he played during the first three rounds, so my abacus shows that he's only two under for the rest of the course. The play by play: 1. 446 par 4. - Tiger hit a perfect drive, 324 to mid fairway, outdriving May by 50 yards, but some of that was due to cutting the corner of the dogleg. He had 124 to the green, his PW was a bit long and right, it bounced onto the fringe behind the green but then spun back to 8 feet. Venturi said that wouldn't have happened on Thursday, when the course was as hard as a rock. Tiger blows it 2-1/2 feet past, made that. Nantz said he missed a couple that length in the earlier rounds, including a shorter putt Saturday on 12, and spent a lot of time on the practice green after the round, and told Butch he thought he had figured something out. Apparently, Tiger was trying to fix all kinds of stuff, even at his very best. May makes a routine par with a drive to the middle of the fw, an iron to the middle of the green, and a nice lag. Nantz mentions that May won the British Masters last year. They put up a graphic that says in the four majors he's won, in order, Tiger outscored his playing partners by 6.75, 4.83, 6.83, and 5.16. I don't know how you outscore a single person by fractional shots, so I guess they meant to say he outscored the field average by that much. 2. 535 par 5, the easiest hole on course. Tiger drove with 3W, 296 to mid fw. 239 to green. 4i 2nd shot missed the green to the right, stopped in a dip below the green but the rough there looked thin and dry, and McCord said it wasn't a hard chip. May's driver was a couple yards farther than TW's spoon, and he hit a four iron into the left greenside bunker. Tiger's pitch was long, and rolled off the green. May's bunker shot stopped two feet from the hole. Tiger's 4th went 5 feet past, and he missed it coming back. May makes his short birdie putt, 2 shot swing, May is now in the lead, and Tiger has to come from behind to win, so I guess it's all over, he never does that. They did not show holes 3-6, except for Tiger missing an 8-footer for birdie at three, and another for par at six. Along with 1 and 2, that is four putts around 8 feet or less that Tiger's missed in the first six holes, including two 3-putts. They pick up play on the 7th tee, with Tiger two behind May. 7. 597 par 5. It's a unique hole; it has the regular fairway that doglegs left, but inside the corner of the dogleg is an island of fairway that will shorten the hole considerably if you can hit it. May puts it right in the center of that island. Tiger hits his drive into what they called a quarry between the fairway and the island, and the announcers think he's dead there. Tiger remains on the tee rehearsing swing thoughts, just exactly like he did last year. Curiously, none of the announcers says a word about how he should be playing by feel, or how he should fire Butch and coach himself. May has 286 to the hole, hits 3w to the fairway 30 yards short of the green. Tiger's drive ended up in deep rough, 237 to hole. He takes a mighty swipe with 4i, and gets it to ten yards short and right of green, in the fw. Amazing how he can hit long irons out of really thick rough. The TV scoreboard shows May at -14, and Lundquist says he leads by three, but that's wrong. As they play 7, May is leading at -13, and Tiger is tied with four other players at -11: Appleby, Bjorn, Olazabal, and Scott Dunlap. May's chip checks up short, and he misses his 12-foot birdie attempt. Good stroke but slight misread. Tiger chips to six inches and taps in for birdie. May's lead is now one shot. 8. 176 Par 3. Both hit good shots, Tiger punch 7i to 12 feet, May full 7i to 10 feet. They mention that only six players have more putts per green than Tiger this week, but Tiger pours this one in, with a big fist pump. May hits another good putt that barely misses, and now they are tied for the lead at -13, with a pack at -11. But a few seconds later, Franklin Langham makes a long putt, his fourth birdie in five holes, to go to -12. Oostie says that somebody needs to shoot a fantastic back nine to take this away from the leaders. Don't worry, Oostie, you'll get your fantastic back nine. 9. 418 par 4. Great drive from Tiger, 326. May splits fw 294. He's not as long as Tiger, but he is putting on a driving clinic. May hits his second shot perfectly, right at the flag, but from where he was he could not feel the wind behind him, and he's about 15 feet too long. Tiger has only 103 to the hole but is left and long, he'll putt first again. Looks on line but leaves it two feet short. Announcers discuss his "putting woes" for the week. May is a foot long. Pars for both. They show Tom Watson now and then. He's playing well, but not contending, at -9. Tom never won the PGA, the only hole in his resume. CBS puts up a graphic --- Jack won his 18 majors by a total of 44 shots; Tiger has won his 4 majors by a total of 36 shots. The leaders begin the back nine tied at -13, with Langham at -12 and a pack at -11. 