I gotcha. I just don't think his iron game is strong enough to recover from bad tee shots. Like you said, he was able to mi**** from 100 in the fairway. 175+ in the trees is that much harder.

One under at the moment at QH

Recap

T9
T23
MC
12
T2
T5
T32
T55
T11


Looking at those results.

-Only one missed cut in 9 tournaments is a great sign. Of course Tiger of 1999-2005 didn't miss any cuts, but the Tiger of the last 5 years missed a ton. For comparison, Rory has missed 3 this year, Speith has 3 missed cuts, Fowler missed 3, World #1 JT missed a cut in New Orleans. Of the top 10 in the world rankings, on Johnson and Rose have not missed a cut this season.

-After starting the season in 668th place in the world golf rankings, he is now 80, climbing 588 spots.

-He is 48th in the Fed Ex Cup standings, the highest standing by a player with 8 or less starts in qualifying events, and the highest he has stood since 2013


So far, its been a great start to a comeback but a ho-hum year by his own standards if I had to guess. To make it a success I think he wants at least a couple victories this season. I think he will at least get one, and hope its a major.

Any guesses on how Tiger does next week at Shinnecock?

A) top 10
b) top 25
C) outside 25
D) cut

Will he be in contention during the weekend? Will he finish any round under par?

Top 25 but people will act like T-2

If he could putt average he'll contend. His tee to green strokes gained was elite the last 2 tournaments.

This is a tough one to predict. He seemed to be driving it okay at the Memorial, from what I saw. If he does that and putts the same, probably top 25. If he putts well, top 10.

B

Weekend contention: close enough that the networks will be able to squeeze him onto the first page of the leaderboard at some point on Saturday but not really.

Round under par: yes. Sunday 68 or 69 but he's far enough back that it doesn't matter but it'll get him in the top 25.

_lefraud_ said:

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Any guesses on how Tiger does next week at Shinnecock?

A) top 10
b) top 25
C) outside 25
D) cut

Will he be in contention during the weekend? Will he finish any round under par?

---

A. Yes and yes.

Just watching Golf Channel and they did a piece on the 2008 US Open.

Heading into that tournament, Tiger had won six of his last eight starts. The two he didn't win he finished 2nd and 5th.

Crazy.

If he plays like he has been the past couple months from tee to green, then putts well, it's a top 10 and possibly a victory. He's close.

He's got the game to win a major. The window will not be open for a long time between his age + I anticipate the disks adjacent to the fusion will deteriorate under the additional stress (and not helped by age). But he's got a shot in the meantime.

He's getting closer and closer. It's been a lot of baby steps which seems frustrating at times but this was another one. He led, by himself, on the back 9 on Sunday, on a major. He's back. The only thing he hasn't done yet is win, but that's looking more and more likely. Even if he doesn't win, he has exceeded my expectations. I never thought we'd see him contend in a major again. He has shown that he has the game. Now it's just a matter of whether or not he plays well enough on any given week to beat whoever happens to be hot. His best isn't the best anymore. His best is good enough to win sometimes. His best used to be good enough to win every time. That's ok. I'm back to believing that he will win a tournament again and I think it's reasonable to say he'll win a major.

Tiger's Major Goal: Tame the Driver

Quote:

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At the moment, he ranks 34th in distance on the PGA Tour with an average of 304.7 yards, and an impressive 16th in clubhead speed with an average of 120.46 mph. But he's 176th in driving accuracy, 120th in total driving, and 127th in strokes gained: off the tee. In the obscure but telling category of consecutive fairways hit, Woods ranks 305th with a best of only nine fairways in a row.

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Quote:

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Ergo, to use a term Woods favored when he was fresh out of Stanford, put the driver in the fairway. Not the 3-wood or driving iron, which will cost Woods even more distance against the Johnsons and Koepkas of the world. But a slightly dialed down driver. One that he can hit with less psychic "all or nothing" stress that comes from the small margin of error he leaves himself with a hard driver swing. Accepting that he can no longer be among the biggest hitters and adjusting accordingly gives him his greatest chance of still being the best player. In short, take the advice offered by Harmon and Haney.

Now that the major season is over, developing a new, more controlled game for himself in 2019 would be my hope for Tiger Woods. He's figured out a lot lately, in particular at Bellerive clearing the mental hurdle that was blocking him from performing down the stretch on Sundays. That was a big one, and now it seems like the wind is at his back. Yes, the clock is ticking, but it feels like there's plenty of time.

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The odd thing about his tee troubles in the final rounds of both the British and PGA were that he had iron in his hand for several of the ones that really killed him. Especially the British.

His putter is improving since the change. Moved up from 55th to 31st in Strokes Gained for the season after the PGA. That said, it's a sizeable drop from when he was dominating Early/mid 2000's he was consistently top 5-10, if not #1. But it's improving and plenty good to win majors if he stays on this path, just not dominate like Old Tiger.

His approach game is, and always has been, great. Top 5-10 back then. Top 5 now.

But to the point of the article, I'd be interested in seeing what a strong lofted 3W consistently off the tee could do for him. But he's gotta figure out how to get that in play too. I just don't really take "dial it back" that seriously. He would have done that by now.

We love you tiger

Agreed, and I'll add that Tiger just shot his lowest final round ever in a major, so why should he dial it down? I think it was the '06 Open where he hooked his first tee shot (with an iron) OB and still won the tournament. Unfortunately, he just can't get away with that sort of thing anymore. So yea, I'd like to see him hit a strong 3 wood or something.

So under and under were the winners in majors won and tournaments won. A few posters got that right.

This is all good and all.. But his GF. She must be really wealthy or something. She ain't really ugly but she ain't good looking either.

'03ag said:

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Under
Under
Under
Over
Under

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I think I got them all right. He didn't miss any cuts at a major did he?

I think he missed the cut at Shinnecock.

Indeed. Damn