2018 Tiger Debut - San Diego Open (Farmer's Insurance)

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, onthehunt526 said:

I think he'll get his distance control back, and straighten out that driver. The fact Tiger finished T23 with his D game speaks volumes. This "comeback" attempt seems different, in a good way. 4 rounds pain-free... Look out tour... Here comes Tiger.

It’s, admittedly, very optimistic but this is my takeaway as well.

His driving was atrocious all week, and today was no exception, and he still finished ok.  (Only 11/76 players scored better than him today.)

[Pretzel]

3 hours ago, Shindig said:

Did everyone else just hear the announcer use the phrase "night putting"?  That activity as it appears on T.V. isn't quite what I pictured when it was first described to me. 

It's definitely different from the "night putting" we did at the Newport Cup, where we were using the light from the rental car's headlights and the clubhouse's single light to see the green. 

That said, I think they adjust the images on TV to be a bit brighter than they actually would appear in person. I saw it best when they were showing handshakes on the final green and you could see the light from a video camera shining on a person in the foreground. If it really was as light as the TV picture seemed, the camera's light wouldn't have been that visible. You could also see a decrease in apparent resolution as the final playoff hole went on, which is an indication of darker and darker conditions.

[StefanUrkel]

J.B Holmes.  Was he thinking he had a better chance to hole out for eagle?   

[Golfingdad]

57 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

It's definitely different from the "night putting" we did at the Newport Cup, where we were using the light from the rental car's headlights and the clubhouse's single light to see the green. 

That said, I think they adjust the images on TV to be a bit brighter than they actually would appear in person. I saw it best when they were showing handshakes on the final green and you could see the light from a video camera shining on a person in the foreground. If it really was as light as the TV picture seemed, the camera's light wouldn't have been that visible. You could also see a decrease in apparent resolution as the final playoff hole went on, which is an indication of darker and darker conditions.

I agree ... however, based on what was outside my window, they were slightly exaggerating the darkness. ;)

[MacDutch]

T24 and he scored better than 131 out of 159 players who entered the tournament. I think that is very promising. I don’t call that middle of the pack, more like ‘just not good enough to contend’. I give Tiger an A for for his score and a C for his driving. 

Edited January 29, 2018 by MacDutch

[Pretzel]

1 hour ago, Golfingdad said:

I agree ... however, based on what was outside my window, they were slightly exaggerating the darkness. ;)

Yeah, it didn't look anywhere close to night to me. Dusk I would believe, but it definitely had plenty of room to get darker.

[Marty2019]

I thought Tiger did great.  It's amazing he finished as well as he did when he missed so many fairways.  

Based on this tournament, I'm predicting he will win a couple of tournaments this year, and maybe a major.   He has a couple of weeks to go home and straighten out his driver.   If he can do that, he can win any tournament. 

[Marty2019]

And I would just like to add- JB Holmes deserves punishment for what he did on the 18th hole.  If I was the God of Golf, I would give him a 2 shot penalty, $50,000 fine, and a suspension.   And then I would tell the rest of the players, this cannot ever happen again, or it will kill TV golf.   I can't believe there isn't more backlash about what he did.  What.  A.  Dick.  

[iacas]

5 hours ago, Pretzel said:

Yeah, it didn't look anywhere close to night to me. Dusk I would believe, but it definitely had plenty of room to get darker.

The sun had at least 1/2 set already, though. You could see the oranges and reds and whatnot in the sky. And it's just ocean in that direction, so it's not like it ducked behind a mountain range.

[Groucho Valentine]

It was probably darker there than it looked on TV. Maybe if Holmes didn't have a mid-life crisis in the middle of the fairway on 18 they would have gotten it in.. 

I think we've seen that type of performance from tiger before over the last 4-5 years, and it doesn't bode well for him going forward IMO. He's going to continue to struggle until he figures out how to hit a driver like a professional. Missing fairways if fine. Happens a lot even with good drivers of the ball. But many of tigers misses are so wild that they are effectively penalty strokes. You cant scramble your way to victory when your tee balls are 30-40 yards off line.. Tigers game might be good enough for top 20's right now, but not wins. 