10. 551 par 5. Both hit driver down the right side of the fw. May 280/271, 3w 2nd shot trickles into bunker. Tiger 294/257, 2i almost hits green but catches bunker. Feherty calls both bunker shots "hideously difficult." May to 8 feet; he looks very relaxed, like he does this all the time. Tiger to 6 feet. He is what you see in the dictionary when you look up "game face." Both make their putts for birdie, now tied at -14, two ahead of Langham and Ollie. 11. 168 par 3, elevated tee. Tiger's 8 iron is pulled into very heavy rough and a downhill lie. May's 8i is long and right, maybe 25 feet from the hole. Good chip from a bad lie for Tiger, 3 feet past, makes it. May slams his 25-foot right-to-left downhill putt into the back of the cup. Tiger is behind again, with only 7 holes to play. They show a short clip of a Bob May interview before the round, saying he's not supposed to win, is just going to have fun. Seems to be working. Meanwhile, Langham makes a mess of 14, but Ollie, Bjorn, and Greg Chalmers are now T3 at -12. 12. 467 par 4, toughest hole on the course. May hits a yet another perfect drive. Tiger hits iron. Nantz says that he drove into trouble on this hole yesterday and made double. "John 3:16" guy is following Tiger's group and holding his sign up whenever he can. That you, Zach? May has 181 from a hanging lie, but stuffs it to 2-1/2 feet. Tiger 291/176. 9i. Gets kind of a lucky bounce and has about 14 feet. Uses the entire hole, but it goes in. May rams his in. May -16, Tiger -15. May has birdied the first three holes on the back nine, and still looks cool. Venturi says no matter how he looks, he's still nervous inside. He's been there. OK, they put up a new graphic that shows how Tiger's Sunday playing partners fared in his major wins. This one makes more sense than the earlier one (before the second hole): 97 Masters, TW 69, Rocca 75 99 PGA, TW 72, Weir 80 00 USO, TW 67, Els 72 00 BO, TW 69, Duval 75 But that's not happening today. May is leading with just 6 holes to play, and the announcers start talking about the greatest upsets in PGA history. 13. 348 par 4. Both hit irons. Tiger has 93, SW, hits it a bit long and spins it back to 13 feet. May from one yard closer, lands hole high and spins back, 12 feet. Graphic: So far, Tiger 8/10 fw, 11/13 gir, 20 putts. May 9 fw, 12 gir, 19 putts. Both 2 putt, and Tiger is still a shot back with 5 to play. 14. 217 par 3. May's 4i barely carries the bunker and barely misses the hole, rolls about 6 feet past. "Easily the best shot we've seen today." May looks short next to Tiger, but he has plenty of power. Tiger's 4i lands on the very left edge but kicks down to 9 feet. Ollie birdies 15 to get to -13 for solo 3rd. Feherty says Tiger's putt is not easy to read; it turns out to be dead straight, and he makes it. May's putt looked dead straight until it veered left at the hole, caught the edge, made an orbit and dropped in. Only five birdies on this hole today before Tiger and Bob both do it. May -17, Tiger -16, with 4 to play. May has made four birdies in the last five holes, and they put up a graphic saying if he can par out he will tie the record for lowest score to par in a PGA Championship, set by Steve Elkington and Monty in 1995, from which I deduce Monty lost that one in a playoff. 15. 402 par 4. Hardest hole today. May hits iron down right side of fw. Tiger's iron is pushed a bit, but only into the intermediate rough. May has 168 and hits 7i. It barely misses the flagstick and sticks 3 feet away. Tiger has 164, pulls his 8 iron badly, but gets a lucky bounce and it comes back onto the fairway left of the green. He putts from the fairway, but misreads it badly and watches it heading 45 degrees away from the hole, stops about 10 feet away. Still his turn, but he's Tiger Woods, and he curls it in. May's nerves finally show as he pulls his 3-footer. Both make par, and May still has a one shot lead, with just 3 holes to play. But he could easily have had a 3-shot lead, and should have had a two shot lead. 16. 444 par 4. The driving clinic ends as May pulls his drive into the rough and trees. As Adam Scott could have told him, those last four holes are tough. Tiger goes with 2i and finds the fairway. Feherty mentions that he missed this fw yesterday. Tiger has 197 to hole, and lofts a gorgeous 7i to the back edge of the green, about 9 feet from hole. May has a horrible lie and tree trouble, but he hits a great shot, a low hook from the deep rough that stops hole high on the green, but about 30 feet right. Makes a nice lag from there. He has wobbled, but he hasn't cracked. Tiger had a tricky putt and completely misread it, as it headed right from the beginning. Two pars, May still one up, -17 to -16, two holes to play. 17. 