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Post by SUVFan on Aug 8, 2020 10:03:26 GMT -5
2020 PGA Round Two
I didn't quite jinx Tiger by saying he was likely to make the cut, but he sure came close to heading back to Jupiter for the weekend.
Round one saw Tiger hitting the ball well but, using a new, slightly longer putter, he was rolling everything in. He made over 115 feet worth of putts. Anyone who plays the game knows that kind of thing doesn't happen every day. So do Caddyshack fans even if they don't play golf. So yesterday, in Round 2, Tiger's putting went the opposite direction, with Tiger making just under 49 feet of putts, only about 10 feet on the front nine, which had to be messing with his head. He had a very makable birdie putt on the first but it slid past the hole, leaving Tiger a tap in par putt. He'd go on to bogey two holes on the front nine, every made putt more or less a tap in -- he did make a 3 footer. So when he made the turn, he was flirting with the cut line, which was projected to be at +1.
On the 10th, he finally managed to roll in a birdie putt from more than 10 feet out. Then the putting woes returned. He made another birdie on the reachable par 4 16th, though not the way the old Tiger would have done it. The old Tiger would have been putting or chipping for eagle, tapping in for birdie. This Tiger laid up 76 yards from the hole and hit a high spinner that landed past the hole and then spun back to about 12 feet or so. A smart play, to be sure, but very telling, too. In Tiger's threesome, only Justin Thomas went for the green -- and left himself a makable attempt at eagle. Thomas missed that putt but tapped in for a birdie that allowed the world #1 to cross to the "safe" side of the cut line at +1. That couldn't have sat well with Tiger and, I suspect, will impact his approach today. Anyway, Tiger made two more bogeys to go with the birdies on the back nine and his +2 day cancelled out yesterday's -2, leaving him at level par and one stroke of "cut cushion", a term coined during the broadcast by one of the ESPN commentators.
In a post round interview, Tiger said he needed to hit his irons more crisply and be more aggressive on the greens. 8 shots off the lead, he said he thinks he still has a good chance to win the tournament. While I won't count him out by any means (anyone who makes the cut could win if they play well enough), at best he has a very outside shot at a win. I'd rather draw to an inside straight! He's in a 16 way tie for 44th place. That means he'd have to make up ground on 43 others, including a group of 7 currently tied for 2nd at -6. Brooks Koepka chances of three-peating (one of the 7 at -6) are an awfully lot better than Tiger's chances of winning.
Developing.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 10, 2020 16:46:33 GMT -5
2020 PGA Wrap up: Tiger believes his tie for 37th place was competitive
Tiger pretty much imploded on Moving Day, shooting another 2 over par 72, leaving him +2 overall, and falling 11 shots off the lead. There were simply too many good golfers between Tiger and the trophy for him to have a chance on Sunday.
So with the pressure to win the tournament off, Tiger turned in his best round of the week, a 3 under 67 that was good for a 6 way tie for 37th place. The winner was 23 year old Colin Morikowa, who fired a 64 including a Tigeresque eagle on the par 4 16th -- no chip in: He cooly rolled in the 7 foot, slightly uphill putt that was all he had left after a prodigious drive! Interestingly, Morikowa is the same age as Tiger was back when he won his first PGA title 21 years ago. Tiger's day included 5 birdies and 2 bogeys, including what must have been a disappointing one on the last.
Afterward, Tiger chose to put an uncharacteristic positive spin on his performance:
The NY Post's comment about Tiger's newly adopted positive attitude is hilarious:
It looks to me like it's possible Tiger could win anytime he plays but his chances are a little worse than at least 10 or 20 guys.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 20, 2020 15:32:51 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Northern Trust, Round ICBS Sports is gushing that Tiger played well for Tiger today in the opening round of the Fed Ex playoffs. He's done for the day at -3, presently good for 29th with a few players still on the course (he was at 26th when I started composing), though he's 4 shots off Harris English's -7 and a quartet currently at -6. "Put's him in contention" is a bit of a stretch! It's the first day! What they really are saying is that he didn't play poorly enough to play himself out of contention on the first day. Or that he's playing well enough that, if he keeps pace, he could contend for the championship on Sunday. There's a lot of golf to play between then and now and it's noteworthy that Tiger had an early tee time today, so he should go out later tomorrow when it's likely to be windier and the greens a lot faster. CBS knows that a Tiger near the top of the leaderboard turns on TVs, so they're very hopeful.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 21, 2020 8:23:19 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Northern Trust, Round I, update
Technically, round II has started but it's very early.
Kind of as I expected in yesterday's post, Tiger dropped further in the standings, now tied for 33rd place with 23 others. Another 18 are tied for 56th, which means that the current projected cut line is -2. So "competitive" Tiger according to the self serving CBS story I linked to yesterday finds himself hovering just above the cut line. 6 golfers vaulted past yesterday's early leader to land at -8, so Tiger starts round two at 1:17 pm 5 strokes off the lead.