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

I think we've seen that type of performance from tiger before over the last 4-5 years, and it doesn't bode well for him going forward IMO.

I think it bodes incredibly well. Without hitting a driver well at all, he finished T24 and +6 strokes gained for the week.

You don't think the GOAT can figure out how to hit a driver again?

[Groucho Valentine]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

I think it bodes incredibly well. Without hitting a driver well at all, he finished T24 and +6 strokes gained for the week.

You don't think the GOAT can figure out how to hit a driver again?

He scrambled incredibly. Great speed control on the greens. But i dont think he's going to get the driver sorted out, no. Its been years now since he's been anything close to predictable with that club. With the rest of his game looking tidy and still being so awful with that club isn't promising. He's off the map in both directions. 

[jbishop15]

4 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

He scrambled incredibly. Great speed control on the greens. But i dont think he's going to get the driver sorted out, no. Its been years now since he's been anything close to predictable with that club. With the rest of his game looking tidy and still being so awful with that club isn't promising. He's off the map in both directions. 

His misses were much better on Sunday than the day before. He had already improved some, even if the stats didn't reflect it. There were at least three, maybe four holes in which his driver kicked into the rough from the fairway or just barely missed it. So, he's already getting more predictable with the club. 

[chspeed]

4 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

He scrambled incredibly. Great speed control on the greens. But i don't think he's going to get the driver sorted out, no. Its been years now since he's been anything close to predictable with that club. With the rest of his game looking tidy and still being so awful with that club isn't promising. He's off the map in both directions. 

I agree that he'll never be very accurate with that club in competition, he never really was. But even in his best years, the fact is that his below average driving accuracy didn't hurt him much. His iron shots and scrambling ability were just that much better than everyone else. I wasn't surprised by the driving, but I was surprised that his chipping and scrambling were very strong, leading to very good results. For Tiger, I guess driving accuracy is not a good predictor of success.

 

[nevets88]

So he's got a "new" back, new-ish swing pattern, mountains of rust, we know this. And he's playing with new clubs, yes? Given all those factors, most people would give your typical pro some slack. most would just for new clubs alone. 

 

[Groucho Valentine]

5 minutes ago, jbishop15 said:

His misses were much better on Sunday than the day before. He had already improved some, even if the stats didn't reflect it. There were at least three, maybe four holes in which his driver kicked into the rough from the fairway or just barely missed it. So, he's already getting more predictable with the club. 

Those are pro misses. If he can squeeze it down to 10-15 yards off line, then he can play around that and contend again. He cant contend if he's hitting the driver on other holes. 

1 minute ago, chspeed said:

I agree that he'll never be very accurate with that club in competition, he never really was. But even in his best years, the fact is that his below average driving accuracy didn't hurt him much. His iron shots and scrambling ability were just that much better than everyone else. I wasn't surprised by the driving, but I was surprised that his chipping and scrambling were very strong, leading to very good results. For Tiger, I guess driving accuracy is not a good predictor of success.

 

No, he's never been a great driver of the ball, i agree. But where he's been over the last 5-6 years are crazy wild misses that we see from a professional maybe a fews times all week. Its 4-5 times a round with tiger. 

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

He scrambled incredibly. Great speed control on the greens. But i dont think he's going to get the driver sorted out, no. Its been years now since he's been anything close to predictable with that club. With the rest of his game looking tidy and still being so awful with that club isn't promising. He's off the map in both directions. 

It's been years since he's been relatively healthy, too. It's limited his practice time, it's limited how freely he can swing when he's playing, it's limited how much he can literally even walk for crying out loud.

I think the GOAT can figure out how to keep a driver in the same zip code.

[chspeed]

1 minute ago, Groucho Valentine said:

No, he's never been a great driver of the ball, i agree.

I didn't say that - I said he was never accurate. I think in his prime, he was very, very effective with the driver. Great? Well, that's relative.