422 par 4. May's drive is low and left, into the trees. Second bad drive in a row after hitting it perfectly up to 16. Oostie says Tiger has not hit the fw on this hole all week, even using 3 wood, but he goes with the driver today, and just smashes it. "Easily the longest drive today." Tiger gives a fist pump after his drive, I guess he liked it. There are now some players in the clubhouse at -13. May has a severe uphill lie in the rough, completely blind, and does well to get his ball on the green, but it's a good 30 feet from the hole. After his monster drive, Tiger has only 96 to the hole, and he stuffs it, it spins back to about 4 feet. This precision wedge play is what is missing from his current game. Good lag from May to two feet, makes par. Tiger rams his birdie putt in, his sixth birdie in the last 11 holes. All square at -17 as they come to the 72nd tee. 18. 542 par 5. Tiger goes with 3 wood. They said he's used that the previous 3 days, and birdied each day. They didn't show it, but I remember he played with Jack the first two days, and deliberately put his second shot into the front bunker for an easy up and down both days. He hits "a rocket up the middle," a 300 yard 3w, with a steel shaft and tiny head May hits a driver to the left fw. Looks like he is over his nerves, at least for the moment. May has 266, hits 3w to the front of green, and will have a long putt for eagle, maybe 60 feet over a big ridge. Nantz says he's only the second player to reach the green in two today; the other was Cabrera. Tiger quickly becomes the third. His 2i lands10 feet from the flag but on the wrong side of a ridge, so his ball rolls away from the flag to 20 feet. May hits his eagle putt way too hard, it runs 15 feet past the hole and onto the fringe. Tiger now has a putt to win, but it's 20 feet and over a ridge. He plays way too much break, but it curls toward the hole at the end and leaves him 5 feet. Now May has a 15-footer to maybe turn the tables. It looks like it will miss all the way, and Venturi says, "Not gonna be" while it's still two feet from the hole, but then it turns left and goes in. Nantz gets to yell "Yes You May!!" which is lame even for him. I want to slap him with a wet haddock whenever he says he doesn't plan those stupid calls ahead of time. May has shot 66 three days in a row, and he just broke the record for the lowest 72-hole score to par in a PGA Championship. It would have tied the record for the lowest score to par in any major, if Tiger hadn't shot -19 at St. Andrews the month before. Now Tiger has 5 feet to tie. His ball is on the same side of the hole as May's was, and he just saw May's ball dive left at the hole, but he plays it outside left and it dives right at the hole. I guess he's a better green reader than I am. Double fist pump. They both get birdies, and they both break the record for lowest score to par in a PGA Championship. The next closest player is five back. They both shot -5 on the back nine. IMO this was the greatest final round battle in history. 3-hole playoff, best total score wins. 16. May looks down in disgust after his drive dives left. Tiger's 2i just stays on the right edge of the fw. May is in deep rough 200 yards from the hole, hits it short right into more rough, 50 yards from hole. Tiger hits it to the green hole high, 30 feet right of the hole. The wheels have come off for May, right? Wrong. May hits an AMAZING shot that curls right up to the hole, just a couple of rolls from going in. Tiger has to be wondering what the hell he has to do to beat this guy, but he tells him "Great shot." Tiger now has to 2-putt from 30 feet to match him. But this is the famous putt that Tiger runs after. Tiger makes his 8th birdie in 13 holes, and leads for the first time since the second hole. 17. Tiger's drive is right and fading, a big miss. An opening for May, but he hits his drive left and into a bunker. Check that, it's in thick grass on a steep upslope right next to the bunker. He makes good contact, but the ball lands in a left greenside bunker. Tiger's drive has ended up in tangled grass, and trees block his path to the green. Left is a layup, right is a risky shot through an opening in the trees. He chooses right. I think he mishit it, but he got a lucky bounce off the cart path which let it jump over the deep rough in front of the green, then it runs over the green into the chipping area. In the short grass, but with a downhill lie to a green above him that slopes away. Chips into the bank, and I was sure it was short, but it just kept running, ended 6 feet past. May has an uphill lie in the bunker. He plays it almost too cute, just barely clearing the bank, but he pulls it off and is well inside Tiger. That shot took guts. How in the world has he never won since? Tiger makes his putt. This is why people say he never missed one. He missed them all week, he even missed several on the front nine, but at least today, he didn't miss any down the stretch. The announcers had been talking about his "putting woes" a couple hours ago, but now they say there was never a doubt he'd make it. May makes his 3-footer. Tiger still one up as they come to the last hole of the playoff. 