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By Jordan Lauterbach  August 9, 2009, at 11:27 pm  Tiger Woods is two for two…and four for four.
After a four stoke victory over Padraig Harrington on Sunday at The Bridgestone, Tiger Woods won the second tournament of his three consecutive week run. That run comes to a mighty crescendo next week when Woods goes for his first major of 2009 at the PGA Championship at Hazeltine.
But Woods also won something else on Sunday, something that may not be a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but is still something to mention: The Major Tune-up Grand Slam. Woods has come out on top in each of his four final pre-major starts. But so far, it hasn’t worked out so well. What good is winning at The Arnold Palmer, The Memorial, or The AT&T National, if you toss up a dud when it really counts?
Usually that logic would be perfectly sound. But I think that this win for Tiger means a lot. After his disaster at The British, Tiger’s game was in as much flux as the best player in the world’s can be. He was struggling off the tee and looked to be mechanically out of sinc. But thanks to a summit with swing guru Hank Haney, Woods has seemed to have weathered another rain storm in his career in brilliant fashion.
As predicted, Sunday at The Bridgestone was about the battle between Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington. Two players with multiple majors in their trophy cases. Two players who have experienced struggles at times this year. In the case of Woods, the struggles were isolated to one week in Scotland. In the case of Harrington, the struggles have been almost constant.
After a season of missed cuts and unimaginable frustration, Padraig Harrington finally found himself in a position to win on Sunday. It was a position that must have felt a little strange and nostalgic for the Irishman who has failed to qualify for the weekend seven times this season.
It looked like Paddy didn’t have enough to keep pace with Tiger on the front nine. Harrington didn’t make any mistakes, but he didn’t make any birdies either. When Tiger Woods is breathing down your neck, you can’t keep making pars and expect to keep the Tiger in his cage. It was only a matter of time before Woods took the lead. It looked like curtains for Paddy. Nice try, see you next time.
But than something strange happen. On the precipice of yet another kill, Tiger Woods let up. Consecutive bogeys on 15 and 16 found the two stars of the day tied at the top with four holes to play. A tournament once thought to be over now had a ton of juice. It was conceivable that one birdie on the final four holes could win the weekend.
Harrington put an end to that two holes later. At 16, Paddy’s magic ran out with a triple bogey that was downright painful to watch. After a Woods birdie on the same hole, the tournament was over.
The most interesting subplot to the triple at 16 was revealed during Tiger Woods’ press conference. Woods said that the two were put on the clock in the later stages of the round. This means that the group were told that they were playing too slow and may be fined and/or penalized if they did not speed up. Woods mused that Harrington may have hit a shot or two that he wouldn’t have otherwise if the players were given free range to play at their own pace.
This is funny because the round did seem to be going a bit slower than normal, but nothing that raised my eye in terms of “unusual”. I don’t understand why the last group of the day would be given this sort of warning. Who exactly are they “holding up”? The CBS Evening news?….Please.
For tournament officials to mess with a fantastic Sunday of golf is both mind-boggling and discouraging. Who knows if this played a major part in Padraig’s collapse on 16. But it would be extremely plausible to think that rushing players late on Sunday would affect a player who has struggled all season. Considering that no one has been penalized for slow play in 20 years, the timing of the warning was extremely poor.
Tigers win was more than just one more for the trophy case. The win was his 70th ever. This moves him into third place all time behind Sam Sneed and Jack Nicklaus .
But like anything in golf, Tiger is not measured by how many times you win at Bridgestone, Congressional, or any other non-major course. It’s what you do in Majors.
The final test in that regard comes next week for Woods.
Next Week: The PGA Championship- Major #4! It’s the last chance for Tiger to get one in ‘09. After missing the cut at Major #3, this would be a great story. This will also be the first major this season that Tiger hasn’t taken a week off. How will that affect him? We know that the weekend off didn’t treat him well last time….Look for full converge here and on wcwpsports.com all this week
By Jordan Lauterbach July 8, 2009, at 12:56 am To my surprise, the buzz around Tiger’s latest triumph was not all of the normal “isn’t he great” fare that has been custom to his previous wins. The reaction has been more in the “OK, now what?” family. Not all are as impressed with his three consecutive “major tune-up” victories as I am. And I guess it makes sense. After all, what good are wins at The Arnold Palmer and The Memorial if the major events following provide average results? Average for Tiger, of course.
Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post provides this perspective:
Because he’s set the bar so crazily high for himself, this has been a theme to Woods’ year so far. Just when you think he’s going to take off and fly, there are stops and starts, and his wins become more matters of survival than the overwhelming dominance he used to display regularly.
Two initial reactions come from this.
