ship---this,

Maybe I just have more confidence in Rory than most. Not at one point yesterday did I think he would lose, especially not to Gillis.

Agreed with this.

Saying Rory was in 3rd gear is totally inaccurate. A good example would be his pitch shot (sorry I forget the hole) on the front 9 yesterday. Both announcers thought Rory would just pitch to the left and leave himself 8-10 feet for par, but instead he laid open a wedge from a tight lie and flew it at the cup.

Im talking about the whole round not just 1 shot here or there.

I didn't think so either, but that doesn't mean it's not possible to a tune of 25% or so. It was Rory's to lose for sure, but I promise you that Rory never thought is was in the bag and lets just cruise this coronation in. 3rd gear is how you play a hard course for 72 holes, not just the last 18. To me 3rd gear means you aren't taking anything for granted and are playing aggressively to a conservative target. That is one mainstream sports psychology thought I do like...c0cky swing at a conservative target. Pick a safe spot and then try to hit it there. Don't think "well, I am aiming 20 feet left but if it slides closer that is fine.
NO, pick a target and hit it there. Period.

There was definitely a chance playing 15-17 with a two shot lead. For me, I didn't really decide it was over until his bunker shot on 15, so there was ten to fifteen minutes of, well, let's see. I did think he was basically in control the entire way.

He definitely could have gone lower, but the way he played the back 9 reminded me a lot of how Tiger used to play with a lead on Sunday. Just steady as she goes, nothing flashy at all.

I was probably more "worried" (didn't care if he won or not - he played great) about Gillis than Rory was though, right? How many times has Gillis been paired with the would-be #1 golfer in the world on Sunday playing a couple strokes behind most of the round? And as someone on TGC said, securing 2nd or 3rd money for a guy like Gillis would be pretty huge.

I was just thinking maybe Rory "knew" that par golf would stave off Gillis and English and figured Tiger would have to tie the course record (which was set on Friday), to even get to a playoff. If he did, he was right. I just wonder if the people who think "Tiger almost came back to win!" are being short-sighted wrt how Rory needed to play Sunday. And I'm not talking about people itt, but just casualfans across the world.

Anyway I didn't even get to see Rory at the bear trap/ending as I forgot to DVR NBC so my GC footage cut off when Rory was on 15. And by the time I got to this point the live tourney was a half-hour over. lol

Kinda shows his maturation too. There was even a time when Tiger was younger where it was all about winning by 8 instead of 7, instead of just securing the win. Rory is all ready doing that.

ship---this....are you really saying Gillis is comparable to Mahan?? LOL, come on bro....

saying "LOL GILLIS" or "LOL whoever" is really dumb on a per tournament basis. Anyone can play hot any week. I mean goddamn, Tiger must really suck, he barely beat Bob May and Rocco Mediate! Discounting Gillis because his career has sucked is dumb because its all about how he is playing from Thursday through Sunday. Rory for sure wasn't sitting there thinking a 2-shot lead over Gillis was insurmountable. Much crazier things have happened in golf.

Well, schu said EXACTLY what I was going to say. Almost anyone on the PGA Tour when it is their week is interchangeable...yes Mahan is better week in and week out, but this was Gillis' week.

maybe I am just trying to make myself feel competitive since I am 1-0 vs. Gillis all time since I put a one shot smack down on him at Finals in '08.

There have been a couple of comments like this, and maybe I missed something, but he missed 3 of the last 5 greens. And not like on the fringe misses.

If anything, the score he shot on the back 9 was the absolute lowest he could have, outside of playing safe on 18.

1 shot or a million an ass kickin is an ass kickin!

Yea I'm a bit confused too. Rory obviously did what he needed to do but he made it far from easy for himself. He hit 1 "good" approach shot all day right before Tiger eagles 18. Other than that his proximity to the hole was 51' compared to the fields average of 35' it was a poor ball striking day. He made some awesome saves tho and some clutch putts. It just wasn't the type of round I would call a cakewalk to victory.

Agreed. Tiger did put the pressure on him and he came through

i had a lot goin on sunday so i didnt pay that close attention. But rory had to think teein off tht 1 under or par prob ties.
As the round pogressed do guys think that it might not have been such bad bal strikin but maybe just eliminating certain areas?

Exactly. Looks like he hit 9/14 fw's and 11/18 greens. Not the stress free cruising it seems like some here think he did.

His strokes gained for Sunday was 3.028. And he shot 1 under. TW's strokes gained for Sunday was 3.196. So essentially TW and Rory putted the same, but TW got him by 7 shots. Not a good ballstriking day from Rory. Great short game show he put on though for sure.

Yes, but using the 51' vs 35' does you no good if you don't know what their target was. That is the one thing that makes that stat kind of useless overall. I can assure you that Rory had at least a 10' more conservative target on most holes and even bigger one on a few more.

Well, he tried to play steady (and failed, as far as his approaches went, but thankfully his short game was masterful). Point was he wasn't firing at pins and being unnecessarily agressive; he was hitting 3wood off the tee and going for the middle of the green. Yeah he kinda sucked at doing so, but he never put a big number into play on any hole and was able to ride his short game to the win.

To illustrate your point, I think 15 and 17 are obvious. He's standing on the tee thinking bunker is good, should be able to make a fairly routine up and down from there. So he hits into the bunker. Makes up and down.

OMG Mad Scrambler misses another green and does it again!!!

and yea, what shemp said.

I would discount Rory's 3 putt avoidance from 50+ ft in the strokes gained category based on two things:

1. I assume pros are better on Sunday in 3-putt avoidance (I might be wrong, but I assume that 3 previous rounds on the same green help).

2. I assume, if you wanted a 50'er, you'd be relatively happy with the ones Rory left himself-- appropriate side, etc.

Tough to compare two guys who over 18 holes faced entirely different challenges and had entirely different goals. Strokes gained putting is one tool that helps. Another might be total distance of putts made (Tiger 126', Rory 86').

Yea I understand it's not perfect or entirely accurate, my only point was that he didn't hit the ball well enough all day to where it was a pretty stress free/no doubt he loses type of round.

My first thought when I saw Gillis play yesterday was "I wonder how Ship would compare with this guy."