Has anyone seen Tiger’s play at The Aus Open ? Is he looking more solid with the driver or just having an ‘on’ couple of days ?
The current 10/1 for the Masters will look big if he’s back with a straight head & a swing he can play.
Yes, this Tiger fan has watched his full first round and saw highlights of his second round (they didn’t televise full round for some reason). Tiger hasn’t looked this good, imo, since Chevron (Dec '10).
I dismiss his 2011 Masters performance actually only because it looked more like a confident “at home” Tiger who was just swinging freely without this Foley-hybrid Stack&Tilt BS he somehow convinced him was ideal (Foley must be some hell of a convincing talker/salesman). Basically that was more pre-2009 Tiger it looked to me rather than the stiff robot Tiger we’ve seen for over a year now.
Anyway, He surely looks like he actually put in some MUCH practice since his last tourney. Maybe kids in school and he has had the time finally or something but he looks real confident in his full swing these past two rounds. BUT most important is he’s obviously been working on his short game. It is much improved. Did you see his 1st round? He could easily have been -13 right now and destroying this field after two rounds! He lipped out or toilet-bowled 4 putts (3 of them over 10ft) just the first round and had another heartbreaker stop at edge of cup putt today.
Bottom line is he looks healthy and confident this weekend. BUT lets not break out victory yet. He could revert. And to be honest I am not THAT impressed even with a win. This is a pretty short course in high winds and not that super strong of a field. I have only seen Tiger use driver FOUR times this weekend so far. It has been 3w or irons off the tee the whole time.
FYI, here is the leaderboard page: http://www.pga.org.au/scores
He certainly looks better and more confident…looks like he only has the one stock hold off cut shot however.
I think if the weather holds off he will romp in as he doesn’t need to do much on the tee shots around The Lakes…just bunt them into play…but get some wind up and that hold cut is going to need some taming to fight the wind…but short game does look good.
You ever played that course? Is it St Andrews like? Looks very short (drivable par 4 one of the holes) and I don’t think there is any rough higher than an inch anywhere. Just be conservative off the tee, stay out of water, keep it near fairway keep ball down on approach shots.
Did you see John Daly’s 2nd round? He had a Tin Cup moment of unloading rest of his balls into water, shook playing partners hands and walked off course.
I actually came 2nd at The lakes in 1989 New South wales Open…and shot a course record 9 under 64 in the second round…and have played 3 or 4 other events there over the years with a couple of other decent finishes on the old version of the course…Played the new version in the Open there last year
They altered the course 2 years ago and made the greens huge with undulations…pulled shrubs out to put waste bunkers in etc…They had to throw undulating greens in because technology again rear ended a golf course by making it play too short…the weather is pretty much the only defense or getting on the wrong side of the undulations… however the huge slopes in the greens mean they can’t get the greens too quick
I didn’t get to see the event, but as I have said before, I’m going to be the last to write Tiger off and send him out to pasture.
You don’t forget how to win, and you don’t forget how to make things happen when you need to. As far as majors, who knows, but it is not working in his favor that they are not setting up the US Open as a US Open anymore, and the PGA is just a watered down version of that. The Masters is pretty much unrecognizable from what it was and the reason we are seeing anyone win it. The only event that looks like a major is the British Open as we call it over here stateside, and the Canadian Open now looks like the best set up for a major as they actually grew some rough this year and we saw -4 win the event…although the press will not consider it a major, I found it more interesting to watch than any of the other events posing as majors.
The great tests bring out the great players, and since this now lacking, it’s not going to work toward the benefit of Tiger’s quest for majors.
When a course gets redesigned, does the course record reset?
Not typically, but sometimes the old records will still stand… especially if the course was designed properly.
A lot of the time, especially in Australia they seem to do that…I could see if they revamped the entire place…but not just a few changes here or there or a few mounds or a par 5 turned into a par 4…Its still the same course theoretically.
Doesn’t matter now…Senden popped a 63 on The Lakes on Saturday…great score…so my 64 is now into oblivion!!!
Well you have the persimmon/blades course record until somebody takes that away from you.
Have Senden walk back 40 yards from each tee shot and see if he still shoots 63… I doubt it.
There is a good post on Gotham Golf Blog with Mark Evershed and Ralph. At somewhere around the 4 min mark Mark discusses a hard turn left by the body and the hands fighting the rotation of the club and holding it open. Is this not what ABS is all about. Here is the link.
youtube.com/user/ralphsunnys … 9DoDDmuXQI
Pisser
I’m always glad to hear another TGM instructor is seeing the light and not taking a dogmatic view of the yellow book.
Swinging the golf club properly is a joyful experience within the human body. Better to look at technique as the vehicle for improvement rather than the latest equipment release put out by non golfing wind tunnel experts.