My analysis is that he played better than he did the last time we saw him but he needs to do today what he couldn't do in his last two starts and that is put up a second straight decent round. He probably needs to do better than -1 or -2 today and even -3 might not keep him around for the weekend.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 21, 2020 14:59:57 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Northern Trust, Round II
Tiger just finished the front nine. He had an opening birdie, offset by a bogie at the 3rd and 7 pars, so he remains -3 for the tournament. Right now, that puts him tied for 55th, and right on the cut line. He had to roll in a 6 footer for par on the 9th, after finding the rough off the tee and then failing to hold the green with his approach. His 25 chip seemed like an uncharacteristic (for the old Tiger) misread, playing way too little break. It was a fast chip, so his speed wasn't awful but he'd have been 2 feet short if he'd played enough break.
DJ is a few holes ahead of Tiger and is now 11 on his round and leads the tournament at 15 under, and will likely go deeper into red numbers before the round ends -- Scottie Sheffler is done for the day, turning in a 12 under par 59 to put him at -13 for the week so far. So Tiger needs to hit the gas on the back nine.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 22, 2020 8:03:26 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Northern Trust, Round II, Update
Tiger managed to remain at -3 for the rest of round II, which did turn out to be on the good side of the cut line. DJ had a chance for a birdie on the last that would have given him a 59 and taken him to -16 but missed it.
So Tiger teed off about 5 minutes or so ago on moving day tied for 58th place with 11 others, 12 shots out of the lead. Because the top 70 qualify to move on to next week's event at Olympia Fields, by being part of the top 70 this week, Tiger apparently has qualified to play next week already.
We'll see today if he can go low and get back in contention in this event or whether, as he commented after the PGA two weeks ago, he'll be content to have been "competitive", which pretty much meant making the cut.
To make the finals the week after next, he needs to make the top 30 next week, so he's going to have to step up his game or sit out the championship over Labor Day weekend.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 22, 2020 11:24:33 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Northern Trust, Round III
Tiger had the chance to hit the gas today but choked instead -- it you can choke starting in last place. He had a 4 footer for birdie on the 1st that slid across the lip of the hole. He made it to -4 on the 2nd with a birdie but gave that back on the 3rd. He missed another birdie putt on the front, along with another birdie and bogey to make the turn at -3.
The back nine was not kind. He bogeyed 3 of the first 5 holes on the back -- 11, 12 and 14 -- falling back to level par for the tournament before birdieing the last. So he's +2 for the day and 1 under for the tournament, presently in sole possession of 68th place. The good news is he'll be done early tomorrow.
It's no consolation that his playing partner, Rory McIlroy, played one stroke worse and ends his 3rd round at level par. But Rory's issues were not short missed putts. Rory's problem started just of the green on the 2nd when he was on the edge of a water hazard just off the green and his ball must have been up against a rock that Rory couldn't see and went backwards, back into the hazard. Rory did eventually miss a 5-6 footer and settled for a triple bogey snowman. Then on the par 4 7th, Rory made a hockey stick. So he went 3 under on the rest of the holes. Still, bad play can be contagious, just as good play can be inspirational.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 23, 2020 12:09:04 GMT -5
2020 Golf Championship -- Northern Trust, Round IV
It's not even 1 pm but Tiger's day is done. Through 7 holes, he'd made 5 birdies and appeared to be making something of a charge up the leaderboard, just one shot out of 35th place at one point. But he bogeyed the 8th, dropping back in the pack. He did manage to birdie the 9th but that was all she wrote as he went on to play the back nine at level par today, finishing with a 66, his best round of the tournament by two strokes (he had a -3 68 on Thursday), and -6 overall for the tournament. Presently, that's good for only a share of 57th place, which is good for only 16.8 points in the overall standings. I would expect that if players are tied for a position, they share the points for all tied positions (i.e., if 3 end up tied for 57th, the points for 57-59 would be combined, divided by 3 to compute an average, and each player who is tied would be awarded that average number of points) the same way the purse is divided. The Golf Channel just ran a graphic showing that Tiger started in 49th position but he's projected to finish in
TGC just interviewed Tiger who in response to a question about whether he was satisfied with his performance this week, answered the question as if it were directed only to today, saying that he was satisfied with his play today, that he was hitting the ball well and a much better, cleaner start and started the way he wanted to but couldn't keep it going. H Then the questioner turned toward next week, asking Tiger how pivotal his performance today is looking toward Chicago next week? Tiger responded in a way that made it sound like he thought he might not qualify for next week depending upon how he played this week, saying that if he didn't play well enough this week, he'd have played himself out of the finals. But looking at the standings going in, at 604 points in 49th place, he's 203 points out of 30th place. Because he's picking up only about 20 or so points and will not finish in the top 30, you have to figure he's going to fall further behind 30th place. But say he were to magically break even? Only the top 11 spots generate enough points for him to make the top 30 at a 203 point deficit. Except that ignores the fact that every top 30 ranked player who makes the cut next week (as well as the 25 or so ahead of Tiger and even those close to him in the standings) will add some amount of points to their totals. It looks to me like Tiger will need at least a top 8 finish next week just to qualify for the championship tournament and, depending on how the other guys do, he could need a top 5 finish. Maybe that's what he was trying to say but didn't say it very well.
