Tiger Watch 2012

Lee36328 wrote:

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.

Reads the line too much to the right, 2-putt par for Tiger.

Rory gets his birdie, back up to T6, -8.

Hole 16, 475 yards par 4.

Rory, driver, in left rough, possibly blocked by trees.

Tiger, who hit 8/11 fairways so far, takes out driver, and.... twirls! Right side of the fairway, just before the bunker.

Great commentary... Am at a wedding dinner and this is keeping me updated. Woo hoo!

Lee36328 wrote:

Hole 16, 475 yards par 4.

Rory, driver, in left rough, possibly blocked by trees.

Tiger, who hit 8/11 fairways so far, takes out driver, and.... twirls! Right side of the fairway, just before the bunker.

Tiger at ball above his feet, no problem, pin high. Birdie putt chance again.

Rory from the left rough, 132 yards left, power cuts his approach, hits the green for a longer putt. Too much rough, can't get enough spin to stop any earlier, but awesome display of power nonetheless. 2-putt par.

I just realised, Rory's tee shot was 343 yards!

Tiger did not read enough break into the putt, and makes par. From his reaction you can see he felt he let that birdie get away.

Meanwhile, Robert Rock who caught up w Tiger at -10, has just hooked a tee shot into the rough. Keeping up is proving to be tougher than catching up.

scarynight wrote:

Great commentary... Am at a wedding dinner and this is keeping me updated. Woo hoo!

No problem bro. Enjoy.

Hole 17 483 yards par 4

Rory sends another driver shot way out there and finds the middle of the fairway again.

Tiger driver again! He goes "Bite! Bite! Bite!!!!"

Lets see where he ends up, can't see the ball from the camera angle.

Meanwhile, Robert is hitting out of fairway bunker on hole 15, and is short of the green. His pitch rolls well past the pin.

Lee36328 wrote:

Hole 17 483 yards par 4

Rory sends another driver shot way out there and finds the middle of the fairway again.

Tiger driver again! He goes "Bite! Bite! Bite!!!!"

Lets see where he ends up, can't see the ball from the camera angle.

Meanwhile, Robert is hitting out of fairway bunker on hole 15, and is short of the green. His pitch rolls well past the pin.

Rory 286 yards center of the fairway, Tiger 291 yards left rough, but good angle of approach to the green.

Tiger, massive cut, aims for the fat part of the green instead of attacking the pin. A good decision since he's hitting from the rough. Longish 2-putt distance.

Meanwhile, Robert drops a shot and drops away from Tiger.

Rory, BRILLIANT cut shot to gimmie birdie distance.

1 -- 25 ↑+3 1 WOODS, Tiger -10 16 -5 70 69 - - 139
1 -- 47 ↑+30 T2 HANSON, Peter -9 18 -8 74 69 64 - 207
1 -- 44 ↑+14 T2 MOLINARI, Francesco -9 18 -6 74 67 66 - 207
1 14 117 ↑+2 T2 ROCK, Robert -9 16 -4 69 70 - - 139
1 20 84 ↑+2 T2 LAWRIE, Paul -9 16 -4 70 69 - - 139
1 41 82 ↑+26 T6 COETZEE, George -8 18 -7 71 72 65 - 208
1 90 206 ↑+10 T6 KINGSTON, James -8 18 -5 72 69 67 - 208
1 -- 3 ↓-2 T6 MCILROY, Rory -8 16 -3 67 72 - - 139
1 108 313 ↓-2 T6 GONNET, Jean-Baptiste -8 16 -3 68 71 - - 139
1 -- 171 ↓-5 T6 OLESEN, Thorbjørn -8 15 -1 70 67 - - 137

Lee36328 wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Hole 17 483 yards par 4

Rory sends another driver shot way out there and finds the middle of the fairway again.

Tiger driver again! He goes "Bite! Bite! Bite!!!!"

Lets see where he ends up, can't see the ball from the camera angle.

Meanwhile, Robert is hitting out of fairway bunker on hole 15, and is short of the green. His pitch rolls well past the pin.

Rory 286 yards center of the fairway, Tiger 291 yards left rough, but good angle of approach to the green.

Tiger, massive cut, aims for the fat part of the green instead of attacking the pin. A good decision since he's hitting from the rough. Longish 2-putt distance.

Meanwhile, Robert drops a shot and drops away from Tiger.

Rory, BRILLIANT cut shot to gimmie birdie distance.

That was a long long putt that Tiger just lagged close. Did I hear the commentator say 100 feet?

Tiger makes par, Rory birdie, and is now only 1 stroke behind Tiger.

Hole 18, 567 yards par 5.

Rory pushes his tee shot, either into the water (water in the desert!) or rocks.

Tiger (driver again!), judging from the oohs! and ahhs! from the gallery, finds the fairway, no problem.

Tiger 276 yards, Rory 246 yards.

Rory is in the sand, on a little semi island next to the lake.

He will damage his club on a boulder if he swings for the fairway/green, and he has an option to hit a high shot and borrow the 9th fairway. This should prove interesting.

Tiger takes out his 3 wood, suggesting he is going for the green in 2.

He makes an exquisite fade and lands toward the back of the green, pin in front. He has a downhill 2-putt for birdie.

Lee36328 wrote:

Rory is in the sand, on a little semi island next to the lake.

He will damage his club on a boulder if he swings for the fairway/green, and he has an option to hit a high shot and borrow the 9th fairway. This should prove interesting.

