2018 Valspar Golf Championship in Tampa, FL

[iacas]

3 minutes ago, phillyk said:

I haven't read through everything so hopefully this isn't repeated, but did anyone else think Tiger played too safe in round 4?  It seemed like his 3 wood and driver were working just fine the previous days but he kept using long iron stingers.  Why not get aggressive, at least on 18 to try and give yourself more mid/short irons and try to get the ball closer to the hole on approach shots?  Idk, I'm just making excuses for the guy, but it just seemed unlike him.  Anyhow the whole tournament was fun to watch.

No. He used the same gameplan he used the rest of the week, and hit the same clubs as almost everyone else off most of the tees. The only one I'd question slightly is the 72nd hole. At least hit a 3W there, I'd think.

[onthehunt526]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

No. He used the same gameplan he used the rest of the week, and hit the same clubs as almost everyone else off most of the tees. The only one I'd question slightly is the 72nd hole. At least hit a 3W there, I'd think.

Especially when you need birdie to tie. Honestly if I needed a birdie to tie. I would've hit some sort of controlled driver (if I had Tiger's length, that is). So I had a shot with an 8 or 9 iron to give myself a more legit birdie look to tie.

[iacas]

1 minute ago, onthehunt526 said:

Especially when you need birdie to tie. Honestly if I needed a birdie to tie. I would've hit some sort of controlled driver (if I had Tiger's length, that is). So I had a shot with an 8 or 9 iron to give myself a more legit birdie look to tie.

I don't know if you need a driver. He had 185 with a 2-iron. 3W could have gotten him to 155 and an 8I or 9I, maybe.

Still a long enough club that you can cut one into that back corner, too.

But also, look at the position of the bunkers and where he hit the 2I:

Gets kinda tight up there, with bunkers.

[sheepdog]

Definitely not a Tiger lover but I'll hand it to him, he impressed me doing what he's done after all he's been through. Great round by Paul Casey.

[onthehunt526]

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't know if you need a driver. He had 185 with a 2-iron. 3W could have gotten him to 155 and an 8I or 9I, maybe.

Still a long enough club that you can cut one into that back corner, too.

But also, look at the position of the bunkers and where he hit the 2I:

Gets kinda tight up there, with bunkers.

Yeah 3-wood probably would have been the play. At least I'm thinking LSW.

[iacas]

36 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't know if you need a driver. He had 185 with a 2-iron. 3W could have gotten him to 155 and an 8I or 9I, maybe.

Still a long enough club that you can cut one into that back corner, too.

But also, look at the position of the bunkers and where he hit the 2I:

Gets kinda tight up there, with bunkers.

BTW he hit 7I from 184.

[nevets88]

The OWGR. That's important because he needs it to play WGC events, which he tends to do well in right? Most tournaments would love to have him regardless of ranking but some don't have special invites?

[DeadMan]

I really question why Tiger hit an iron off the tee on 18 today. He was so far back and he was going to have to hit an amazing shot to get a reasonable chance at birdie. I get not hitting driver because of how tight the hole was and where that pin was - you might have a better chance not to spin off that ridge with an iron instead of a wedge. But if you need a birdie, it's going to be hard to make one when your second shot is 185 and uphill.

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

I really question why Tiger hit an iron off the tee on 18 today. He was so far back and he was going to have to hit an amazing shot to get a reasonable chance at birdie. I get not hitting driver because of how tight the hole was and where that pin was - you might have a better chance not to spin off that ridge with an iron instead of a wedge. But if you need a birdie, it's going to be hard to make one when your second shot is 185 and uphill.

He said even 3W would go into the pinched area and he hit a 7I into 18. Just hit it too far left.

I still think 3W was maybe the play.

Par was irrelevant.

[DeadMan]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

He said even 3W would go into the pinched area and he hit a 7I into 18. Just hit it too far left.

I still think 3W was maybe the play.

All in all, it's a pretty minor footnote for Tiger today. Get some putts to drop elsewhere, and he doesn't have to make birdie on 18 to get into a playoff. -.947 strokes gained putting today... that's your margin right there (basically).

[jbishop15]

I don't know that I disagree with the two iron. He knew he could hit that in the fairway, and 185 with a 7 iron isn't that hard of a shot. If he puts it in the rough, even if he is twenty yards further up, he's going to to have a harder time controlling the spin. At that point, you might as well just bash a driver, because if you're gonna risk hitting out of the rough, might as well do it with a wedge. 

But regardless: it's a small thing. Putter went cold at a bad time. I'll hold that 5 iron on Thursday and that 44 foot putt on Sunday in my mind for a long, long time. 

[rehmwa]

I'm overseas and missed all of this, though I recorded the Sunday round when I saw the final pairings.....

Congrats to Paul Casey - only 81 more PGA wins and he passes Sam Snead.  (It's good to see him win).

Tiger is for 'real' - and way ahead of where I thought he'd be.

[Zeph]

6 hours ago, DeadMan said:

All in all, it's a pretty minor footnote for Tiger today. Get some putts to drop elsewhere, and he doesn't have to make birdie on 18 to get into a playoff. -.947 strokes gained putting today... that's your margin right there (basically).

The strokes lost putting was primarily because his irons weren't as sharp and he had long putts. The other days he was 1.3-1.5 SG approach, last day he was 0.6. He hit 14 greens on Sunday and had almost 2 putts per GIR.

He definitely had a few good looks on Sunday too and didn't putt as well as Saturday, but many of the birdie putts came from 20-50 feet. 

[NEhomer]

If Tiger had stuck the 18th pin and birdied, we'd be saying what a wise move it was to go with iron off the tee.

There is no greater hindsight than in golf!

 

 

[RussUK]

Got to say not a bad 4 days work for Tiger. I bet he's pretty chuffed with that result. He must be odds on for a win now and maybe sooner than many of us think?

As a Brit its great to see Casey winning again. But can i please ask a favour? Can no-one suggest he may have a chance at the Masters? Opposite generally happens so feel free to say he's going to play crap and miss the cut or such like

[woodzie264]

[Ty_Webb]

For everyone who always whines about how much the coverage covers Tiger to the point of not showing anyone else, I point you to the crowds following Tiger yesterday compared with the "crowds" following the final group. I think Justin Rose (one of the hottest players in the game right now) maybe had four people watching him and they were Corey Conners' family. 

Slightly disappointing final round from Tiger, just because he didn't win. I didn't think he hit it close enough to the hole. He had a couple of chances that he gave away (the par fives on the back nine) and didn't make enough putts, but what a positive week! I thought I was going to be off by a week for a little bit. Does anyone seriously think that Tiger is not one of the best ten players in the world right now? His OWGR is way behind, but that's a function of the system not his golf right now. If he keeps advancing at the pace he has been for the past few weeks, early April is going to be VERY interesting indeed!

T2 on a course that he hasn't played in over 20 years, right in the thick of it and held it together. This is very positive. 

[Braivo]

2 hours ago, NEhomer said:

If Tiger had stuck the 18th pin and birdied, we'd be saying what a wise move it was to go with iron off the tee.

There is no greater hindsight than in golf!

 

 

Reading his body language, he looked exhausted. His first time in contention in years and only the third time all year he has played four straight days in competition. I think he was wiped out. Even his reaction to the putt on 17 was muted by fatigue imo. 

I think he took that iron on 18 because he was tired and susceptible to a really bad swing with a driver / 3w. 

I expect to see him get his stamina back over time and the final round will look much different. 

Even my non-golf friends were talking about TW this week, he really is a magnet of attention.