Tiger's opening tee shot

[micha]

I agree with all the rain Torrey South is in US Open condition except for the softness. Tough place to knock the rust off

[TheGeekGolfer]

Just catching some of the golf, there is something really strange about Tiger's follow through when he hits driver.

From my observations, it looks like his body is ahead of the ball. So he either blocks it way right or tries to rescue it and hooks it left. It's hard to tell from TV, since most camera angles are from behind the player.

[3chavgolf]

Maybe he should have started at a less demanding setup. 7700 yds, wet, thick rough, not an easy opening round. Oh, and those man eating poa greens, the horror, the horror.

 

What do you think the average WRXer would shoot?

[starsail85]

Very disappointing to watch tiger play today , long game was completely useless. I thought he hit the ball so well at hero and his drives were all committed swings

 

Today was atrocious , aiming miles left for whatever reason no solid shots

 

He really looks a mental wreck out there scared to hit the

Ball

[Conrad1953]

Maybe he should have started at a less demanding setup. 7700 yds, wet, thick rough, not an easy opening round. Oh, and those man eating poa greens, the horror, the horror.

 

Never mind that he's won there 800 times.

[notsohard]

I agree with all the rain Torrey South is in US Open condition except for the softness. Tough place to knock the rust off

 

What better place to get the rust off, from there it's cruise mode.

[Macklessdaddy]

As bad as he drove the ball what does it say about Jason Day and DJ when they beat him by 3 and 4 strokes

[baudi]

Pretty unsure about Chamblee's notes on Tiger's swing. His main point was that he would keep eye on his swing speed which is 114 today vs 120 4 years ago.

Chamblee claims that physical and technical issues lead to lower swing speed. In the end Shamblee comes with techno babble of a stock shot and planes which was not pointed out Maybe he is right but it stayed unclear. Cook had a better holistic opinion: Tiger was not swinging it freely.

 

It is not about speed imho. After lots of physical issues 114mph should be enough if Tiger is able to control the clubface. Yesterday there was none for the full shots.

What struck me most is Tigers spine angle: he couldn't hold it right after impact. Right shoulder comes out of the shot too early. Probably to relieve the back.

Tigers legs look like a reaction to the force then a start from the force. Physically it was a bit of a struggle to watch too.

For sure here are many out here who will disagree. And even more who have a solution how to do it better.

 

What I hope for is that Tiger's game will improve by stats of securing many more fairways off the tee (forget about Shamblee: less ss and being short is perfect) and prove his shotmaking ability into the green (forget about a stock shot). In other words become an artist that might not bring more trophies but it will savor Tiger's play and career.

[CallTaylor]

Maybe he should have started at a less demanding setup. 7700 yds, wet, thick rough, not an easy opening round. Oh, and those man eating poa greens, the horror, the horror.

 

What do you think the average WRXer would shoot?

Man if I could break 100 with those conditions I'd be exstatic. Just keepin it real. Ha

[KYMAR]

As bad as he drove the ball what does it say about Jason Day and DJ when they beat him by 3 and 4 strokes

 

It says that they are on pace to beat him by 12 and 16 respectively over 4 days. If he makes the weekend.

[PowderedToastMan]

Maybe he should have started at a less demanding setup. 7700 yds, wet, thick rough, not an easy opening round. Oh, and those man eating poa greens, the horror, the horror.

 

What do you think the average WRXer would shoot?

A long hitting 4 handicap would win the tournament.

[Lodestone]

Maybe he should have started at a less demanding setup. 7700 yds, wet, thick rough, not an easy opening round. Oh, and those man eating poa greens, the horror, the horror.

 

I'm thinking that the fact that he's won there many times, as well as having played the course many times before he became a pro factored in. It's a tough course, but most years not as soaked as it is now.

I agree with Toski, who said right now it's about seeing if his body can hold up to walking the course, and swinging under tournament conditions. Also Faldo, who brought up the difference between walking and hitting a shot every 5 or 10 minutes, versus being on the range and hitting a ball every 15 seconds. He looked about like I expected a 41 year old, coming off of several back surgeries, who hadn't played a PGA event if 500+ days would look. Shaky.

 

But it's all about how his body feels after what likely will be a 2 day event for him. Might be better in the long run if he misses this cut. Baby steps.

[Justin08]

Rust and all Woods swing today especially with the driver looks very bad something is going on either physical or mental or both. The funny thing is Taylormade was promoting Woods with the M2 Driver commercial ad every commercial break, they should be pulling that ad the way he was spraying that UZI yesterday

[playa]

Is he showimg the tiniest hint of an early middle aged paunch?

[cmrl1986]

Looks like he's stuck on the downswing and pulling up and out of every shot. Torrey isnt a place where you can miss fairways and expect to score, especially in those conditions. He's going to have to find a way to hit fairways to give himself any chance of making the weekend.

