Tiger Watch 2012

I think it might be instructive to chart Tiger's stats and progress for 2012, beginning w Abu Dhabi.

I will post his stats whenever I can find them, and perhaps chart the trend.

For starters, here's Day 1 from Tiger's first tournament of the year. For comparison, I've thrown in the other players in the same group, Rory and Luke.



Standing at present:

Tiger -2 T9
Rory -5 T1
Luke -1 T20

Comments:
It seems to suggest Tiger is feeling out the course (playing there for the first time) and possibly his swing, hitting 10/14 fairways and a massive 17 GIR. He is aiming mostly at the fat parts of the greens instead of attacking the pins, which explains the rather high 35 putts per round esp when compared to Rory who hits less fairways and GIRs but scrambles well and makes more putts (albeit from shorter range) to make up for it.

Would be interesting to see how his strategy changes for subsequent days as he gets more comfortable with his swing, the course and the speed of the greens.

Very interesting note!
Thank you!

My pleasure.

Further comments, note that because Luke is 30 yards shorter, he needs to focus on hitting fairways, 10/14 same as Tiger. And since he's hitting approach shots with a 30 yard disadvantage, he hits 13 greens, misses 5, but is able to count on his great short game to make par or bettter, ie. scrambling, 4/5. So he's 1 stroke behind Tiger despite the 30 yard disadvantage.

Rory misses 4 more fairways than Luke or Tiger, but uses his great power from the rough to hit about the same number of greens as Luke (remember Luke is hitting from 30 yards further), plus his great short game allows him to scramble par or better 4 out of the 6 greens he misses.

Interesting to compare 3 contrasting styles and strategies to see how they play out.

Also, newfound respect for the 1-chip-1-putt oldies but goodies sifus. Scrambling is an invaluable tool. It allowed Luke to be consistent enough to be world no. 1 presently.

Lee, it' you again! You last reported on the Opens right...
Thanks for the good commentary... watching this thread.....

Wow...Interestg chart!
Each has it own strength n approach.

Good effort.. keep it up bro....

Great effort Lee..... this helps high handicappers as it shows the different ways to approach the game...

so play to your strengths and you will still be good at it

just my 2 cents hahahaha

good thread!

Tiger used to have a great great short game, people talk much about his ball striking and power but there's a lot of highlights from few years back of his actions from around the green. The most famous one is the curling chip in at the Masters' Sunday. I think it's all just losing confidence, surely his technique is not inferior to Luke's or Rory's.

and him hitting loads of GIRs is unusual. This is like Michael Jordan depending to hit jump shots more once his legs weren't as strong as during his airness days. Afterall, Tiger is 36. 36 it's like 29 in NBA

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

I can clearly see now why the senior citizens 40 - 50m behind my tee shots can whup my behind with their final scores.

I thought Tiger was playing well yesterday, i.e. better than how he used to. But, he wasn't quite the same Tiger we know, i.e. he wasn't going for the pin. He seemed to be getting comfortable playing again but if he's going to win tournaments, he needs to have the courage to go for kills. (A look at his stats shows that he's not taking too many chances and just playing safe.)

Rory is young and perhaps reckless but more willing to take risks. It's the risks which (if played well) make or break champions. Tiger needs to find that in himself again and go for the jugular. Anything shy of that ain't going to get him far.

Tiger using the Method? He should go Belly, maybe use Bettinardi (Nike should buy them over and compete with Scotty..really Bettinardi is the closest to Scotty at the moment) .....with those stats he should be -10 at least...guess Foley is a really good swing coach..but a terrible putting coach....

17 GIRs and 1/1 scramble for the green that he missed, WOW!

It is like playing xbox360...

Thanks guys. Glad you found it useful.

The lesson I learnt from Tiger's stat for Day 1 is, if I shoot for the fat part of the green, my scores would be lower, provided I can putt.

If I go for the flag at all costs, finding myself in the rough or bunker will probably cost me a couple of strokes, especially if there's water near the pin. Unlike Rory, who was actually trying to hole it from the bunker, fast green sloping away wasn't an issue, and he was couple of inches close to making it.

I have a sneaky suspicion Tiger would be going for the flag more aggressively starting today. Lets see if that's true. Stay tuned.

How's the 2nd round like?

Interesting...

Tiger was shorter off the tee, missed more fairways, less GIR, but a massive improvement in putts per round, and scrambled well when he did miss the green. Putting improved by a massive 7 putts, which shows he is shooting for the pin more, now that he has a feel for the course., and when he missed, he scrambled well to recover. He climbed up 5 places to T4, improving from his Day 1 performance by 1 stroke.

