Masters Thoughts: Tiger Was Tiger Once Again
Watching Tiger Woods play his final round of the 2008 Masters I have to admit that maybe I’m wrong. See, I continue to believe that Woods’ failure to win when trailing after 54 holes in a major (0-16 when trailing by six shots or less) is a fluke statistic. But Sunday, after watching him blow opportunity after opportunity to make the shots that would allow him to post a 68 and sit in the clubhouse and wait for those ahead of him to succumb to the pressure of bettering that score, I am now convinced that there is something missing in Tiger’s makeup.
There is something missing when an athlete must be leading from the start of a tournament to lead at the end. There is something missing when you are supposed to be the best golfer in the world and arguably the best of all time, yet you fail to come from behind each final 18 holes you play in the tournaments that matter most. There is something missing when you cannot look at the leader board on the morning of the final day, see a man who, statistically is one of the worst golfers on the PGA Tour, and say, all I have to do is post a score and this man will fold, then relax, go out and post that score.
As Immelman’s playing partner Brandt Snedeker came back to Earth with eight bogeys in his first 14 holes at Augusta, with Steve Flesch holding onto his game for dear life and finally letting go of the tether to freefall down the scoreboard, with Stewart Cink playing consistently poorly, Tiger Woods allowed Trevor Immelman of South Africa to simply go from tee to green relatively unencumbered by pressure.
Woods inexcusably missed a very short par putt at number four but birdied the par three sixth and went out in 36 that could easily have been -1. The world’s number one promptly bogeyed the 10th but began Amen Corner with a birdie. After a par on the 12th, on the par five 13th Woods hit a magnificent third shot iron to within six feet of the hole, but once again shot himself in the foot by simply pulling a straightforward birdie attempt. Angry, Woods bogeyed the 14th.
Instead of sitting pretty at 8-under headed to the par five 15th, Woods sat in fourth place, four strokes fewer under par. After failing to capitalize on yet another par five, Woods limped to the 72nd hole where he culled a bit of magic and finally drained a birdie putt to finish at 5-under par.
Yet even with that open road Immelman began to fade as the fourth round wore on. No sooner than did Woods birdie the final hole, Immelman double-bogeyed 16 to drop to -8. Woods had to be kicking himself in the scorer’s tent where he could easily have been staring at a scorecard that read -9 or -10. Instead he could only offer this tepid remark on his play:
“I didn’t putt well all week,” Woods said. “Some weeks are like that. You have bad weeks and you have good weeks, and certainly this week was not one of my best.”
This Masters was tailor-made for Woods’ first comeback in a major tournament when trailing after 54 holes. Though he certainly putted poorly the first three rounds he needed only one complete round of golf to win his 14th major; just one.
And this is where I see Tiger Woods’ greatest failing as a golfer. It doesn’t only happen in majors, either. I’ve seen it play itself out in many, many fourth rounds of Woods’ career, especially the 2002-2008 portion of his professional golfing life.
At no point during the final round of the Masters did Tiger Woods seem to take stock of his situation relative to the golfers ahead of him. At no point did he appear to look around and say, “Wait a minute, these guys ahead of me have won nothing. All I need to do is put a little pressure on these guys and they’ll all crack.” All Woods had to do was look around and realize that every golfer other than Immelman was cracking without his help. So, it stood to follow that maybe Immelman would succumb to the pressure of a final round in the lead at the Masters with a little nudge from Woods himself.
From the outset of the 4th round Woods looked to be set on patiently grinding his way through the final 18 holes instead of actively seeking the spectacular. But as the round progressed, the lines in Woods’ brow deepened. His frown grew more pronounced with each barely missed approach shot to the green. And after he missed that easy birdie putt at 13, Woods’ signature ‘I’m on the charge’ strut completely vanished from his gait.
Woods hit more three and four woods off the tee on the final day than he did in the previous three Masters rounds. His medium-to-long irons were a yard too long or a yard too short. That’s fine if you’re trying to establish a tempo and set a tenor for a tournament. However, it is not fine not when you need to make up five strokes on the final day of a major. That’s the time you need to pull out the big stick on a couple extra holes and rip a couple of bombs to leave yourself with wedges to the green.
But with Woods “grinding” there was a built-in excuse for his losing. A lack of aggressive tee-to-green play led to passive putting and ultimately led to an even par day. It’s good enough for the guy leading the tournament, but not good enough to come from behind; good enough for second, but not good enough for a green jacket. It’s also good enough for post-round platitudes but not good enough to start the majors portion of the season by putting the fear of god in your opponents’ hearts.