1: People are already getting tired of Tiger not being a late Sunday factor in majors- Yes, it’s only been two so far, but this is Tiger that we’re talking about. He’s made his name winning majors. Not small tournaments. In golf, greatness is determined by how you play four weekends out of the year, and not by anything else. Unlike other sports, golfers can not fail to preform in the biggest events and be considered great. You must not only preform great in these events, you must do it multiple times. Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl, but was undeniably a great player. Quick!, name an all time great golfer without a Major?…I’m waiting.
For a sport that does not get weekly attention on the grand scale, perception can be skewed. People don’t care about the Memorial or The AT&T National. If you don’t win at least one of the four biggies, you are perceived to be in a slump. Is the golf fan who only watches four weekends out of the year aware that Kenny Perry is having a fantastic year, at age 49 no less? No. All they remember is the choke job at Augusta on Easter Sunday. This is the unfortunate nature of golfers. You can have a great year and not win a major. But the perception of having a great year is all in those four Sundays.
That’s what happened to Tiger. Personally, I think his win at AT&T National was very impressive, his most impressive of the year. The field was one of the best of the year for a non-major and Tiger had the lead or a share of it for the majority of the week. He also hosted the tournament. So with all the hoopla surrounding the host, he still goes out a sets the standard for the week in an impressive field. On top of that, Woods had to play perfect down the stretch to avoid a playoff with Hunter Mahan. And, he did.
2. Tiger is just not as dominant as he was five years ago. But that doesn’t mean he’s still not the best player on the planet. And with apologies to everyone else on Tour, its still not even close. My biggest problem with the notion that Tiger needs to “step it up” is this- have people forgotten that he missed most of last year with a leg injury. Tiger may be great, but he’s still human. He’s only a year away from winning a U.S Open on what amounted to a shattered leg. That takes a little while to come back from. Call me a Tiger apologist, but the real story should be “wow!, he’s won three tournaments in the first half of his first post leg surgery season.” That’s impressive enough for me.
I guess its just not “Tiger impressive”
By Jordan Lauterbach July 6, 2009, at 1:34 am The Trend continues.
For a third consecutive time, Tiger Woods rolled to victory in his tune up for a major championship. This week, it was his own tourney- The AT&T National at Congressional.
Woods shot a three under, 67 to capture his third win of the season. What made this victory just as impressive as his comeback win at The Memorial was the fact that a playoff with Hunter Mahan was just one slip up away. Mahan, who entered the clubhouse long before Tiger did, shot a course record-tying eight under 62 and climbed to within one shot of the greedy host. Mahan was showed anxiously hitting balls at the course range, waiting and wishing for a playoff hole or two. He quickly learned that waiting around for Tiger Woods to make a mistake on the Sunday back nine is often an endless proposition .
It was a fine way to close the tournament. In many ways, it was the only way to close this tournament. The head of the Tiger Woods Foundation was on the radio on Friday afternoon talking about what had gone into preparing for this weekend. He told us that in April, he handed Woods a general outline for the weekend. The laundry list of obligations for Tiger was a vast one. Certainly more then any regular pro is used to on a tournament weekend. But the very last line of the itinerary made Tiger a little less trepidation about the whole ordeal. It read “hand the trophy to yourself.” While it was certainly a humorous way to look at the end to a daunting weekend, it proved symbolic. After all, despite his hosting duties, he was still a competitor in the field. The speeches and galas and pro-am on Wednesday was nice. But Woods didn’t come to smile, shake hands, and slap some golf balls around. Woods came to win. Unlike his victory at The Memorial, you never got the sense that he wouldn’t.
Sunday left no doubt. After a bogey on the par four 11th (the same hole that Tiger doubled up on Saturday), Woods was nothing but consistent. Six pars and a birdie later, this weeks host was handing the trophy to himself. Now Tiger must turn his attention to Turnbury, the site of the British Open. While Tiger is one tour win away from the “major tuneup grand slam”, he is 0-2 in Major tournaments this year. In both The Masters and the U.S Open, he entered the final day within striking distance, but was not really a factor by the final few holes. You can guarantee that Tiger takes no solace in his three pre-major wins if he fails to get one of the big titles. The “major tuneup grand slam” is fun for golf geeks like me to write about, but no one really remembers any individual non-major tournament triumphs as “great”. Tiger thrives on being great.
As for the feature “non Tiger story” of the weekend, Anthony Kim, he faded a little to finish third. Kim was a bit off all day. He shot a one over, 71. At one point during the final round, it seemed like Kim hit more people than fairways. More than once, the 24-year old launched his tee shot into the gallery. He recovered nicely on some holes, considering the placement, but playing golf’s version of dodge ball with the paying public seldom results in PGA Tour wins. However, Kim’s week should not go unnoticed. A year after winning at Congressional, Kim spent much of the weeked with at least a share of the lead. As I’ve written all weekend, golf experts tend to think he’s the next big thing. This weekend did nothing to disprove that theory. Hey fellow golf geeks!- Want a ridiculously early favorite for the 2011 U.S Open at Congressional?….how about Anthony Kim?
