I saw the scores for the Mayakoba, and before I clicked on Miller's scorecard, assuemd it was either a typo or some penalty that went unreported for a number of holes and led to getting binked for like 14 shots. The PGAtour.com subjected me to the sea of alternating light and dark orange. Holy mary mother of god. Has to be one of the ugliest rounds I've ever seen.

dadgum mechanic got all over that and tin cup flys on with a 3wd!

Two cracking tee shots on 15

Genuinely curious, how is someone who is playing "generally inconsistent"(I agree, though would say that it is mostly short game related) is not at least pretty close when their worst finish in their last 4 stroke play starts is a T15? This year he has 2 stroke play starts and was in the mix on Sunday both times, once he played mediocre and once he played terrible(compounded by Phil shooting lights out next to him). Bad rounds happen, and are most likely to happen when the pressure is on and you are making a swing change. Judging him on those 2 rounds alone and ignoring the other 6 is dumb.

It's also not surprising that he got bounced from the match play because that is where inconsistency will hurt you the most. In stroke play events, you can make up for your bad round with the other 3 rounds hopefully and still be in there on Sunday. Match play that is not the case, you gotta bring it every day or hope that when you have your "bad" round your opponent has a worse one.

I'm not saying he's back, though his progress is very encouraging, but I don't think it is ridiculous to say he is somewhat close. Unfortunately for us fanboys the haters always win on this forum because no matter if he's back or not, he ain't winning more than 50% of his starts so his haters have all those non-win starts to jump on him.

Maybe I am watching a different Tiger Woods play compared to everyone, but to me his driving has SIGNIFICANTLY improved in the last couple of tournaments. His misses are much tighter and he is certainly not hitting it 2 fairways over as much.

The biggest culprit is clearly putting, followed by wedge play. He used to be near the top of the tour in both categories but recently he has been at the bottom.

It certainly might be better nxt...like I said, I haven't looked at his stats at all this year. There wouldn't be enough the be statistically significant anywho. I am more just going by how wheels off it feels watching him since he drops the club in half his follow throughs.

As Your Boss stated, Chamblee is a joke and the immediate, easy to spot lol flaw in his thinking here is that Tiger's left wrist was more bowed when he was working with Hank compared to Sean and he putted plenty fine then.

I am not putting much weight into his actual driving stats over the past couple tournaments either, as you are right the sample size is too small though it is better. I'm more basing it off what I see. In Abu Dabi he hit a lot of good drives that just barely ran off/through fairways and I can't really recall any huge misses. Same thing at Pebble, only terrible drive I remember is Saturday on 18 when he hit the marshal. He used to have a handful of WTF drives every tournament.

What even is chamblee's argument? I don't see how it's possible, but I'd like to hear his reasoning, before I criticize it.

I hate Tom Abbot on the Golf Channel !!!!!!

It's partly a measure of how high a bar he's established that he can reel off top 15s and you don't think he's close to being his old self. Is he poised to win again this year? Yes. Do I see a guy who seems completely in command of his ball, sticking irons, who is an incredible scrambler to get through a shaky patch? No. So, more vague observations.

has he been a good player yes? is he good now? not so much. u cant make that big a deal out of somebody who hasnt won in almost 3 years.

will he win again? i hope not, but probably.

but the golf channel ramming its whole 3weeks of tiger promo down our throats is pretty bad

Are you saying "no" to the entire bolded sentence? I will concede that his scrambling has been poor, no doubt about that. Him and Phil used to be the deadliest with wedges in their hands, and even when he hit a bad one the putter was there to bail him out quite often. Now he is at the bottom of the barrel in both putting and wedge play. So the scrambling is not there, but the control of his golf ball and his iron play has been good/very good in his last few outings, to the point where he is still there with a shot to win on Sundays despite the poor short game.

And in some speculation, I would think the short game may be getting a little neglected in practice sessions recently due to him putting more time in to nail down the full swing.

I didn't think he played well against Castano or on the front+ against Watney. He did get it together at the end and failed with the putter. Overall, I wasn't impressed by the quality of golf in his matches.

When he's single handedly revolutionized a sport and made it worth billions more than it ever was worth before him, you kinda can...

I get all the arguments that people who only care about Tiger don't really care about golf and how Tiger is an arrogant dickhead and terrible person, but you can't deny his impact on golf or claim that he's not a big deal in any golf-related context. Because he is.

Despite yelling at kids, cheating on his wife and being a general dickhead, he's done more for golf than any other athlete has ever done for their sport. It doesn't make him a great person - but it does make him incredibly important for golf. Now and then.

Yes he didn't play all that well vs either, but a big factor in that was putting. But on his body of work as a whole since the Australian Open last fall, the control of his ball and iron play has been good/very good and certainly the best since 2009.

Arnold Palmer did the same exact thing many years before Tiger was born. And Arnie worked at giving back to the game, interacting with fans, etc.

But yes, because of Tiger the PGA Tour and golf in general has made tremendous strides without question.

BO

nxt he won his 1st match while shooting over par. his opponent was awful. tiger did not play that well.

come on he spent more time in the desert than a recruit with the french foreign legion.

tiger fans are grasping at straws looking for any glimmer of hope.

and watney was awful as well. who misses 2 wide open greens with your opponent dead on 1 and almost dormy on the other? and short side on top?

oh Leo, I conceded that he didn't play that well in his matches. Although other than holes 9-11 in the Castano match he didn't play that poorly considering how absolutely terribly he putted. Putting also held him back, and ultimately was his downfall against Watney.

Unfortunately you have shown over your brief history here that discussing anything golf related with you is pointless.

If, however, you would like to let your $ do the talking... I AM ALL EARS.

I will offer you the same bet I have offered the entire forum, amazingly I have no takers. Every time Tiger tee's it up you can select a player from the field and lowest finisher wins $100. Escrow required from someone reputable in this forum.

Oh he is important to Golf. All you have to do is look at the ratings. Even more so now as the Tiger haters love seeing him fail and the Tiger Lovers think he can dominate again. His work ethic can be applauded but his behavior on and off the court before the wife cheating and after are still a disgarce

oh i dont have much faith in most the guys on tour. i also dont bet on things outside my control.

i did say he was a great player. i just get particularly irritated by it still being all tiger all the time. do you honestly not think its a bit much at this stage in his career? like when he is not in contention say at the masters and the first thing they show is an update on tiger? thats how they open the final round?
or watching him walk from the parking lot when there is golf being played?

I hate the way the media exploits him, no doubt about that. I don't agree with the "this stage of his career" comment but you are probably implying the same thing the media an everybody else did after each of his 2 previous swing changes. How did that work out for all of the doubters? And this "not in contention at say the masters" you speak of.... considering he hasn't finished outside the top 6 since 2004 what are you referring to?

nxt i have to go check the scores and see how far back he was but i was mainly just using an example with the masters. it can be any turny he plays and makes the cut first thing they do is tiger update no matter how far back he is.

so masters was just being used as an example but im pretty sure there has been 1 or 2 where he had several guys in front of him and he was well back at the start of the day

His number one attribute throughout his domination was his mind, and he has currently lost that. That's why his scoring is not near what it used to be. It has very little to do with technique. "This stage of his career" means that he realizes for the first time that he is fallible, and other players realize this as well, it's like blood in the water. He won't be given any more W's.

He used the terms "like say" meaning as an example, not necessarily that tournament. Just an example that may or may not be true in this instance. It does get old.

BO

Leo, bro, I like you, but you've got to post on something other than how you hate Tiger Woods. There are two tournaments currently being played, neither of which feature Tiger anymore. Move on.

well i do post on other things. and i dont start any tiger discussions on any day