Sunday was a time when Tiger Woods needed to be more Phil Mickelson than final round grinder. But then again, if Woods did let it all hang out and still failed, his critics would be armed with that much more Monday ammunition.
Maybe Tiger Woods is afraid that a failed all-out effort to make up a final round deficit will ruin his mystique and there will be no more, “Tiger Woods Effect.” Maybe his competitors will figure out that they too are long off the tee, that they too are accurate with their irons, that they too possess myriad shots around the green, and that they too can roll the ball on the greens as cleanly as one Tiger Woods. And maybe Tiger Woods wouldn’t be “Tiger” any more; just another very, very good PGA Tour pro.
And maybe Tiger is afraid that he would, like most other humans, actually be forced to evolve and be forced to, mentally, do the one thing he has yet to do. Open his mind to…
Change.
I have a hard time watching golf on TV — just does not do anything for me — so I missed this stuff after trying to watch the first couple of rounds. I can just see the ammunition Tiger gives to douchebags like Skip Bayless if he plays final 18s like this, though, and it bugs me..
My wife and I were discussing this topic after today’s round. How does a guy, who but for all intensive purposes, has every tournament he enters won before anyone even tees off, continually fail when trailing on the last day. We have a few “theories”, but I will limit to just these 2 items:
1. He approaches his putting like basketball players treat free throws-Like ballers who tend to practice on 3-pointers more than the routine free throw (due to its crowd-pleasing reaction), Eldrick makes the spectacular putts with uncanny efficiency (Example “A” would be the 55 footer on 11), but continually gags on anything within 5 ft (unless its for par).
2. He “psychs” himself out-Can it be that Tiger, who has been often described as being mentally tougher than anyone in the history of the game, believes the hype? That just his mere presence in the final group(s) off the tee, will cause the other golfers to genuflect? Occasionally, the opponents do falter under the pressure, and Tiger has swooped in to snatch a victory. But what about days like today, when guys like Immelman (and for a brief moment, Snedeker), actually make shots? Tiger does begin to press, and I believe he becomes OVER-agressive. After making par on 12, why did he need to bomb the drive on 13, when he can reach the green in two with a well-placed 300-yd drive? He tried to hit it 340, and it went into the pine needles. He starts cursing, beating himself up. He ultimately recovers, and leaves himself with an uphill birdie putt, which he misses. His emotions now completely unbottled, he carries it over to 14, which ended up as bogey 5. Ballgame.
A word to the wise, Tiger: Stop taking your short game for granted, and quit listening to the press.
It would be interesting to see a statistic about how well other all-time greats like Hogan or Nicklaus did when playing from behind on the last day of majors.
I think one thing you have to keep in mind is that in most sports, when you play very well, that necessarily means the opponent did not play well, because you’re actually directly against an opponent, impacting their play and their moves. In golf, its you against the course. You could play the game of your life and get upstaged by some other person who just happened to be hotter/better/luckier on that particular day (or weekend). Maybe that’s not what happened today but I’d bet its helped in the past to keep Tiger’s 0-for-whatever streak going.
motown-
I know you “play against the course” but in the end, the course is not posting scores, you and your opponents are.
Tiger Woods is alleged to be the best player on tour today. If he plays the round of his life, no one will beat him because no one is hotter/better/luckier than is Woods, so that has no bearing on his 0-15 record when trailing by six shots or less in a major…
…sorry, 0-16. BTW, if anyone says he’s 0-something more is misinformed, this season he came back and won an event after being down at the 54-hole mark. I don’t know which tournament it was, but I waited for it to be mentioned the following day but that “news” was trumped by some other event and was never addressed.
Like you said, D, Tiger doesn’t seem to have the mind set to put the pressure on these guys in the final round. And missing those puts! I don’t get it.
You could see by the third hole Snedeker was going to have garbage day and Flesch is notoriously bad on the back 9, so Tiger was in prime position to chip away at Immelman’s lead and win the tournament.After his birdie on 11, I thought for sure he was going to make his push and likely get to at least 7 or 8 under and put the pressure on Immelman to maintain his lead, which I doubt Immelman would do.
Plus, this maybe would have shut Nance the F-up with his constant love fest for Immelman and Gary Player.
