Quote from aphexcoil:
I was very surprised to see the PGA rookie Curtis win the open -- but it was also refreshing. He was the only person to score under par for the four rounds, if I'm not mistaken.
Tiger is now what ... 5 consecutive majors without a win? What's going on with Tiger's game? I wonder if he's reaching his peak?
Anyhow, it was a good British open in my opinion.
It was another strange finish, kind of like 1999 when Van de Velde collapsed on the 18th hole to force a playoff. I think Bjorn had a difficult shot under pressure circumstances and may have gotten a bit careless with the first shot. Clearly, he was trying to pull off the "perfect" shot and had a very thin margin of error with that steep upslope that funneled straight back into the bunker. Curtis really didnt finish strong, it was just a matter of having enough shots to "give back" that enabled him to hold off and win. I think that is pretty common in the majors since all of these guys seem to get very tight with a lead, the sole exception seems to be Tiger.
As far as Tiger goes, I have a few theories. First off, the technology. If we think of Tiger's combination of accuracy and distance as one of his major "edges", that has been neutralized in the past year. If you are really interested in just how big a difference the technology has made on tour, you should look at the player stats section on the PGA Tour website. There are many tour veterans, who 10 years ago, were below average distance wise, back when the guys were using balata golf balls and the old Taylor Made or Big Bertha drivers. These guys have benefitted tremendously and are also benefitting from the low spin rates with the new golf balls. So, they can aggressively swing at the ball with more confidence, knowing that the low spin golf balls will tend to fly flatter and with less side to side spin if they mishit a tee shot.
Secondly, Tiger has throttled his game back alot in the past few years. I think he has become a more mature player and tends to play more like tour veteran, less like a young guy with nothing to lose. But back to the stats. The Golf Channel recently presented some really interesting stats on Tigers game. It showed that his short iron play is near the bottom on the PGA Tour(i.e 125-150 yards). He is only hitting around 63% of GIR from this distance. Compare this to the fact that he is hitting nearly 65% of GIR from 200yds+. So, he is still the best long iron player in the game, but from inside of 150, he is near the bottom. Interestingly enuf, when he hits greens from 125-150, his conversion rate for birdies is in the top 5.
So basically, Tiger is not driving the ball as well as he used to. When he does drive the ball in play, he is not hitting many greens from "scoring yardages". His putting is still in good form, but many other parts of his game have fallen off a bit. Still, he is close enough to the top and he does have 4 wins this year. I think its just a case of having a few bad holes a tournament and that is something he avoided back in 1999-2001 when he went on his victory march.
The bigger question is what the hell happened to David Duval!!!!