Next up on Tour: The John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois- Because of Phil Mickleson at The St. Jude, I don’t think we got the full “weekend before a major” experience in June. The field isn’t the greatest, but some big names still are making the trip. Defending champion Kenny Perry returns from his week off to try and continue his outstanding season and take back the FedEx cup lead (Woods took control with his win this weekend)……. U.S Open champion Lucas Glover looks to prove he will never take a week off……. David Duval is back. He hasn’t played since his back-from-the-dead performance at the U.S Open. Was that just a fluke, or as I wrote after the Open, has Duval awoken from a Rip Van Winkle-like nap….Steve Stricker also plays for the first time since Bethpage and looks to add to his six top ten finishes…
By Jordan Lauterbach July 5, 2009, at 12:10 am Anthony Kim answered the bell on Saturday afternoon. After an even par round on Friday, I wondered yesterday if Kim would be able to hang at the top. Would he be able to put a few faulter holes behind him and play like he did on Friday, when he set a course record at a future U.S Open site? At first, It didn’t look like it.
Kim boggeyed his first hole of day. The fall was on. But to his credit, Kim did not let a poor start bother him. He boggeyed only one other hole on Saturday (the par 5, ninth) and now sits atop the leaderboard. Kim made big putt after big putt to save par and make the occational birdie. He ended the day tied for first at ten under par. The round was more about saving par and staying afloat then moving up on the board. And that was all right. Kim didn’t have to win the tournement on Saturday, or make much of a move up the leader list. His round on Thursday took care of that. I have more confidence in Kim’s ability to stay on top and have a real chance to win the tournement after the third round.
Joining Kim on top is the host of this weeks event, Tiger Woods’. Woods’ round was a lot more frustrating then Kim’s. After an eagle at the ninth, Tiger looked to have the tourney well in hand. At one point, he had a three shot lead and was pulling anyway. As anyone in golf will tell you, their are few things more dangerous than Tiger Woods with a multiple shot lead. Then, Tiger did a very un-Tiger thing. He let multiple players back into the tournement. Much to the chigrin of Woods, he was became a good host after double boggeying the eleventh. He recovered nicely after the hiccup, birdieing the sixteenth and making par on the rest. However, it still was odd. Tiger botched a pottential chance to end the tornement on Saturday. You don’t see that very often.
The feel good story of the tournement is obviously that of Michael Allen. The 50 year old Allen has played in 336 events in his PGA career and won none of them. He’s the kind of guy who hangs on until he’s fifty and then goes to the senior tour, hoping to rake in what never came on the regular tour. Looked like a good plan, too. Allen won the Senior PGA championship. A great story. Never wins a PGA event and then captures a Senior tour Major. But don’t speak too soon on Allens’ PGA record quite yet. After a fantastic 65 on Saturday, Allen sits one shot off the lead at -9. However, I wouldn’t expect this to continue. Generally, you go 0-336 for a reason. Look for Allen to fade early on Sunday and end up fifth or sixth. Still a solid finish for this unlikly factor.
I would look for Sunday to be a two and a half man race. I like Anthony Kim to play well and stay in it until the end with Tiger….Maybe a playoff?? (I hope). Don’t sleep of Jim Furyk either. Furyk is two back at -8. He shot a 69 on Saturday, his worst round of the tornement. I like Furyk to be one shot off the lead at one point, but fade in the back nine. It will be hard to jump over four players and win. Jumping over Allen and Cameron Beckman is more then do-able. I don’t know about Kim and Tiger.
By Jordan Lauterbach July 3, 2009, at 3:11 am Anthony Kim really likes Congressional. No, he really likes it. If recent history is any indication, Congressional is the only course that Kim looks competent at. Of course, that last statement is inherently unfair- but no less the truth.
After struggling through what has been an absolutely disastrous year for Kim, the 24year old returned to the site of his last victory yesterday with a bang. Kim birdied the last eight holes of his first round and set a course record with an 8-under 62.
You would generally think that setting a course record would put you well in the lead. Especially because Thursday is useully a day where players are still working out the kinks of the course, all while trying to put themselves in a position to make the cut on Friday. Not the case this week. Kim holds only a two shot lead over Tiger Woods, D.A Points, and Bryce Molder.
Other notable “top 10ers” include Jim Furyk, who is tied for sixth after at four under 66, and Boo Weekly. Weekly is tied for ninth after a three under 67.
K.J Choi (+7), WCWP fav John Merrick (+6), and last weekends near hero Paul Goydos(+3)are all in danger of missing the cut.
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