Was Tiger a great short game player when he was dominating, or was he just over powering courses. I didn't really start watching golf until after Tiger.

According to Haney he wasn't that great at routine / easy chip shots, but he was really good at the super hard shots.

But his main differentiator was always iron play. The Broadie book goes thru the stats and they are insane.

Yea he gained the most strokes via long approach shots I believe. His approaches from 200-250 were markedly better than tour average iirc

His creativeness with his short game was insane, and his recovery shots were nuts. His ability to overpower it out of deep rough that nobody else could dream of going for the green from was uncanny (and also probably part of the reason his body broke down).

I would imagine the reason his long irons were so good (as the previous poster mentioned) had to do with the height he could get on them.

There was also a decade where it felt like if Tiger needed a putt inside 15 feet, he got it, period. I'm sure he missed some big ones along the way in there, but not many.

That's interesting , but not surprising I guess. I was actually thinking this morning that it would be interesting to see a competition played where they teed off from a difficult lie, instead of an easy one. Perhaps a side hill lie, or something in a divot, behind a tree, etc. I think it would be another way to differentiate the level of skill of the players. i think it was Sean Foley that said the PGA tour players are at their best on the more difficult shots. If that's true, why not set things up a bit differently?

One of the problems with that would be that you are changing the rules and definitions of certain parts of the game. Also when you start doing that, where do you draw the line before it becomes ridiculous? I don't mind the idea, I just have a problem with it becoming a circus

While he was long off the tee which led to so called "Tiger proofing" that wasn't were he was miles ahead. Outside 175 and especially outside 200 he was miles better. As others have said he seemed better at hard short game shots and seemed to make any putt he needed to at will.

I always say he was able to do the impossible when he wanted to.

Years ago (1997) at a practice round at Winged Foot he’s in a bunker easily 8 ft deep to a short sided pin. Guys are saying “he never gets out”. My buddy says “even money on $1 he gets out. $5 if he’s within 5 feet”. A few guys near him say “sure”.

Tiger hears this, turns around, says to my buddy “good bet”, puts it to within a foot, winks and climbs out.

This.

I remember watching him at Torrey Pines one year. On #2, a short par 4, he drives the ball about 40 yards short of the green but buried in deep, deep rough with a pretty steep downhill lie. The ball wasn't at all visible. I thought to myself there's no way he can do more than just chunk it out of there. Instead, he takes a hard swipe at it. The ball comes out like a low bullet, takes two hops and actually spins backward to about two feet from the hole.

Routine Tiger birdie.

My Tiger story is from following him in the second round of the 1996 Disney tournament. I was surprised at how skinny he was then, he looked like a twig.

On one of the holes with water all along the left I was standing to the side of the fairway while Tiger was walking to the fairway from the tee. There was a huge crowd of people. A deer jumped in the water and was swimming across. Then I noticed an alligator swimming towards the deer at a 90 degree angle. I'm watching this thinking what he is doing.....when the alligator gets to about 15 feet he accelerates and I'm thinking no way....the alligator hits the deer and takes it under for a second, the deer pops up and runs out onto the fairway, its missing an ear, alligator swims away, deer tries to run across the fairway but is blocked by the crowd of people on the other side, runs back and forth between the crowd and the edge of the water a couple times (isn't about to go back in the water), it finally finds on opening in the crowd and gets thru and heads into the woods. Tiger ends up shooting 63 and notches his second win, after some random guy is DQ'd for a non conforming putter group.

Thought the story was gonna end with Tiger parting the crowd like Moses so the deer could get through.

Chris Como gets the boot, Tigah going to do it on his own.

At least for now

Tiger must have recently bought a Medicus

Too many painkillers?

But possibly the best decision he has made in years. Time will tell.

I put him on a custom red and black Orange Whip.

I thought Como cured him of his yips??

Genesis Open (Riviera) going to be his 1st tourney back since Bahamas. That's a good decision. Stay warm weather Tiges.

That tournament is far from auto-warm. Tons of rain delays and rainouts.

I going to write this off memory so I may be totally incorrect.

One year it was 54-holes only because of rain I think. There was like a 7-man playoff. Robert Allenby hit a 3-wood into #18 (a par 4) like 6-feet away for birdie. The hole is usually driver 7-iron, but because of the rain, it plays like a beast.

Yep: http://www.espn.com/golfonline/tours...5/1110170.html

Brandel was one of the guys he took down in the playoff.

I was wrong about it being shortened. That was a brutal rainstorm if I recall. That tournament is totally hit and miss with rain.

That was an epic shot by Allenby.

That kidnapping/beating in Hawaii really shook him up.

It is California in January/February so ya it happens. But, I still like it as better choice for return than say Torrey with extreme length/rough/and almost always a wet cold fog rolling in. Remember when Snedeker snuck into the clubhouse ftw before the downpour and wind hit?....talk about a course playing like a beast.

Otherwise for Tiger just wait until the Florida swing I suppose. Kapalua this weekend seems like the perfect destination and time gap actually, but that's out of the question.

I think he is some type of host/sponsor of LA Open. Otherwise he would wait until Florida.

Yeah he is, he was slated to play there and the Honda last year. But never made it, he played Torrey before that and then flew out to Dubai where the back didn't hold up on back to back weeks. It seems he's being slightly more cautious, he needs to be imo, so it's good to see.

I wonder if he does win this year, if he'd play Kapalua next year since a good amount of big names show up there now, and there's no cut which he seems to prefer in these early tune ups.

Jesus...he's gonna play it. RIP new leaf Tiger

Tough course for his first official PGA start in over a year. Probably 50/50 to make cut.