18. Tiger's drive is pulled. This is the one that people think somebody kicked out of the rough. Venturi was sure of it. But I don't think so. It LOOKS like the ball sails into the rough, and then you don't see it for a while, but then suddenly it comes back into view, and it's moving so fast that there is no way it wouldn't have come out sooner, unless somebody kicked or threw it. But what you have to notice is that that the aerial shot is from the green, not from the tee. You can't tell it on the 2-D screen, but when the ball is flying through the air and lands in the rough, it is moving TOWARD the viewer, not away. I've looked at it a hundred times and I can't tell it's going toward me by looking at it, but notice that it ends up to the left of the cart path. And then when you see Tiger getting ready to hit it from there, you see that it is to the RIGHT of the cart path, so you know that you were looking at a reverse angle before. Once you know that, it's easy to explain. Again looking at Tiger getting ready to hit his second shot, you can see that the cart path goes very steeply uphill from there. So, imagine you're standing at the top of a steep 50-yard hill, looking down, and somebody 20 yards from the bottom of the hill (i.e. on the flat ground, 20 yards before the hill starts going up) throws a ball at you. It will sail toward you, hit the hill, maybe bounce up the hill a few more yards, but then bounce back down. If the surface is paved, it will be moving pretty fast as it bounds back down. Now, still looking down the hill, back up a few yards, so you can no longer see the slope of the hill, but you can see the guy with the ball 20 yards from the bottom of the hill. When he throws the ball, you will see the ball sail toward you, then it will disappear from view for a few seconds, then you'll see it bounding back down away from you. That's exactly what happened with Tiger's ball. We were looking down the hill toward the tee, the view of the upper slope was blocked, the ball was coming toward us (but we didn't realize that), it happened to hit the paved surface of the cart path, was lost from view as it went partway up the hill, then bounced back down and re-emerged into view, bounding away from us down the cart path in the direction we mistakenly thought was toward the green, but it's actually going backwards toward the tee. It ends up to our left of the cart path. But when Tiger is lining up his shot from there, we can see that it's actually to his right of the cart path, and he has a steep uphill slope toward the green. Now that we've settled that... May's drive is also pulled, but shorter. He tries to lay up, but hits it too far and it goes into the right rough, and almost goes into a water hazard. Tiger's second is into the deep rough left of the fairway. His third is on line but a foot short, hits the inclined bank and bounces into the bunker in front of the green. May hits his third shot to the middle of the green, but to the wrong side of the ridge, so his ball rolls away from the hole. Not an easy putt. Tiger's ball is on an upslope in the bunker, making it an easier shot. It's the same place he's gotten up and down from twice already this week; no comparison to the bunkers at Royal Lytham. He sticks it to tap-in range, and gives a feeble fist pump, not wanting to jump the gun, but he thinks he's finally put May away. May knows he has to make his very difficult putt now, or its over. And he misses. It's over. Tiger wins his 5th career major, 4th in his last five, becomes the first golfer to win 3 consecutive pro majors (Hogan's were not consecutive, by a few days), second to win 3 in a year, first to repeat as PGA champ in the stroke play era (he did it again a few years later), and holder of the scoring record to par in all four majors (Rory beat his US Open record last year). Pretty good day. So. My conclusions are about the same as last week, after watching the 1999 PGA. His game was not completely different back then, it was just a bit tighter. He hit a lot of irons on par 4s. He hit several drivers into the junk. He missed some short putts. He flubbed some chips. He had his swing coach on the range with him until dark, trying to fix stuff in the middle of a major. He was rehearsing swing thoughts after bad drives in the middle of a round. But he had better distance control with his wedges, was sharper overall with his short game, especially out of bunkers, and good god almighty did he make some clutch putts down the stretch. Not perfect. Just the best ever.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by brocks

