Tiger’s Back!
posted in Telivised Golf, Tiger Woods |Tiger Woods won his first PGA Tour event since season-ending knee surgery last June after his U.S. Open victory.
The victory came at Arnold Palmer’s Bayhill Invitational, an event that Woods had won 5 other times in his career.
Woods began the day 5 shots behind 54 hole leader Sean O’Hair. Sean ended up shoot three over whil Tiger shot 3 under for the final round, giving him a one shot victory.
If you watched only saw the highlights, you probably felt the 16 foot putt on 18 for birdie to win was the shot of the day for Woods. I will admit that Tiger has an uncanny ability to pull off big-time putts in clutch situations. two of his other victories at Bayhill were won on the 72nd hole with long putts for birdie. But since I watched the entire last round, I can tell you that there was plenty stellar play beforehand that gave him the opportunity to make that final putt. And to me, the greatest shot of the day occurred a hole before, and probably won’t even get any air time at all.
The 17th at Bayhill is a long, difficult par 3. The pin was tucked in the back right with a gaping bunker protecting it. As the final group stood on the tee, Woods had a one stroke lead. The smart play was to aim left and cut it back toward the pin. Tiger pushed the shot just a tad the high fadeit got hung up in the cooling dusk air. The ball landed about 2 inches below the lip of the facing bunker and plugged right in place. Now a fried egg lie like that is tough enough, but the steep slope made the stance almost impossible and the ball was actually underneath the overhanging, rough-lned lip of the bunker. Tiger had to kneel on his left leg in the thick rough just to be able to address the ball.
Tiger took a full shoulder turn and whacked the ball straight up in the air where it landed hard on the green and race about 20 feet by the cup. He missed the putt and fell back into a tie with O’Hair heading into the 18th.
So why do I think that bunker shot was the most amazing shot of the tournament when he didn’t even get it up and down? First of all, The average tour player would probably get that shot on the green one in 10 times. The average good amatuer would leave that ball in the bunker 9 out of ten times. The shot was that difficult. Even though he made a bogey, most other players would have double bogeyed that one. That bunker shot enabled him to only drop one stroke and still feel like he was in command going into the 18th.
Second of all, it showed that his knee is completely back - and probably better than it’s ever been. WIth the state his knee has been in the last three years, he wouldn’t even have been able to TRY that shot, much less pull it off.
Tiger’s back. In only 3 starts since coming back this year after a 9 month layoff, he won. He had looked good in his other two starts. I saw him in person at the Match Play in Tucson and he was hitting the ball well. His big problem was that his short game wasn’t quite at Tour speed yet. This week at Bayhill, Tiger’s short game was phenomenal, and that’s what won him the tournament.
That’s a good lesson for all you weekend Warriors out there. Spend at least half your practice time on the short game and your scores will improve. Here is a link to a free short game tips that will help immediately improve your short game.