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Read that it only took Tiger 5 hrs and 20 mins to play yesterday, feel bad for Day and DJ, who were waiting a few times in the fairway while Tiger took relief and they searched for his ball in the rough
Tiger ! Tiger ! Tiger !
Tiger's swing screams " My back is not ready for this ". Those who have had bad backs know
that swing well. He is going to have to make adjustments to continue playing at Tour level....
To be honest, Jason Day hasn't looked that much better thus far. +1 through 8 on the day, +2 overall.
I wonder how much of a role he played in the 5-hour and 15 minute pace yesterday... every shot he faced (that I watched) he backed off of at least once.
Woody needs to play the next 8 holes in 4-under to make what appears to be the number to eke into the weekend at Torrey. Not feeling it.
C'mon, get off his ass fellas. He's beating Rick Lamb, fer chrissakes.
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Watched a few holes yesterday. Lois like off the tee he's setting for a fade and either hitting a push-block or double crosses and hits a pull hook.
Seems like he was tired later in the round when he was hitting and scoring bad.
Just needs to get in game shape is all.
Didn't watch anything today yet
Numerous times it looked like Tiger was setting up for a fade, but then trying to turn the ball over from an open setup. Maybe I was seeing things, dunno... misses were predominantly right.
Today was a bit more manageable, but he's definitely going to need several tournaments to get some things figured out.
All I know is that outside of maybe 2-3 guys, there weren't many realistic birdie putts being shown on tv. The greens looked very bumpy, even the short ones required all of their attention, and even then a few short ones missed. Rough looked rather healthy, course didn't look like it was in too good of shape. Fairways looked pretty gnarly for a tour venue, but the wet weather the past few weeks was something beyond their control.
Neither course was easy by the looks of things.
never seen so many pros miss short putts....
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Now, not many people gave him a chance to even make the cut, and he didn't. Then, everyone is ready to say he is basically in over his head trying to play with these guys, or has a lot of problems, or will never be good again. A lot of top names also missed the cut with him, and they have been playing well(exception is Jason Day, who's been off, also with injury) recently. Even last week's winner. I'd say he's in top company & still fits in, keeping up with the best of them.
But migawd, I'm so glad I was not a spectator along the left side fairways!! This man reeked!!
It could be that or not. He missed the cut , 12 strokes back after 36 holes.
He finished 15/17 in his last event, The Hero. Admittedly he says he prepared well and practiced hard for both feeling that he could win. There is a large disconnect somewhere. He said that while he prepared well for this week, he didn't prepare in cool, damp weather which was the difference .
No doubt he will probably find some consistency and make some cuts going forward, but Its pretty obvious that a miracle is going to have to happen for him to pull off a win on the PGA. Hey, miracles can happen, I'd say 86 at Augusta was just that, but they are incredibly rare. I'm guessing his best chance to win will be overseas in a less star studded field. Perhaps something in the Asian tour? Maybe that triggers a switch and leads to more, but he looks more like a stiff old man who should be playing on the Senior tour versus the PGA. jmho
His swing looked much more athletic and his timing looked much better at the Hero, no two ways about it. How much the cool, damp weather hindered things is anyone's guess really.
Ultimately I think it came down to the conditions being tougher than what he was anticipating... conditions were cool, ball wasn't flying, most shots it seemed were being played into a heavy, damp breeze. That's gonna force guys to lean on it off the tee a bit more to make up some of the difference, especially considering they were getting very little rollout in the fairways. Incredibly thick rough made a lot of those shots on those longer holes almost impossible to pull off.
What concerns me more than anything is that for two tournaments in a row, he's had a 4-5 hole stretch where he gets it going sideways and pretty much slams the window on his fingers. Part of that is rust, sure. But part of it might also be him finding it incredibly difficult to accept that he just doesn't have the ability to hit those difficult shots like he used to.
Playing from the cabbage all day today and still shooting level par was remarkable, all things considered.
Glad I didn't waste my time watching/DVRing it.
He played better than a lot of us thought he would, even with missing the .cut
. Still lots of ifs to answer of course but got ball rolling so to speak. G Bear thinks he still has talent too. Really tough Course, rusty, new clubs, self doubts? How far will he come back? I'd think regaining the once driving hunger for it would be even harder than overcoming his aging /injuries. It's almost like watching Shakespearian tradgedy unfold its plot, the star athlete nearing end of his storied career struggling to reurn to past greatness. No wonder people are drawn to it. Just look at all the posts right here. I watched Rocky III ,too.
Provisional He needs cheer leading, let's have Stevie on the bag.......
After the round he said he was disappointed he didn't win. What?????????????????
Win, he didn't even sniff the cut line. The guy is in denial.
He still hits good iron shots when he's not in the deep rough. And his short game isn't tragic like it was not too long ago. So he might have a fighter's chance at courses with no rough and that he knows well.
Five minute max time looking for a ball so they could have played in 5 hours and 20 minutes, that damn Tiger!!
Release the caddy , another disconnect he faces from his success in the past . So many issues , while time marches on, and new youthful talent is abundant
Tiger is now facing the kids that grew up watching him knock the snot out of the ball compared to the guys he used to play. Now he's on the other side of the coin. He used to have a 30-40 yard advantage on his opponents when he first came out. No longer.
True. And Tiger does seem somewhat obsessed, if not outright distracted, with his swing/ball speed, as evidenced by his interview earlier in the week last week when he mentioned he was pleased with the speed of his swing coming along, back to more of a "normal level" (whatever that is).... as if that alone is going to channel his old form and make everything like it used to be.
There are a lot of guys on tour (Furyk, Zach Johnson, etc.) who've figured out how to be highly competitive with average at-best length off the tee, even in their older years (Johnson is 40, Furyk is 46). Of course, they've never relied on power to be successful, but rather excellent iron play and putting.
The only chance Tiger has with making it back to a competitive level is coming to terms with the realization that he can't physically achieve the same level of swing speed he used to, not without compromising first and foremost his back problem, and obviously his accuracy. It won't be an easy transition for him for ego reasons... not to mention that he's always swung 100+ percent off the tee, which will take a lot of disciplined repetitions to engrain a slower timing sequence into the ball.
Above and beyond all of the swing changes he's made over the years, slowing down his swing speed and aggression level at impact will be most difficult, because suddenly he's dealing with a different swing rhythm and timing sequence that he hasn't been familiar with over all the years he's played. It won't be an easy transition, but it doesn't make it any less important to achieve if he truly desires to prevent injury and find a softer swing that he can control to a much larger degree, even if it requires adding another club or possibly two to achieve the desired distance.
Otherwise he's looking at a quick return followed by another quick hiatus, and perhaps the final hiatus.
He just doesn't seem to have the discipline to change that, again as evidenced by his obsession with this swing/ball speed numbers. And if that doesn't change, what little success he might return to will be short-lived. If two major surgeries on his back aren't enough to change his swing philosophy, then nothing will.