The interview concluded with a question asking, with this being the first time he will have played back to back tournaments in forever, what's he going to do? Tiger responded that he plans to, "eat, lift and stay mobile," making sure his body's good. He said his game's where he wants it now but that they're all going to have to go learn a new golf course and that he'll be doing that, too.
Watching highlights of Tiger's round, one difference today in Tiger's game is that he was making the short putts I saw him missing on Friday and likely continued to miss on Saturday. If he can keep hitting the ball well and roll in some putts, no doubt he can contend. But to learn the new course, he's going to have to play it between now and Thursday, probably a couple of times, and that doesn't leave much time for him to rest his back.
I don't see him qualifying for the finals.
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Post by SUVFan on Aug 24, 2020 18:53:14 GMT -5
Golf Championship Standings
Tiger ended up in a tie for 58th in the Northern Trust tournament last weekend. That dropped him 8 spots in the standings from 49th going into the week to 57 heading to Chicago. His 620 points so far leave him 270 out of 30th place, the last spot that qualifies for the finals. 7th place in this week's tournament is worth only 270, which would leave Tiger 3 points short of qualifying.
So he needs at least a 6th place (300 points) or better finish to catch either Billy Horschel or Tony Finau at 907, as long as neither picks up a few points themselves. After that in 28th is Kevin Streelman with 923 -- catching him would require the 330 points from 5th place and that Streeman doesn't pick up 27 or that Adam Long or Cameron Smith stay below 950. 4th place would be worth an additional 75 points, but that puts only two more golfers in play.
A third place or better finish almost certainly gets it done. That would put Tiger at 1,190 points, 15 ahead of that household name Lanto Griffin at 1,075. It's most likely impossible for everyone in the 15-30 spots to get enough points to stay ahead of Tiger were he to gain 3rd place points this week.
So he's got an outside chance at qualifying for the championship but, after hearing that interview I mentioned yesterday again last evening, I think his sights are on the US Open in mid September. Playing this week and then taking some time off would give him a chance to rest his body a bit and then start preparing for the major.
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Post by SUVFan on Sept 20, 2020 12:47:18 GMT -5
Tiger Misses Cut at US Open
Tiger's opportunity to add another major in 2020 took a hit this weekend. It took +6 to make it to the weekend. Tiger had 4 strokes too many at +10.
He has one more chance. He'll defend his 2019 Masters championship in November.
As for the 2020 Golf Championship noted in the previous post he didn't come close to qualifying for the final tournament.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 9, 2020 19:17:19 GMT -5
2020 Masters
Tiger gets a chance to defend his title starting on Thursday. Vegas has the odds of him repeating at 35-1 (Full list linked in the main golf thread).
I wouldn't include him in a 5 player pool entry but I also won't say he's got no chance.
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Post by jimco22 on Nov 11, 2020 4:56:05 GMT -5
Watch out for long shots Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff and Xander Schauffele. Would be awesome if Tiger wins but still cannot reach Nicklaus with 18 major victories. Won't be watching much but love seeing great shots and video replays, going to be fun as always.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 12, 2020 21:24:37 GMT -5
2020 Masters
Tiger got off to a solid start! He finished day 1 at -4, putting him in an 8 way tie for 4th place, and only 3 shots off the lead.
The 45 year old started hot with a birdie on the par 4 first, remaining at -1 through 12. He proceeded to birdie both par 5s on the back as well as the par 3 16th. His round was bogey free.
If he can continue to play this well consistently, he'll probably repeat.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 14, 2020 11:52:38 GMT -5
Day two for Tiger was long. He started at about 2:30 pm yesterday and didn't finish until about 9:30 am this morning. He played round 2 at level par until he managed a birdie on 15 to get to -5. That's all she wrote. He started round 3 about 11 am (College Game Day is broadcasting live from the Masters and showed the tee shot) 4 shots off the lead but 5 guys share the lead (including #s 1-2-3 in the world rankings!) at -9 and 5 more are in 6th place at -8.
Tiger was getting decent looks at birdie, especially this morning but he really wasn't getting close with his birdie putts. The closest he came to another birdie was when he nearly holed out on 14 from a green side bunker, I believe but his ball stayed on the lip of the cup for, as Sir Nick puts it, a kick in par. Even I couldn't miss that one!
I have not checked to see how Tiger's 3rd round is starting. By now he should be approaching the turn.
Jim Nantz, ever the stat guy, couldn't help himself and pointed out that when Jack Nicklaus won his last green jacket at 46 back in 1986, he was in 17th place, 4 shots off the lead at the end of the 2nd round. Nantz may have delivered the announcer's jinx once again.
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Post by SUVFan on Nov 14, 2020 15:47:02 GMT -5
Tiger's 3rd round had to disappoint him. He was level par for the day, digging himself a hole with a pair of bogeys on the front nine but he was able to erase their effect on the back, finishing the day at -5 but much further back in the pack, now a full 10 shots off the lead. DJ could come back to the field on the final 5 holes, though more likely he'll go deeper into the red numbers. Once again I think there are too many good players ahead of Tiger should DJ falter for Tiger to pick up his 6th Masters this year.
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