Rory, feet straddling two boulders, gambles and shoots across the lake to borrow the 9th fairway, lands on the waste area (sand, but not bunker).

Robert Rock catches up w Tiger again. Lets see how this plays out.

WHO SAYS GOLF IS BORING?

Lee36328 wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Rory is in the sand, on a little semi island next to the lake.

He will damage his club on a boulder if he swings for the fairway/green, and he has an option to hit a high shot and borrow the 9th fairway. This should prove interesting.

Rory, feet straddling two boulders, gambles and shoots across the lake to borrow the 9th fairway, lands on the waste area (sand, but not bunker).

Robert Rock catches up w Tiger again. Lets see how this plays out.

WHO SAYS GOLF IS BORING?

Because his next shot is blocked by the stands, Rory gets a free drop. He's in the rough now, but with a clear view of the green.

His gamble pays off, Rory hacks it out of the rough onto the green in 3.

Lee36328 wrote:

Tiger takes out his 3 wood, suggesting he is going for the green in 2.

He makes an exquisite fade and lands toward the back of the green, pin in front. He has a downhill 2-putt for birdie.

Tiger, long downhill left to right putt.

Lags it close, what an excellent putt. Should be birdie, putting him alone at the top again.

Lee36328 wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Rory is in the sand, on a little semi island next to the lake.

He will damage his club on a boulder if he swings for the fairway/green, and he has an option to hit a high shot and borrow the 9th fairway. This should prove interesting.

Rory, feet straddling two boulders, gambles and shoots across the lake to borrow the 9th fairway, lands on the waste area (sand, but not bunker).

Robert Rock catches up w Tiger again. Lets see how this plays out.

WHO SAYS GOLF IS BORING?

Because his next shot is blocked by the stands, Rory gets a free drop. He's in the rough now, but with a clear view of the green.

His gamble pays off, Rory hacks it out of the rough onto the green in 3.

Rory lags his putt close for a par. An interesting lesson in creative course management.

-11 for tiger.... 2 shot clear at the moment going to the final round tomorrow..

Lee36328 wrote:

Lee36328 wrote:

Tiger takes out his 3 wood, suggesting he is going for the green in 2.

He makes an exquisite fade and lands toward the back of the green, pin in front. He has a downhill 2-putt for birdie.

Tiger, long downhill left to right putt.

Lags it close, what an excellent putt. Should be birdie, putting him alone at the top again.

Tiger alone at the top, -11 18 -6 70 69 66

Rory, T3......................-9 18 -4 67 72 68



1 -- 25 ↑+3 1 WOODS, Tiger -11 18 -6 70 69 66 - 205
1 14 117 ↑+2 2 ROCK, Robert -10 17 -5 69 70 - - 139
1 -- 47 ↑+29 T3 HANSON, Peter -9 18 -8 74 69 64 - 207
1 -- 44 ↑+13 T3 MOLINARI, Francesco -9 18 -6 74 67 66 - 207
1 -- 3 ↑+1 T3 MCILROY, Rory -9 18 -4 67 72 68 - 207

Interesting to watch Tiger's display of power, control, and careful shot selection and ball placement. Not just where to hit but also where to miss if he had to miss.

Meanwhile, Robert Rock also birdies the 18th, and ties with Tiger at -11, earning a spot to play with Tiger in tomorrow's final. This should prove interesting.

The top 10, after Day 3.

Tiger is building up an impressive set of stats after 3 days.





2 bogeys in 3 days.

Missed the green only twice on day 3, and scrambled perfectly.

In contrast, lets look at Luke Donald, current world no.1, compared to Tiger, former world no. 1.

At first glance, his day 3 stats do not look too different from Tiger's.




He hits a high number of GIR, missing the green only 4 times and his GIR putts per round numbers look very good.

But his scrambling stats are poor compared to Tiger. That suggests that when Luke does miss the fairway, he misses big, putting his approach shots under pressure, implying when he does miss the green 4 times, he could only scramble one of them. When he found the bunker, he also could not get up and down.

In contrast, Tiger missed the green only twice, and scrambled perfectly both times.

And what might explain this?

Well, take a look at Tiger's and Luke's average driving distance. Tiger 294, Luke 276, shorter by 18 yards. Next look at fairways hit, Tiger 10/14, Luke 7/14.

So Tiger is both longer, and more accurate off the tee than Luke.

GIR putts per round, Luke is still sharper than Tiger, Luke 25 GIR putts to Tiger's 28. But Luke is dropping shots when he misses the green, all stemming from shorter and less accurate tee shots.

It's a subtle difference, but magnified in the end results in the score card.

darn.. i missed the game today.. can't seem to find any videos of the game today.. haizzzz.

TW played well today. He also took some chances and his putting showed improvement. Not quite the same Tiger yet but he is definitely getting there.

Rory was playing well today but what impressed me the most was how he secured his par on the 18th. He was all over the place and to some extent, a little rash for his 2nd. He could have very well injured himself if he slipped while standing "over" the rock or if the ball had ricocheted off the rocks and hit him. Perhaps a better/safer option might have been to play the ball back onto the fairway. However, Rory's not one for safety and I guess it paid off with a par. He reached the green in 3 and even had a birdie chance. Definitely worth watching!

Missed the game today...

But thanks to bro Lee for the useful info!

Really hope he wins this and get his game back!