It’s that Nessie left wrist. And if I hear one more time about what a great athlete he is and how he can dunk a basketball in bare feet, I’m going to launch my two-iron through the flat screen.
I don’t remember who he was playing. but in rd 2 of the match play Rory and his opponent both put balls in the desert long and left with short irons.
Ive noticed that Jim Furyk’s ballstriking stats have declined a bit the last few years, from 01-04 he was top 20 in gir and fairways, but the last few years hasnt been a good. In the late 90s he was averaging 75%+ in fairways hit, and thats also declined a bit. Ive always liked the way he goes through the ball, and im alittle surprised he hasnt been a more consistent ballstriker the last few years. Does anyone think his swing has gotten worse lately and maybe that accounts for his worse tee to green stats, or is it pretty much the same as always?
I think that as equipment gets longer and lighter, and players need to hit the ball further, guys like Furyk get hurt. He is probably trying to get longer (whether conciously or not) and that’s taking its toll on his stats.
I think it’s the five hour energy drink. His swing has gotten twitchy from whatever methamphetamines they are hiding in it…
USGA Head: Expect Tougher US Open…
Can’t wait to see if this is just talk or will course really be ‘brutal’.
http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/USGA-head-Expect-US-Open-at-Olympic-to-be-tougher-022712
Olympic is a very sophisticated golf course. Regardless of how they set it up… it will not be anything like last years Congressional Classic.
We won’t be seeing anyone enjoying the new US Open scoring record… I don’t care how good they play.
The amazing thing I find about all this…is here we have the golfer with the most Majors ever and who was elected as Golfer of the Century…making these comments and statements for close to 20 years now and NO-ONE in the hierarchy’s of the game bat an eyelid or listen or do diddly squat about it. There is definitely some backdoor $$$ action going on for the ruling orgs to continue down the same path … (i hear Capt C already 
)
Don’t worry Jack,
We’ll get the game back and restore justice and order to the world. We’ll even grow some bat rough 
Yet Jack builds these unplayable courses with ridiculous length and green complexes that most amateurs cannot play, further separating the two camps. He’s even admitted that he might, in part, be to blame for this disturbing trend. Just because he’s won 18 majors shouldn’t give him a free hand to play architect. Leave course building and redesign to those who know what they’re doing.
Those Hugo & Lag logo’s are pretty cool!
I agree with what Paul said.
I agree, and plus, big Jack at the same press conference stated he has no problem with long putters and anchoring.
I think the one thing that Jack and other players of that era who understand golf… is that players should be required to play the full spectrum of irons into the greens… the par 4’s in particular.
10 par fours on most par 72 courses. Those 10 holes should require three long iron approaches (2-3-4) , four mid iron (5-6-7), and three short iron (8-9-W).
I mean this is really a fundamental core element of championship golf and golf course architecture.
To play golf now on the same courses and suggest that ALL par 4’s should be short iron approaches is WRONG WRONG WRONG!!
Par 5’s should differ from long par 4’s even if they are both reachable with long irons or fairway woods in two shots. The difference is that with a par 5, the green can be small and well guarded so as to offer more risk - reward because it is not EXPECTED to be hit in two shots.
A par 4 with a green that is not reasonably accessible with a quality approach (under all but the most extreme weather conditions) is generally not a well designed hole.
Where Nicklaus failed as an architect in my opinion is that he designed greens that could at times become basically unplayable under mild deviations in weather or other conditions such as dried out afternoon greens that no longer accept a shot.
The great courses remain a fair test generally at all times. This is why I am not a fan of Island greens or other trendy gimics like endless railroad ties and such.
I’ll take the 16th at Cypress Point over 17 at TPC Sawgrass, because the shot over the ocean does offer a “left” option if the weather gets too severe. You don’t HAVE TO make triple.
I can’t tell you how many times I landed a ball on a railroad tie and bounced a ball over the green into a lake or other hazard and walked off the green feeling that I was unfairly penalized. If I hit a shot that clears a lake, I don’t want it bouncing 20 feet in the air with all spin removed and ending up God knows where.
Jean Van De Velde wins The Open if not for his ball careening off steel bleachers 40 yards backward? I might be in the minority but I would defend all his decisions on playing that final hole. My point is that bleachers are not an integral part of a golf course… however necessary they might be.
In the pre railroad tie era… I have intentionally skipped a golf ball across the water on more than one occasion when I did not have the option to play a high shot. There is a skill to doing this. I don’t mind the occasional railroad ties down the side of a fairway hazard, but they have really been overdone around the greens in my opinion.
There is something special about the feeling of playing a natural piece or real estate. Moving a golf ball around a property where the holes were “found” by the architect with minimal manipulation has always been a more joyful and memorable experience than the course that is overly contrived by bulldozers and ditch witches.
How Rory won this week.
60% of fairways is considered the new “good driving week”
Average 12 greens a round is the new “great ball striking” stat.
Drive it 298 average.
Then to win, don’t miss a putt inside 10 feet all week and average 27 putts a round.
Tiger’s driving stats were very impressive finishing #1 in driving distance (310) and #8 (71%) in driving accuracy for the week.
To finish two shots back and have had 34 putts the first round shows he is not too far away from dominating these guys again.