Dwil, I Think you’re being too hard on tiger. Sure he is 0 for whatever when trailing, but even with that deficency he is still the best golfer alive, by far. Just think, if he had that come from ability, there would be no point in having a tournment.
Let’s not forget it take a fair amount of mental fortitude to close out. He maybe fragile mentally when he is trailing, but as a front runner his mind is like a steel trap. No one else on the tour can make that claim.
Bosco-
Agreed…. I think the Nance stuff was the need to fill space and create a good feeling for the Masters winner, plus there was the irony of 30 years since Player won….
Imhotep-
It does take fortitude to close out and yes, no one can make that claim.
However, grinding is not working for Woods when he’s within shouting distance of a come-from-behind majors win. and because he does the same thing each time, I question his ability to change his tactics on Sunday. I think it’s fair to challenge his ability-want to alter his style on Sundays.
I’d love to see him get to the point where he can regularly come back from deficits; where he settles down and finds his putter instead of getting tighter and tighter as the round wears on….
Perhaps it speaks to a more general point of overcoming adversity. Because isn’t that one of the most compelling aspect of good sports stories? Coming from behind. Winning from the front just doesn’t seem as exciting as coming from behind. I think Dwil is onto something.
As always, a unique take in the context of the bigger picture of sports in society.
E
Well stated! I’ve been reading Dwil’s blog for a while now, and decided to jump into the fray (forgive me for the “drive-by” entry earlier), because Dwil’s angle on this was so on point! Is he only effective when out in front, and everyone’s chasing him? I want to be careful in my critizism, because I do think he is the best golfer on the tour (I’m not ready to put him in “all-time” status just yet). But I’m to the point now where I EXPECT him to miss the “gimme” putts! Like I said earlier, everybody basically concedes that he’s the best! Why can’t he just put these clowns away! DAMN!
Whew…that felt better. Thanks for lettin me vent, D!
RJ-
No problem. Thanks for stoppin’ in to comment.
Dwil,
I ran into this site and I have a feeling you haven’t followed golf for a long time. Tiger’s mindset is probably one of the best in sports history. Just b/c he hasn’t come from behind doesn’t mean he possesses a faulty makeup. He has created and performed some of the most dramatic and cut throat shots in golf history. Because he has not come from behind on Sunday to win a major doesn’t mean he has a huge liability in his mindset. I’ve been following and playing golf for 30 years, to me it seems like you’ve just jumped on the bandwagon and started watching when Tiger started playing. Golf is the ultimate mind game and to win as many tournies and majors he has, you obviously don’t know his extraordinary mental strength and concentration.
No offense, please don’t think I’m criticizing you, I am simply stating you don’t seem knowledgeable enough on the sport to critique the greatest that ever played it.
billy bean-
I’ve played golf since I was nine. I played team sports and individual sports but chose individual sports because winning and losing was on me - only. And when push came to shove I chose tennis over golf, so thanks for the presuming I don’t know what I’m talking about.
I used to go to Congressional C.C. in Bethesda, Md. with my father annually (the site now holds Woods’ “invitational”
and watch the PGA Tour event. It always baffled me to watch pros play beautiful practice rounds, hit the most incredibly delicate chips and pitches around the green, hit unfathomable trick shots for fans, and yet when the bright lights came on, their 66s turned into 74s on Thursday….
So, Mr. 30-year golfer, you tell me why Woods said the hosel of his putter was getting caught in the green during his putting stroke so that when he struck the ball it failed to rotate properly. Since Woods is known for his impeccable putting stroke because his ball rarely skitters toward the cup without rotation, tell me why this would suddenly begin to happen throughout the 4th round of a major?
I know the answer, do you?
I tend to agree, ever since Tiger came back from 6 with 7 to play at Peeble Beach (2000?); he hasn’t really been a come from behind player. I keep waiting for him to go petal to metal and go for every shot and post a 60 when needs to win. I would never have said this before but maybe he needs a a liitle Phil. Hopefully, this will be a lesson because for him finishing second in a major is just the same as missing the cut. Harsh but he set the bar that high.
He’s still the best ever. We expect him to be 100% every tourney. But he is human, after all. I noticed the difficulty he was having climbing out of bunkers. I said a number of times that he was moving around like an old man. But that was confusing to me because he is in such great shape.
Well, anyhow the mystery is solved. Let’s see how he does at the US Open in June. Winning all those tournaments since August 2007 with a bum knee has to be pretty impressive.
Marion