[TheInfidel]

Back to lining up left and trying to swing right when playing vs what has been seen when he's just hitting balls.

 

Nailed it. Even Faldo started commenting on this, Faldo, my god.

[North Butte]

Looks like he's stuck on the downswing and pulling up and out of every shot. Torrey isnt a place where you can miss fairways and expect to score, especially in those conditions. He's going to have to find a way to hit fairways to give himself any chance of making the weekend.

 

It always looked to me like Tiger was stuck on the downswing and pulling up and out of driver shots when he was winning majors. Maybe when he was young his body was able to violently compensate as needed.

 

I'm no swing expert (understatement) but his swing today reminds me a lot of the swing he's had for years. Same tendencies just less physically able to make it work.

[PowderedToastMan]

It's obvious to me that he's been working on his swing without much input from a coach. I can't imagine a coach would encourage Tiger to aim way left and stand like 3 inches away from the ball. It's amazing to me how different his iron swing looks from a month ago at the Hero. I'd say he's stuck in the cycle of experimentation right now.

 

Edit: Hank, if you're reading this, I'm pleading with you to swallow your pride, apologize to Tiger, be his friend again, and help him with his swing. Watching him hit irons yesterday was depressing.

[North Butte]

It's obvious to me that he's been working on his swing without much input from a coach. I can't imagine a coach would encourage Tiger to aim way left and stand like 3 inches away from the ball. It's amazing to me how different his iron swing looks from a month ago at the Hero. I'd say he's stuck in the cycle of experimentation right now.

 

Yeah and the hell of it is if by some miracle he makes a comeback and wins a couple majors with this homegrown in-betweener swing as sure as day follows night he would stop and retool it from scratch again.

 

Hard to imagine how far beyond Jack's major record he'd be if he hadn't taken a year or two off periodically to re-invent a swing that was ruling the world. He is one stubborn individual.

[ferrispgm]

Pretty unsure about Chamblee's notes on Tiger's swing. His main point was that he would keep eye on his swing speed which is 114 today vs 120 4 years ago.

Chamblee claims that physical and technical issues lead to lower swing speed. In the end Shamblee comes with techno babble of a stock shot and planes which was not pointed out Maybe he is right but it stayed unclear. Cook had a better holistic opinion: Tiger was not swinging it freely.

 

It is not about speed imho. After lots of physical issues 114mph should be enough if Tiger is able to control the clubface. Yesterday there was none for the full shots.

What struck me most is Tigers spine angle: he couldn't hold it right after impact. Right shoulder comes out of the shot too early. Probably to relieve the back.

Tigers legs look like a reaction to the force then a start from the force. Physically it was a bit of a struggle to watch too.

For sure here are many out here who will disagree. And even more who have a solution how to do it better.

 

What I hope for is that Tiger's game will improve by stats of securing many more fairways off the tee (forget about Shamblee: less ss and being short is perfect) and prove his shotmaking ability into the green (forget about a stock shot). In other words become an artist that might not bring more trophies but it will savor Tiger's play and career.

 

Here's the thing with the swing speed...Tiger's swing was obviously out of sync and it was colder out....The cold I would attribute to 1 or maybe 2 mph as I'm sure that doesn't help the back, recovered or not....also...if your swing is out of sync and you are having to make compensations, you are going to easily see a decrease in speed....When everything is synced properly it will probably be back up to the 120 range....I can attest to this....I've played numerous rounds where I was fighting to get it out there 290 even making decent contact and then on the last hole I make a synced swing and hit it 310-330 and it felt effortless......anyways...it's his first legit tournament round in 17 months and Tiger is a proven winner/legend in golf....I'm sure he will get it back...even he admits to being nervous and I'm sure that in a lot of ways yesterday almost felt like his PGA debut again.

[jtitleist12]

Technicalities of his swing aside, if Tiger doesn't figure out a way to hit more fairways, he won't win again...Period.

 

He has no idea where the ball is going with the driver right now.

 

- Josh

[Marco]

Is he showimg the tiniest hint of an early middle aged paunch?

 

No, he has strong lordosis (lower back curve), which makes his abs protrude and chest cave in.

 

Mainly the source of his back issues is right there in his posture.

[North Butte]

Is he showimg the tiniest hint of an early middle aged paunch?

 

No, he has strong lordosis (lower back curve), which makes his abs protrude and chest cave in.

 

Mainly the source of his back issues is right there in his posture.

 

Is that the same thing Harold Varner III has? Nice guy, fun to see him play golf but the way he walks makes my back hurt.

[PowderedToastMan]

It's obvious to me that he's been working on his swing without much input from a coach. I can't imagine a coach would encourage Tiger to aim way left and stand like 3 inches away from the ball. It's amazing to me how different his iron swing looks from a month ago at the Hero. I'd say he's stuck in the cycle of experimentation right now.

