Cracker24

Wellington, New Zealand. Heartbroken, genuinely thought I'd won the furthest shipped book. Unless if you're gonna claim Nelson or something in which case I'll propose a tie for first :)

Anyone see Phil's presser from today? He raised something pretty interesting at around the 8:30 minute mark, saying that in the last 6 or 7 years since they've lengthened the course, that he's not had a single shot between 90 and 130 yards. Hence why he has two free clubs as he can take gap wedge and sand wedge out of the bag. I'm not sure if he's exaggerating slightly, I'd think for sure that over that period of time he's chipped out or layer up to that yardage at some stage, but regardless it's pretty fascinating. I wonder if other player's have noticed a similar thing? Pretty ballsy move to flat out get rid of those two clubs, he did say he might end up keeping one of the two just because he doesn't feel the need to add another club. Would be pretty funny to see him trying to bash a lob wedge 120 coming down the stretch on Sunday after misjudging a lay up or chip out. Here's the link: http://www.masters.com/en_US/videos/interviews.html

Regardless of how he recovers and how his body handles the rest of the season, I think this surgery could/should be a major turning point for Tiger in terms of the events he chooses to play in. He already has a pretty light schedule, but I definitely wouldn't blame him if he went to more of a Steve Stricker type schedule, where he pretty much only plays in the majors. Add on to this maybe one gear up event before The Masters for a little taste of competitive golf, his own event at Congressional (I'm guessing he's obligated to play in this if healthy?) and either the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup if selected. I'm guessing he wants to surpass Snead's record before going to something like this, but if he wants to keep playing for another 10 or so years, I can't see how he does it while still working the schedule he has now. As much as Tiger loves golf, I don't think he's the kind of person who could handle spending his last thirty-odd years in a wheelchair.

The players can't win, can they? They're stuck between giving their honest opinion on something, whether it be on course conditions, a ruling etc, and being called an ungrateful ******* by fans and the media. Or they can give the same 'correct' answers all the time, doing their best to never step on anyone's toes and to not give anybody a reason to hate them. After which they'll be labelled as boring and predictable with no real personality. I think it would be best for the game and us as fans to let these guys have the freedom to give their honest opinions on golf-related issues as, for the most part, they're extremely knowledgable and they all have the ability and experience in golf to offer something more grounded in truth than any of us.

Stenson's on fire huh? Let's wait and see how the driver's going first. Not really an issue for these guys with the equipment manufacturers they have at their disposal. But it certainly seems he isn't in love with the big stick at the moment. As for the winner, hard to look past Tiger, however recent history from the Tour Championship suggests that someone from the middle of the pack is going to pop up and steal it from the guys who have been up there all season. Will be interesting regardless.

10/10 rebuttal.

You went for Adam Scott, right? And from the tone of your posts you seem to have this idea that Tiger Woods is a pretty average ball striker from tour standards, "can't hit driver etc". Check this out. Tiger and Adam, exact same greens in regulation stats. Same number of holes, same percentage. http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.103.html Tiger thumps him in proximity to the hole though, a full 105 spots better. http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.331.html Don't take offence, this is all about personal preference and what you like to see in a swing. But to say Tiger 'doesn't win with his swing', when his ball striking stats are better than the player you suggested has 'perfect planes, powerful...' suggests some serious bias is going on.

The fact that you all but write Tiger off for next week, and then say that the course is well-suited to a player like Adam Scott is a huge contradiction. They have very similar games. Both are in the top 20 for total driving for this season, with Tiger the slightly more accurate of the two. I'm not saying that the course is perfectly suited to Tiger but I think one of the keys to his game and the reason he's number 1 in the world is that he can win and compete on all sorts of different courses. On top of this, from what I've heard, Oak Hill sounds like a slightly more extreme, more difficult version of Firestone, how's Tiger doing there?

Right, that feeling of the hands being light is one I use from time to time when I'm struggling and feeling like everything's a little rushed on the downswing. It would make sense as it would allow the hips a little extra time to get forward. I'll definitely give it a go and I look forward to seeing the difference that it makes with lag and the slight flip I get at impact; I hit it solid with a divot after the ball but on off days especially I could definitely use a little more lag. Thanks heaps for the help, really appreciate it.

Thanks. That's not the current feel that I use in transition, at the moment I'm thinking about getting my right elbow in front of my body. However when I used to struggle with getting my weight forward in the downswing I did use that left knee shifting swing thought for a little bit. It never really felt right for me though, and I preferred thinking about "crushing the can" beneath my left foot instead.

