The OtherArena

Rian · Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 2223

Well someone has to finish last.

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

Tiger withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open today after playing just 11 holes. Since his back surgery, his last 7 tournaments have gone as follows:

- MC
- 69th (23 strokes behind the winner)
- WD
- MC
- 17th (tied for last, 26 strokes behind the winner)
- MC
- WD

Yikes.

glenn

jdw · Site Admin Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 16879

The back doesn't appear to be getting better, and the knees keep getting messed up as well. Don't know if he'll figure out a way to adjust his play to reduce risk to both the back and knees.

Other golfers have dealt with back issues. Not sure if they've been to the level that Tiger has.

Setting aside the Majors question, it would be pretty amazing if he's so far gone that he can't catch Snead's 82 while sitting at 79. He's less than two years removed from a stretch where he won 8 tourneys from 03/25/12 to 08/04/13. He was about as much of a lock at that point as possible.

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

Tiger announced today that he is taking a break from tournament golf until he feels his game is ready. I am very interested to see if this will be a matter of weeks, or months.

Tiger Takes Leave of Absence: 'When I'm Ready, I'll Be Back'

glenn

jdw · Site Admin Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 16879

I suspect he's aiming for the Masters, and possibly a traditional tune up before that.

Looks like from his statement that he's unofficially aiming for the Honda Classic (Feb 26-Mar 1), but seems to be admitting that might not be likely.

He's not qualified for the WGC at Doral.

Mar 19-22: Arnold Palmer Invitational
Mar 26-29: Texas Open
Apr 2-5: Houston Open
Apr 9-12: The Masters

He's won Bayhill/Arnold eight times, including 2012-13. That's his traditional Master tune up. I don't think he tends to do the Texas swing.

John

jdw · Site Admin Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 16879

Tiger Woods makes shocking announcement he's had yet another back surgery

This will be interesting to watch.

We tend to think it's all been down hill since the Accident / Divorce, but we're also "just" two years removed from a stretch where he won 8 tournaments in 17 months. But the key part of that might now be "two years". He's winless since that stretch, and has been on the shelf most of it.

Even if he doesn't catch Jack in Majors, he's 3 wins from tying Sam Snead in PGA wins. When he went from 61 to 71 in less than two years, capped by destroying the field at the 2009 BMW Championship, it felt not just like Snead was in reach, but that he might do something silly like win 100. He didn't win for two and a half years after that, but eventually found his form and won those 8 in 17 months to close within 3 of Snead. Maybe 100 was insane at that point, but blowing past Snead and getting comfortably past 90 was more than reasonable.

Now you're starting to wonder if he can win 4. Not majors... but 4 tourneys to pass Snead.

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

Funny, biting article by Pete Willett (Master Champ Danny's brother) on the Ryder Cup. Here is his take on what it will take for Europe to win.

jdw · Site Admin Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 16879

Not very nice. :)

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

This is incredibly exciting.

Calling all Masters fans: The last 50 final round broadcasts are now available on YouTube

jdw · Site Admin Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 16879

Holy cow... 1975:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ojtX1GrIcc

Sadly the round is deeply JIP for the leaders: Jack just wraps the 9th when the broadcast is joined.

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

No spoilers. I plan to watch that one tonight. ;-)

I watched 1986 last night from start to finish. I still remember where I was when I watched it live. I was at our apartment in Isla Vista (UCSB) with Jay Shapiro, one of my roommates. We had an intramural floor hockey game that night and we wanted to watch until the end before we had to go. We were yelling, "Shank! Shank!" at the TV before Seve (RIP) hit his shot on 15. He ended up hitting a hook instead of a shank. :-) We went equally nuts when Norman fanned his 5 iron on 18 into the stands. We might have been a little late to the floor hockey game, but it was worth it. We were all huge Nicklaus fans so everybody understood.

One tidbit that stood out when I re-watched it was Seve's demeanor. Even after brutal bogeys at 15 and 17, he was still in great spirits as he walked up 18 and waved and smiled to the crowd. He seemed genuinely happy. I will re-watch the Norman collapse in 1996 at some point to see the contrast.

glenn

Yakuza Rich · Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 723

Obviously, the '86 Masters is the best one to watch. I will always remember my dad and neighbors got done playing golf on that Saturday afternoon and we were all sitting around talking about who would win the Masters and my neighbor Kirk said 'watch out for Nicklaus.' We all guffawed.

Something about Nicklaus in '86...it felt like your dad was doing it.

And to think that he bogeyed 12 and had that putt on 18 come up just short. He was very close to shooting 28 on the back nine!

After that, '75 is probably the next best Masters that we have televised.

Not enough people give 2011 enough credit. It was a barrage of incredible play from so many different players and you couldn't figure out who had the beat on winning the thing and it ends up being Schwartzel, who birdied the last four to win.

But you had some great Masters from '84-'90. Crenshaw winning in '84 in a good, snug event. Strange hitting it into the drink in '85. Nicklaus in '86. Larry Mize and the chip in '87. Sandy Lyle's great stretch in '88. And then Faldo vs. Floyd and Faldo vs. Hoch.

YR

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

It's been 10 years since Tiger's last major victory. This is a very cool oral history of that win, with lots of new information (at least to me) from interviews of Tiger, Steve Williams, Rocco Mediate, and many others.

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/23747717/us-open-2018-ten-years-later-players-caddies-observers-marvel-tiger-2008-win

guren · Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 1205

Nearly. It is incredible how relevant Tiger is again considering where he was a year ago.

jdw · Site Admin Joined: 01 Sep 2005 Posts: 16879

A 64 while:

* having that perfect putt on #1 somehow not go in

* the wonderful putt on #11 that hung on the lip

* the lip out on #14

That's 3 strokes... a freaking 61 missed when he hit all three of those putts very well.

He didn't hit a freaking fairway the entire Front 9.

That said, Koepka was excellent after the two bogeys and really didn't need to push harder coming in. You had the feel that if Tiger did pull a 51 out of the hat that Koepka would have answered with a 64 rather than a 66. Scott catching him didn't phase him.

Fun tourney to watch.