Rory was slightly longer off the tee than day 1, indicating he is finding his rhythm in his tee shot, found more GIR, but when he missed the greens 4 times, could not scramble any of them. His approach shot seems to be a bit off, not as sharp, which is why perhaps he also needed more putts. This led him to drop 3 places to T4, same as Tiger, and 5 strokes worse than Day 1.

Luke's biggest change in strategy was in powering up his tee shot, increasing the length from 270 to 311.5. As a result, he missed more fairways, missed more greens and lost more shots in scrambling when he missed the green. Only his sharp putting saved him, dropping just one stroke more than Day 1. But because the field has improved, Luke dropped 12 places to T32 despite only 1 stroke worse than Day 1.

What I can see is how the positions can swing massively by a mere 1 or 2 stokes difference when the group in clumping in clusters score-wise.

Tiger is finding his footing and steadily taking more calculated risks, and so far, it seems to be paying off. I think it shows great patience and discipline on his part to moderate the amount of aggression. I expect this to steadily amp up for days 3 and 4.

Luke on the other hand seemed to take too much risk too soon, because the increase in his tee shot distance is not yielding results in the final score.

What do you guys think?

And as I type this, it's the middle of Day 3, and Tiger at hole 10..

Tiger T1 -8
Rory T5 -7
Luke T55 +1

Tiger is starting to amp up the aggression progressively, Rory is lurking just 1 stroke behind, while Luke has fallen well out of contention.

Tiger gets another birdie, T1 with Paul Lawrie at -9, while Rory is at T10, -7. Tiger and Paul starting to separate from the pack a bit.

Tiger looks a lot more settled with his new swing now. Gone are the days where you never know where the ball was going to go when he started to put his swing changes into play.

Instead of the customary swearing and bashing the club into the ground, we get a regular club twirling instead, always a sign he's happy with the shot.

The universe is starting to move into alignment.

Hole 13, Tiger's tee shot rolls off the fairway onto the bunker.

Awkward stance, Tiger gives it a massive cut w a 9 iron, muscles bristling with the effort, and has trouble maintaining his balance in the follow through. It hits the green! And trickles to the fringe.

My mind boggles at the power he showed to reach the flag from that awkward fairway bunker stance.

Hole 14, Tiger teed off w 3 wood, Rory driver, both found the fairway, Tiger (278 yards) is 25 yards behind Rory. Tiger is showing patience, biding his time, placing his shots, not taking any unnecessary risks, and is T1 to show for it so far.

In contrast, Luke charged too early, made to many mistakes in pursuing the extra distance, and is T54, no longer in contention.

Lets see how Rory's strategy plays out.

Lee36328 wrote:

Hole 14, Tiger teed off w 3 wood, Rory driver, both found the fairway, Tiger (278 yards) is 25 yards behind Rory. Tiger is showing patience, biding his time, placing his shots, not taking any unnecessary risks, and is T1 to show for it so far.

In contrast, Luke charged too early, made to many mistakes in pursuing the extra distance, and is T55, no longer in contention.

Lets see how Rory's strategy plays out.

Despite being 25 yards behind Rory, Tiger's 7 iron (195 yards) finds the center of the fairway, pin high, while Rory overshoots the pin to the back of the green.

Lee36328 wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Hole 14, Tiger teed off w 3 wood, Rory driver, both found the fairway, Tiger (278 yards) is 25 yards behind Rory. Tiger is showing patience, biding his time, placing his shots, not taking any unnecessary risks, and is T1 to show for it so far.

In contrast, Luke charged too early, made to many mistakes in pursuing the extra distance, and is T55, no longer in contention.

Lets see how Rory's strategy plays out.

Despite being 25 yards behind Rory, Tiger's 7 iron (195 yards) finds the center of the fairway, pin high, while Rory overshoots the pin to the back of the green.

And you know what happens next, Rory 2-putts for par, Tiger 1-putts for birdie.

Tiger is now -10, sole leader.

Rory is -7, T11.

I guess starting forward staying forward and going forward works pretty well

Hole 15, 171 yards, flag tucked to the left behind a bunker.

Tiger needs to draw a 9 iron. He's been hitting baby cut fades all day, so he needs to change his shot shape for this one. He's a bit tentative, tests the wind. From the tee, the flag will look like it's right behind the bunker with little green to work with.

Tries to draw it in, but did not close the club face sufficiently, resulting is a push, pin high, right side of the green. Longish putt.

Rory does much better, attacking the pin, and lands slightly past it. Short birdie putt.

Right_sided_coach wrote:

I guess starting forward staying forward and going forward works pretty well

Yes, indeed.