Entering Tiger's lair: doom
There is no doubt that playing in the final group with Tiger in a major has a negative effect on his competitors. As ESPN reports, everyone except Chris DiMarco and journeyman Bob May has hit worse than Tiger, usually by 3 strokes or so.
Frankly, knowing this information, Tiger's competitors should now attempt to NOT play in Tiger's group -- even if it means purposely bogeying the last hole in Round 3, just to get into the next to last group.
MASTERS
2005 Woods 71, DiMarco 68*
2002 Woods 66, Goosen 69
2001 Woods 68, Mickelson 70
1997 Woods 69, Rocca 75
U.S. OPEN
2002 Woods 72, Garcia 74
2000 Woods 67, Els 72
BRITISH OPEN
2006 Woods 67, Garcia 73
2005 Woods 70, Olazabal 74
2000 Woods 69, Duval 75
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
2006 Woods 68, Donald 74
2000 Woods 67, May 66*
1999 Woods 72, Weir 80
* -- Woods won in playoff
14 Comments:
There is a trend...
1) When the score is close, They blew it early in the final round and Tiger is ahead by 2,3 shots after 5,6 holes. Also, Tiger usually makes a birdie in #1.
2) When Tiger has a somewhat comfortable lead, he simply tries to mantain the distance. He usually makes key birdies and key par saves when it matters most. So, his opponent needs a carreer round to have a chance.
Note also that when Tiger lost the 4th round battle, he still managed to sneak into a playoff.
Confirming the 'close game' trend, a birdie in the first playoff hole made the difference both times.
There is no disputing Tiger's greatness. He is probably the greatest front runner of all time in golf, maybe in all of sports. But what's missing from his impressive resume is a come-from-behind win in a major. Unlike Nicklaus, Tiger has never won a major when trailing after 3 rounds. Certainly, he's come close before...the '98 Open Championship, the '99 US Open, and the '01 PGA are 3 examples of his close calls.
But whereas, Nicklaus is known for his Sunday charges, the most famous being the back 9 on Sunday in the '86 Maasters, Tiger doesn't have a Sunday charge to his credit. His charges all come on Saturday (or earlier), and then he just doesn't lose his lead on Sunday. I'm not bringing this up to take away from Tiger, but I don't think it's necessarily fair to label him the greatest golfer of all time unless and until he can demonstrate that he can come from behind to win a major on Sunday. If he surpasses Nicklaus' total, which I have to admit that I believe he eventually will, it really doesn't matter. But unless Tiger can add a famous charge to his resume, the lack of a come-from-behind win will always be there.
I for one would like to see him have such a back 9 charge sometime (or anyone else for that matter) because it makes the tournament all the more exciting. It does get kind of boring when he takes the field out of it after 5 holes into the final round (or even earlier as he did at Royal Liverpool). I just want to see some competition in the final round of the majors.
Oh well, at least the Ryder Cup will provide some drama and excitement that the final 2 majors this year have lacked (even if the outcome of the matches doesn't turn out the way that the Americans hope...see my previous comments. The US team is in for a thrashing at The K Club)
I agree that it would be great to see Tiger win a major coming from behind. But at the same time, I think we shouldn't let the abence of any comeback obscure the fact that Tiger gets a large part of the job done on days 1-3. See, for example, at Hoylake where - if I recall correctly - he birdied the last hole to make sure that he was the leader going into the last day. He just doesn't let up...
As for Tiger-comebacks, how about the fact that he almost missed the cut at the '05 PGA but then ended up finishing two back. That was a pretty incredible performance in my books. He may not have got the job done on that occasion, but he sure made a great attempt...
Also keep in mind the circus that follows Tiger around the course is crazy and distracting. I saw Tiger out here in San Francisco at the WGC last year and I was shocked at the crowd's general lack of proper respect for the other players. It's hard to play with him because when he isn't hitting you have thousands of people shuffling and running around to get in position for his next shot.
Although I suppose this extends beyond his own group. I remember they posted on the leaderboard at the 18th a birdie Tiger made on 16 and the crowds ROARED right in the middle of Stuart Appleby's swing.
Of course he deals with tons of cameras, so I guess it extends all around. But at least Tiger has the luxury of having experienced it many times before.
12 majors by age 30, and people complain about HOW he has won. Yeesh.
Tiger once won (yes, in a non-major) from 7 shots down with 7 to play at Pebble in 2000, for his sixth straight win.
He made 7 straight birdies in the Sat/Sun third round of the 2005 Masters to get into the final group.
As for the original post, I wonder how the pair in front of Tiger's last group at a major has done.
You may want to consider the many tournaments tiger has won in past two years (non major) where tiger was perhaps leading at the beginning of the day, lost the lead, maybe even got two strokes down, and still, regardless of the 10+ others who were within winning distance, tiger figured out a way to be the one to win.... Jack nicklaus can suck tiger's balls.....today there are many more golfers in the world....fields are chosen from all across the world.... and jack nicklaus didnt even look cool....he needs to stop glorifying himself.....his era has come to an end
you guys need to quit comparing tiger to someone who played 30 years ago....the only logical players to compare tiger to are the best players in the world today... tiger is way better than ALL OF THEM, with no young guns to speak of who may come up and stop him... tiger has won tournaments by 15 shots.. and believe me that was not a result of a 4th round meltdown... -12 and the next best was +3.....dont you think that is a little odd? think that doesnt say something about some crazy innate talent inside of this guy that no1 else has? tiger is the best...and the only reason he hasnt kicked everyone's ass every year is because he changed his swing, on purpose, in order to come back and kick more ass...
Can I stump a bit for how mentally tough DiMarco is? Not only is he one of two guys to "survive" being paired with Tiger, but in this year's open he was the only one to close. Too bad he was too far off to begin with.
This is from a guy who routinely hits it 40-60 yards less than Tiger, and has a putting style so unorthodox, I'm sure Dave Pelz can't look at it without crying. Still, he continues to put himself into contention.
The stats keep coming...
Just realized that tiger has shot 15 straight round under par...
14 of them in the 60s. That's always been Tiger's hallmarks- he doesn't win by posting a 62 and 3 71s. He wins by shooting 68-67-69-66. Consistent excellence- a true sign of mastery.
He wins-he shows how to win!
He shows how golf can be played.
I sure wish I could play boring golf.
Love that comment. Yeah, boring golf would be good.
In winning this week by five strokes, Woods has completed a new Grand Slam of sorts -- winning all four majors by five shots or more. He won the Masters by 12 in 1997, the U.S. Open by 15 in 2000 and the British Open by 8 in 2000.
It seems like nobody makes a move on Woods when he is co-leading or leading a major after three rounds. Now let's take it a step further and look at how all the players who were within five strokes of him after three rounds performed in the final round of his 12 major victories. This covers a total of 69 players, and only nine have shot a final round in the 60s (the lowest being Bob May's 66 in 2000 PGA), six have shot 70 and 41 shot 72 and over. The scoring average for the 69 players is 72.51 -- 3.26 worse than that of Woods.
Wow! You are indeed the Statmeister!
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