Really? Only two guys wanted to watch the greatest final round battle that was ever broadcast live, with both players shooting 5 under for the last nine holes?

I watched it. Literally just finished watching it 30 minutes ago. I just didn't comment. Assuming is bad, mmmmkay? :)

What stood out to me about this and the 1999 PGA Championship was how our memories of Tiger are so bad. He made a fair number of mistakes in these tournaments, but managed to save par fairly often and make the putts later in the round that he may have missed earlier in the round.

Originally Posted by brocks

They put up a graphic that says in the four majors he's won, in order, Tiger outscored his playing partners by 6.75, 4.83, 6.83, and 5.16. I don't know how you outscore a single person by fractional shots, so I guess they meant to say he outscored the field average by that much.

Because you have more than one playing partner during a tournament. You have anywhere from 2 (if you happen to play with the same guy(s) all four days) to four, and six rounds.

[brocks]

Because you have more than one playing partner during a tournament. You have anywhere from 2 (if you happen to play with the same guy(s) all four days) to four, and six rounds.

You're right; I misread the graphic. I thought it was just talking about the final rounds, but it was for all four rounds. [QUOTE]What stood out to me about this and the 1999 PGA Championship was how our memories of Tiger are so bad. He made a fair number of mistakes in these tournaments, but managed to save par fairly often and make the putts later in the round that he may have missed earlier in the round.[/QUOTE] As of now, he's #1 in scoring average with 68.9. In 2000, he had the best scoring average ever of 67.8. So "all" he has to do is find about one shot per round. One less 8-footer missed, or one more wedge hit close. Seems easy to me; I wonder why he doesn't do it? :-D

[bplewis24]

Originally Posted by iacas

What stood out to me about this and the 1999 PGA Championship was how our memories of Tiger are so bad. He made a fair number of mistakes in these tournaments, but managed to save par fairly often and make the putts later in the round that he may have missed earlier in the round.

This is also what stood out to me when watching a couple Tiger replays.  One was a final round of a Masters.  I recall him missing a couple par putts from 6-8 feet on the front nine.  Then I remembered hearing all the time (over the past couple years) about how he never missed those putts.  But, as you stated, he made them later in the round.

That also reminded me that sometimes the announcers add the caveat to the above reflection of, "he never missed those putts when he needed them. "  I believe that quote is attributed to Jack Nicklaus during one of his best seasons as well.

[dsc123]

Originally Posted by iacas

What stood out to me about this and the 1999 PGA Championship was how our memories of Tiger are so bad. He made a fair number of mistakes in these tournaments, but managed to save par fairly often and make the putts later in the round that he may have missed earlier in the round.

In 1995 I was 15 and had no interest in golf.  I watched this for the first time when it air a couple weeks back and by the way everybody talks about Tiger now, I expected him to hit every green and make every birdie putt.

[colin007]

LOL, remember how big we used to wear our golf shirts? Sleeves all the way to the elbow? And those hideous pleated pants?

[dsc123]

Originally Posted by colin007

LOL, remember how big we used to wear our golf shirts? Sleeves all the way to the elbow? And those hideous pleated pants?

haha.  that was funny to see!

[brocks]

LOL, remember how big we used to wear our golf shirts? Sleeves all the way to the elbow? And those hideous pleated pants?

When Tiger weighed 150, he wore XL shirts. When he bulked up to 180, he started wearing Mediums. I distinctly remember tuning in to a US Open several years ago, and seeing how tight his shirt was, and thinking, "He's going to lose this tournament because he wants to impress the girls." It looked too tight to let him swing freely. Thankfully, at 36 he seems to be over that phase.

[bplewis24]

LOL, remember how big we used to wear our golf shirts? Sleeves all the way to the elbow? And those hideous pleated pants?

Man, I hate pleated pants.... and shorts. Brandon

[bplewis24]

Nice write-up Brocks. It's especially interesting to see the revisionist history that inevitably follows a legend. Brandon