Considering the fariways haven’t gotten appreciably wider over time, maybe 5 yards or so, if you take approximately 35 yards off Rory’s average driving length, to bring him close to the old average, he’d easily, without doing anything differently swing wise, be above 75% of fairways hit purely based on his new landing and finishing points. Hitting an average of 12 greens a round, in a one tournament snapshot, really isn’t that bad considering that Greg Norman had the best ever yearly average on tour at 14 greens a round(as of the late 90’s when I paid attention to such things). Stats are very misleading. As one of the Irish sports broadcasters says, ‘if I have one foot in a bucket of ice water, and one foot in a bucket of boiling water, statistically I should comfortable’. WIth Tiger’s driving stats, or any driving stats for that matter, it suggests that the length and accuracy are somehow combined and/or related to eachother, but they’re not necessarily. They take driver length on 2 or so holes a round, and they tend to be on long and open holes, generally par 5’s where they know people will hit driver. The accuracy is what it is but doesn’t take into account what club used from the tee- he may well have used 3 irons all day(though probably not), which is then doubly misleading because 71% of 3 irons hitting fairways is pretty terrible, yet 71% of fairways hit is pretty decent. Calling it ‘driving accuracy’ is also completely misleading, it should be called fairways hit, or fairway accuracy etc., driving accuracy should be when you use a driver.
I agree with most of the assessments about where the game has gone, but ripping on Rory(or Rory’s numbers) really isn’t doing anything for the argument against the modern game. He’s a generational type talent, and even though it’s early to call, I’d reckon before he’s done he’d stand up against anyone from any era with any equipment. Anyone who’s played the game at a decent level knows that winning tournaments and being successful, comes down to a myriad of things, and only one of those things is ball striking- it’s not easy to win golf tournaments, and it shouldn’t be so easy to discount it when people do. If Twomasters had won this week at the Honda with those stats, I’m sure there’d be a slightly different take on it. And in reality, we don’t have the stats from the old days, we only have speculation and reputation. If Miller, Hogan, Norman, etc., etc., won a tournament with 60% fairways and a 12 green average, would that negate both them and their eras?
Lag, in fairness, in relation to VDV, how can you defend all his decisions on that last hole, and at the same time say the bleachers aren’t and shouldn’t be part of the course, when one of his decisions was more than porbably to hit his second shot into the bleachers to get a free drop? Though, in relation to that hole, and in fairness to VDV, and to Harrington for that matter, it makes zero sense as a par 4- there’s no real instinctive way to play it as a par 4 because it was designed to be a par 5. Another ill of the modern distance game I would say.
He used 3w and his “stinger” 2i at a lot of tees. That will always boost the percentage. Driving distance is measured only at holes where players will use driver. Now he is MUCH better off tee as of late compared to maybe all the way to 2000, those stats are a tad misleading. Being able to use 3w/2i is a huge advantage to those stats and only super long hitters can do it and not be giving up strokes to rest of tour. They said at one point Tiger was clocked at a 150mph ball speed with his 2i driving iron! 
That is what some get with driver (Luke Donald for one)
New number one in the world, Rory missed 25 greens they said. But was able to get up/down on 21 of those. I just dont know about this kid. Congrats for one for achieving a dream and immortalizing oneself. But, I too am not seriously impressed with him. I think he misses more greens with short irons than I have ever seen for someone so darn good. Maybe i just dont like his gumpy demeaner or something. Weird. But he will probably be #1 for a while so get used to his name.
Current tour…Super high ball speed off irons, 25 missed greens can win. 7200y courses with half inch rough. Balls that almost self correct in flight (they all say much harder to work them now than past) yet spin back 6ft.
“these guys are good”. Isn’t that what pga commercial says?
I defend him for this reason exactly. A shot into the bleachers would guarantee him a free drop and the win. How many golf balls would you have to hit into the bleachers to finally get one to bounce off them all the way back across the creek? 1 in 30 maybe? 1 in a 100? That was an extremely unlucky bounce. He had been driving the ball well all day with the driver even coming down the stretch. Confidence was there… and with a driver he would be less likely to hook the ball left where the bigger trouble was. His drive went right, but that is the miss. He had a fair enough lie to go for the green which he did. The safe play was anything right of the green which he did. If he lays up on either the drive or second shot his tendency might be to swing easier, decelerate and hook the ball. He stayed aggressive and firm on both swings.
Once his ball was in the deep rough after bouncing off the bleachers… he probably felt he could get it over the creek… but favored a bit less than a bit more because OB was long and left and he was coming in from the right side. If he had tried to hit it sideways left and layup, he could have faced a similar fate, and still not been over the creek. Ultimately he did get up and down from the bunker to force the playoff. It was unfortunate, but I don’t think it was the choke that people think it was.
Rory won because he was putting out of his mind. To not miss one single putt inside 10 feet over the course of 4 rounds is pretty amazing. Just an average week of ball striking should put you near the winner’s circle. While Tiger’s stats may be somewhat deceiving… you don’t see many guys in both the top ten in driving accuracy and driving distance. It shows his experience in getting into play when he needed, and bombing it when he needed also. The comparisons between Tiger and Rory are silly. Rory is not going to be the next Tiger.
Well, I played pro golf for 7 years in the persimmon era and have direct and personal knowledge about the quality of the play then… particularly the ball striking. Saw it close up… the golf was much more sophisticated by a mile… and I don’t think when I played was as good as what came before. The older guys from my era were talking about how the players from their era were better, and I believe them. Even if you take Moe Norman… there is NOTHING like that going on now… Moe was not just folklore. I watched Moe hit thousands of balls and never once saw him hit a poor quality shot. He flushed it every single time.
I played with a lot of unknown tour players that hit 14 fairways and 18 greens in a round, on courses that were much tighter and also required long iron shots into greens. It’s true the courses were not as long… but they still required you to hit the ball onto the green with a 3 iron a few times a round… and the greens were much smaller also.
If I had been putting for Rory with the Pelz theory garbage I was using when I was on tour… he would have averaged 31 putts a round and finished 16 strokes higher.