Woods Loses

Woods played 3 great rounds. 70,69,66.  He was hitting fairways and greens. His putting improved as the event progressed.

    On Sunday he tees it up tying for the lead against a relatively unknown who admits to being a bit star struck. Woods , the greatest front runner in the game for 15 years suddenly can't hit a fairway.  He ends up with his worst round, a 72.

    Using Tiger Woods as his own benchmark, it seems like a choke to me.   Kyle Stanely choked on one hole. Woods choked on the whole round.

If the order of the rounds was reversed and he shot a 69 or 6 on sunday we'd be inundated with how he charged on Sunday etc. etc. Winning is the only barometer left for Woods when he's in contention, if he doesn't it's a failure. But we all know that driving has been the weakest aspect of his game for some time and has frequently sabotaged otherwise good rounds for him. Thats why I have a hard time calling it a choke. And Rock has some experience playing with the best in the world, not as though he's jsut rolled out of bed and decided to win a golf tournament

IMO, neither one choked.

Stanley made one mental mistake that snowballed.

Woods just didn't play well and lost.  It wasn't like he was yanking 3-foot putts or anything.

Lanny's probably right, Noko. I retract my view that Tiger n Kyle choked miles apart. Kyle was nervous, being never there before and Tiger was unsure or not so confident being away so long. Rock was nervous but didn't choke. Rory's penalty cost him the trophy and Snedeker had a lucky break. And we can go on and on. I believe either Tiger or Kyle will win soon at Pebbles, not the Rock!!

Let me put it this way. If Phil  was standing on the 18th instead of Kyle  and he took an 8 do you think you might have heard the word 'choke' today?

     I doubt ' mental mistake' would have been the term of the day.


    Regarding the Liar, cheat and fraud. My stance is he choked by his own standards.  He has only failed 4 times out of 48 when in this position.   The oddss of him not winning would have been long.  So what went wrong? He  went from hitting the ball sweetly to missing all the fairays.  IMO Woods got tight......he choked. But I stress, only  when compared to his own standards.

Noko, I'll give you that by TW's standards, which are light years higher than anyone else on the planet, he did choke.  He is probably the only golfer on the planet that could have this scenario play out and have it called a choke job.

Jay I fully agree. Put any other player in the world in Tiger shoes yesterday and  it would have been a hard call to say who would win.Naturally some would be a hotter bet than others.  But this was a fully fit woods ( god only knows he's told us how fit he is ) in a situation that he has owned for 15 years.  That is my reasoning for calling it a chokr.

   How about I qualify it so there is no doubt.  We have heard all about The Tiger Slam. Well this was The Tiger Choke.  

Noko, I can't think of a specific example off the top of my head, but it does seem like there have been a couple of tournaments over the last 2+ years where Tiger was in a similar position and shot over par in the final round.  That would be more of a choke job than this, but given the criteria, this would still fit the category; just not as bad as some other events.

According to the records it's only happened 4 times ever. YE Yang was one of them.  And that was actually extra special as Woods has NEVER lost holding a 2 stroke lead....he lost that day..... 

    He is 37-2  holding a 54 hole lead.......stunning numbers.   From my point of view it  adds fuel to my Tiger Choke.

I think you guys are way off with your "choke" theories.  But it's a fairly meaningless term anyway, I suppose.

I don't believe those scenarios such as 44 times out of 48 when he tied his left shoe before he tied his right shoe, blah blah blah.  That's not sound science.

To me, choking is when you miss shots you would never miss (or almost never miss).  You start missing short putts, yeah, that's a problem.  You shank or top shots, get double-crossed, that kind of thing.

Stanley hit a great shot to 18, it just had a lot of spin on it, hit the greeen just right (just wrong), and still barely made it into the water.  If anyone wants to criticize Stanley, I'd suggest calling his decision bone-headed.  If he'd had flow the green, he could have taken four to get down from there.  The water was pretty much the only way he could lose.

As for Woods, a book is about to come out called "The Big Miss."  It's not like wild driving has never been a problem for him.

I think the word "choke" is better reserved for the guys who make the final pairing on Sunday, then shoot 80.  But this being 21st century America, where no epithet goes unhurled, "choke" is one more insult in sports fans' arsenals.  Oh, well, I am getting a sense of deja vu; I think we've already had this discussion.

Lanny, I like your thought process.

Great post Lanny.  Woods' performance was disappointing, but "choke" would be a misnomer.  

Was it a "disappointing choke"?

According to the records it's only happened 4 times ever. YE Yang was one of them.  And that was actually extra special as Woods has NEVER lost holding a 2 stroke lead....he lost that day..... 

That 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine, MN was historic.  Yang simply outplayed a lackluster Woods who could not make a putt on the slower greens.  Keep in mind that this was before the Thanksgiving Night Massacre where Woods mysteriously fell asleep at the wheel and was not required to take a blood test (apparent celebrity exclusion law in practice) at the scene.

Furthermore, in addition to spraying his driver, Woods has had serious problems with putting since coming back from his injury (not the stint in Mississippi to control his wayward boner).  If you remember from last year, Woods played well enough from tee to green to win the 2011 Masters but putted poorly down the stretch during the 4th Round (missing a par putt on the 12th to start).  Woods actually could have won that Masters but putted poorly and threw it away. 

Woods's concentration tends to waiver but that can happen with a pHound.

Why can't people just admit the facts . . .  why does it always have to be about Woods?


There were other golfers who just scored better.    How much simpler can it be stated?


Woods didn't score as well as others..

Lanny, I'd have thought a percentage was a perfectly firm science.

 The 37 wins and only 2 losses when holding a 54 hole lead  mean nothing in your eyes? Nothing more meaningful than which shoe he ties first?

  Stanley took an 8 on the easiest hole on the course. And you don't think that's a choke?   What do we need to see? A player on all fours heaving up his McMuffin?

as a lifelong fan of greg norman.....imo both stanley and woods choked.  one more dramatically than the other......but still the only explanation for what happened was the players got "tight".

what is the big deal?  If you have EVER played tourney golf or even golf for money.......YOU HAVE CHOKED!  Nature of the game.

i will take woods to play for me in any pressure situation (even right now) over almost anyone.  i suspect that i would favour rory mac soon (next couple of years will tell the tale).

no one is immune.  not even tiger of old!  made for good tv and unofficially kicked of the golf year!  should be fun watching this year.  most of the waning old guard are on their way out and some fresh faces and storylines are in. 

i predict an ace at the zoo this week!  why not?