Was this the best ball striking week ever for Tiger?

[catgolfer]

Golf course management at its best.

 

100% agree with you, first class golf course management... not to mention Tiger's superb long iron play and putting seals the deal... :drinks:

[seanster]

I wouldn't agree it was pathetic watching Ernie Els hit fairway of the tee with a DRIVER (something Tiger has a problem with) Yes Tiger is the best iron player around but there seems to be a problem with that nike driver.Dont get me wrong I love watching Tiger but maybe he needs a new driver(Titleist).

 

Cheers, Stanley.

 

 

 

 

I quote this from an article written on the GolfDigest website, from Butch Harmon: "His swing speed is at least 50 percent greater than that of the average amateur. A tenth of a degree variance in the position of his clubface or the path of the swing at impact can mean the difference between finding the fairway and having to yell "Fore right!".

 

So you see, Tiger can have the luxury of switching to whatever driver he wants, but in the end that open/closed clubface will still cause him to hit some wild drives, so switching still won't help him I'm afraid...and in this case Titleist drivers are less forgiving than the SQ he has now. Heck, I even say a Brosnan driver's more forgiving than the 905R/T/S. (Titleist purists can start the flames now)

[nikemike]

I wouldn't agree it was pathetic watching Ernie Els hit fairway of the tee with a DRIVER (something Tiger has a problem with) Yes Tiger is the best iron player around but there seems to be a problem with that nike driver.Dont get me wrong I love watching Tiger but maybe he needs a new driver(Titleist).

 

Cheers, Stanley.

 

You're right, it wasn't pathetic for Ernie to hit fairways with a driver. It WAS pathetic that he had short irons/wedges into the greens b/c of those drives and failed to get close/keep it on. What good did driver do him?

 

I also hope the rest of your post doesn't foreshadow the type of posts you're going to bring here.

[Ducky]

Yes Tiger is the best iron player around but there seems to be a problem with that nike driver.Dont get me wrong I love watching Tiger but maybe he needs a new driver(Titleist).

You don't think that it could have something to do with the drastic swing changes he has made? No, I guess it would be silly of me to believe you would be so rational.

 

If you three putt a green, do you buy a new putter or work on your technique?

[sandy]

I hardly think you could compare this course to a typical U.S. Open course. If he used this strategy he would be using fairways into many greens not long and mid irons. Remember the U.S. Open courses have real growing grass in the fairways, not burned out fairways like the Open had. That is what made using long irons and fairways off the tee a workable solution. Additionally even when they got in the rough I didn't see anybody "break" their wrists through the rough and only advancing the ball 10 yards like you do with 5+ inches of rough in the U.S. Open. Just needed to stay out of the pot bunkers. You would get no where near the roll with a long iron on a U.S. Open course that he was getting at the Open.

 

I still maintain that the U.S. Open will be the hardest for Tiger to ever win another one on unless it goes back to Pebble Beach (he has won two so he won't be like Watson and Palmer at the PGA or Lopez and the U.S. Open). All the other courses there is too much of a premium on accurate driving. He's proved that isn't his strong suit (except for the 3 year period in the early 2000s). And no manufacturers driver is going to fix that not ------------(fill in your favorite can't miss driver of the second).

 

Lots more Masters and Opens with a sprinkling of PGAs thrown in.

[marcus2905]

As an Englishman watching our open being won by another overseas player, a couple of things came to mind.

 

Firstly, Tiger was the only golfer to actually play the course and the conditions in a maner that was appropriate, yes it helps if you can hit 240+ yard 2 irons, but surely the game is about scoring the best there re no pictures on the scorecard and what Tiger did was give himself the best opportunity to make the fewest mistakes. So what if he struggles with his driver, he realised that this course set up didnt need a driver. I must say that it made me laugh to recall how Faldo, about 4/5 years ago had said that changes in technology and course design meant he was hitting 3,4,5 irons into greens when others where hitting 8,9,pw what Tiger showed is that he is better hitting these clubs than others are with short irons.

 

I would also ask that as Americans you consider the fact that this wasnt an easy course/setup, ok the wind didnt blow, it didnt rain etc and the fairways looked brown ( I guess thats what happens if you dont pump gallons of water on them to help keep the ball in play), the fact that it hadnt rained meant that the rough was not typically Open thick, this should not detract from the quality of the tournament the venue and indeed the performance.

 

Tiger proved again that he is the number 1 player in the world in any format, lets face it he played match play against Ernie on Saturday and Sergio (and to a lesser extent Di Marco) on Sunday and comfortably beat them, I would have loved to have seen a brit or european or ernie win on Sunday but it was not to be.

 

As far as to whether Tiger has ever struck the ball better who knows, all I can say is that it was a privillage to watch, and no doubt we will all be rushing our 2&3 irons back in to play (ha ha).