 

Yeah and the hell of it is if by some miracle he makes a comeback and wins a couple majors with this homegrown in-betweener swing as sure as day follows night he would stop and retool it from scratch again.

 

Hard to imagine how far beyond Jack's major record he'd be if he hadn't taken a year or two off periodically to re-invent a swing that was ruling the world. He is one stubborn individual.

From what I know about Tiger, I believe he'd have stopped playing years ago if he didn't mess around with his swing. It seems to keep him interested. I definitely understand the argument you're making, but Tiger is a unique individual, and that approach just doesn't seem to work for him.

[ExTrumpet]

Is he showimg the tiniest hint of an early middle aged paunch?

 

No, he has strong lordosis (lower back curve), which makes his abs protrude and chest cave in.

 

Mainly the source of his back issues is right there in his posture.

 

Not to be confused with lardosis, which tends to curve the lower back and hide one's belt buckle...and feet for those more severely affected.

[ferrispgm]

It's obvious to me that he's been working on his swing without much input from a coach. I can't imagine a coach would encourage Tiger to aim way left and stand like 3 inches away from the ball. It's amazing to me how different his iron swing looks from a month ago at the Hero. I'd say he's stuck in the cycle of experimentation right now.

 

Edit: Hank, if you're reading this, I'm pleading with you to swallow your pride, apologize to Tiger, be his friend again, and help him with his swing. Watching him hit irons yesterday was depressing.

 

I'm pretty confident he was trying to hit a cut to get rid of the 2 way miss he had going....just trying to find something to play with because he was struggling....standing closer to the ball helps you hit a cut and he was probably so close because he was trying to just hit a big cut so if he missed it would be on the left side of the fairway and if it did cut it would still be on the right side....actually, this is what Hank told Tiger back when they were together...just find a shot that you can play to get the ball out there...unfortunately it just wasn't working for him.

[tigers9iron]

this current swing has too many issues to even comment on. So he's trying to swing like he did when he was 19. Is this an admission that all the swing changes were unnecessary and he should've just stayed with his natural swing? If he had done this, or just minor tweaks then maybe his muscle memory wouldn't be so confused right now trying to swing the club. He's got all sorts of conflicting patterns after all the rebuilds and under the gun the body has no idea what to revert to

[farmer]

It's obvious to me that he's been working on his swing without much input from a coach. I can't imagine a coach would encourage Tiger to aim way left and stand like 3 inches away from the ball. It's amazing to me how different his iron swing looks from a month ago at the Hero. I'd say he's stuck in the cycle of experimentation right now.

 

Edit: Hank, if you're reading this, I'm pleading with you to swallow your pride, apologize to Tiger, be his friend again, and help him with his swing. Watching him hit irons yesterday was depressing.

 

I'm pretty confident he was trying to hit a cut to get rid of the 2 way miss he had going....just trying to find something to play with because he was struggling....standing closer to the ball helps you hit a cut and he was probably so close because he was trying to just hit a big cut so if he missed it would be on the left side of the fairway and if it did cut it would still be on the right side....actually, this is what Hank told Tiger back when they were together...just find a shot that you can play to get the ball out there...unfortunately it just wasn't working for him.

When you aim left and miss well right, that's not a cut, that's a slice. I play with guys who do that all the time, and just like Tiger, occasionally hit a big pull. But, maybe Tiger can work it out over the next few weeks.

[ferrispgm]

It's obvious to me that he's been working on his swing without much input from a coach. I can't imagine a coach would encourage Tiger to aim way left and stand like 3 inches away from the ball. It's amazing to me how different his iron swing looks from a month ago at the Hero. I'd say he's stuck in the cycle of experimentation right now.

 

Edit: Hank, if you're reading this, I'm pleading with you to swallow your pride, apologize to Tiger, be his friend again, and help him with his swing. Watching him hit irons yesterday was depressing.

 

I'm pretty confident he was trying to hit a cut to get rid of the 2 way miss he had going....just trying to find something to play with because he was struggling....standing closer to the ball helps you hit a cut and he was probably so close because he was trying to just hit a big cut so if he missed it would be on the left side of the fairway and if it did cut it would still be on the right side....actually, this is what Hank told Tiger back when they were together...just find a shot that you can play to get the ball out there...unfortunately it just wasn't working for him.

When you aim left and miss well right, that's not a cut, that's a slice. I play with guys who do that all the time, and just like Tiger, occasionally hit a big pull. But, maybe Tiger can work it out over the next few weeks.

 

I'd go more with block as a slice starts well left and banana's right....better players block....higher handicaps slice in general

[baudi]

Hope he plays well today but his game does not look like it is ready.

Right after the Ryder Cup he postponed his come back to december.

Basically from that point he nearly had 3 months to 'find' or 'compose' a new swing.

Yesterday I could not see any of that.