I've been Playing Golf for: About 4 years My current handicap index or average score is: 5.2 My typical ball flight is: A Mid-Draw I'm fairly happy with the work I've put into my swing over the last year or so, it has come a fair way since about this time last year when I was pulling it way inside on the backswing and getting well across-the-line at the top. The main issues I see are from the front on angle, my head is bouncing around a bit, my hip movement looks a little awkward and I'd like to have my hands a touch more forward at impact. Driver - This was a slightly towards the toe push-draw 7 Iron Front On - Solid Push Draw 7 Iron DTL - Sorry for the shaky camera - was a little windy. High-ish push with a little draw I believe.

Here's the 'scripting' for the week for the extremely bored out there. For some reason these always get me kinda hyped. I like Tiger's Thursday and Saturday shirts, and Rory's Friday and Sunday one's. I reckon if nothing else Nike do incredibly well at giving their players that sharp and clean look.

That's true, but I think it's mainly because of the courses that major championships are held on and, especially, the way they're set up. With the hard and fast conditions there really is no need to hit driver, and given that major's are often about making pars and grinding, avoiding the big number is probably number 1 for these guys. You just need to look at the guys in contention down the stretch at the British, hardly any of them used driver at all during the week. I think Tiger would probably prefer the course dried out and he didn't have to use driver as much, but it's the same for everyone and I'd say it's far from sufficient reason to rule Tiger out of the tournament. His driving in the first round today proved as much. 5/8 I believe.

So 18th in Total Driving out of 191 players on the PGA Tour isn't sufficient to even give him a 'shot'? http://www.pgatour.com/stats/stat.129.html

You're right. Fairly sure that is his approach shot on 18 in the playoff of the 2005 Masters. Surprised the person went to the effort to do all of that and made that simple mistake. Still pretty cool, though.

On top of this, McIlroy is gonna lose the points he won for his 2011 US Open win soon. While because Tiger gained pretty much no points in 2011, nothing's stopping him from stretching his lead further.

Try this. http://thesandtrap.com/t/53952/divots

Read his sentence again. "As the officials saw it during play..." The officials made a mistake and it was only upon later review after Tiger's interview that it was deemed that a two shot penalty was appropriate.

Oh, yes of course. What I meant was that no outside authority (e.g. PGA Tour, R & A etc) can come in and say that Tiger must be DQ'ed. Ultimately it's Augusta's tournament, they have the final say. Sorry if I failed to make that clear, it's been a long day!

Yeah, the decision is entirely at the discretion of the Augusta National officials.

It's his only chance I guess, unless Augusta decide to ignore it altogether of course. I'm sure if Tiger said this there would be widespread outrage from the golfing community, but in the end if Tiger says that he genuinely thought the ball came back on that line then nobody can dispute him. A calculated risk to the TW brand though, just when it's beginning to picking itself up again. I think what actually happened was Tiger, in the heat of the moment, forgot that it was where the ball last entered the hazard, and instead took a drop in line with where the ball initially crossed the hazard line. Hence why he moved the slightest bit to the left, as he's said that he hit the shot with a tiny cut.

This sucks. Hugely. Did he break the rule? - Yes Technically, should he be DQ'ed? - Yes Is it fair (not that this matters, obviously)? - No Will he get DQ'ed? - I'm calling 50/50, either way it sucks for Tiger. Even if he is allowed to carry on, if he wins there will always be an asterisk next to his name, and regardless of the result this will only add to all the ridiculous and unnecessary Tiger hate out there (people claiming he gets "special treatment" etc.).

I bet that is the last thing on Tiger's mind, and rightly so. He had a moment of stupidity in the intensity of it all, not to mention he would still be pissed off after the last shot. Technically, as Eric said, by a strict interpretation of the rules he should get DQ'ed, and if so, it really will be extremely unlucky on his part. If he does get DQ'ed it will say a lot more about some of the vagueness and stupidity in the rules of golf, than Tiger's honesty and integrity. I find it hard to believe that anybody would DQ themselves after an incident like this, I'm sure, like anybody else in the same situation, Tiger will wait it out tonight and tomorrow morning to see what Augusta decide to do.

Eric, given that it seems you're the only person who noticed this and then made other people aware. I'll remind you now that you could be about to become one of the most disliked men in golf if Tiger gets DQ'ed.

I beg to differ. I think the Masters will be more interesting if Tiger doesn't fix his driving. At least then it'll be close.