Masters 2019 discussion

[Tearjerker]

Tiger will have to manage his schedule judiciously IMO.
He's obviously in great shape but age sneaks up on you.
Pick and choose when to compete.
Plus he has a great rapport with Joe LaCava, which is critical.

He's already confirmed he's going to be playing fewer events than last year. He played more last year because he needed to work himself back into tournament shape and he needed to raise his World Ranking to make sure he qualifies for all the big events. He won't have a need to play 19-20 events this year, he'll probably play closer to 14 or 15 per year from now on.

Edit: Also I hope he never plays the Matchplay ever again, the amount of rounds you have to play to win isn't worth it for him at this point. Potentially 7 rounds in 4 days is too much. Foppa21 is right that it was a blessing in disguise for him to get eliminated when he did. He should play the Valspar instead going forward, the course suits him and he nearly won there in his first attempt last year finishing T2.

 

[Graves The Elder]

both posts by you and foppa spot on IMO
what he's really seeking are those MAJORS, right?
lol, good luck

 

[Tearjerker]

both posts by you and foppa spot on IMO
what he's really seeking are those MAJORS, right?
lol, good luck

That and to break Sam Snead's 82 PGA Tour wins record. Tiger is at 81 so he should prioritise that when possible. Which means he should look at tweaking his schedule, he only likes playing the biggest events but some of those are at courses that don't suit his current play style, and replace those with some events that are at courses that do fit his current game. I'm a big advocate of him playing the Valspar and Wyndam as those courses don't require many drivers and place an emphasis on irons and 2nd shots (something he is the best on tour at).

 

[JSN]

He played more last year because he needed to work himself back into tournament shape

 

[Oblivian]

The resurgence already started with him contending last year and winning the Tour Championship.

He'll contend. The difference now is that he doesn't have the talent advantage (probably a poor choice of words) over his fellow competitors like he had in the 2000s. He used to be able to get away with somewhat bad play and play his way out because he could do stuff that people couldn't really do.

These days, it's more solid golf. Try to in 3 to 4 under every day, consistently and hopefully that'll be good enough. That in itself is a skill though

When I say resurgence, I mean that there are people that think he's going to be in similar form to earlier in his career. In a span of 12 years, he racked up 14 majors. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see him take another major. He had 5+ wins in most of those years too. We won't see that either most likely.

 

[DangDaGawd]

When I say resurgence, I mean that there are people that think he's going to be in similar form to earlier in his career. In a span of 12 years, he racked up 14 majors. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see him take another major. He had 5+ wins in most of those years too. We won't see that either most likely.

I think he can take another one or maybe even two, but he won't ever be the old Tiger blowing the field out by 10+ strokes again.

 

[Foppa21]

When I say resurgence, I mean that there are people that think he's going to be in similar form to earlier in his career. In a span of 12 years, he racked up 14 majors. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see him take another major. He had 5+ wins in most of those years too. We won't see that either most likely.

It's a stretch to win that many tournaments in a year. In general (from my memory) he tried ot keep his starts to 18-20 per year and focus on the majors. At 5 wins, that's 25% of his starts which is insane. Just the absolute physical dominance he had over FCs. He doesn't have that advantage anymore.

This year's majors apparently suit his eye. I don't know about Bethpage, especially with the US Open set up but he's had success there before. But thick rough on a long course where he'd be forced to hit driver didn't usually end in a good result for him the last few years (even when healthy). His driver looked damned good at Augusta though... For a start he wasn't playing his second shot on the first from the 10th fairway like he normally does.

 

[Foppa21]

both posts by you and foppa spot on IMO
what he's really seeking are those MAJORS, right?
lol, good luck

That's all he's been hunting for the last 15 odd years lol. The man doesn't need money (but one can never have enough of it either!).

Like my previous post, I don't think he'll seriously contends in a US Open again the same reason that I doubt Phil will ever win a US Open. Potentially too wayward and setup will kill the body with the amount of rough usually in play. Tiger's got his driver the best we've seen for years now (hell, I want to go out and buy a new M5 now just to see if it can help me keep my drivers on the same planet). Phil was a mess at the Ryder Cup and I'm assuming there's only so many flop shots you can dig out on 2 inch thing rough in 4 days.

Phil though added a crazy amount for swing speed in the off season thought. From memory, he added like 5mph... for like a 48 year old. Gives me hope. I'm thinking of buying into that system too but the hardware (a graphite shaft with a weight on the end of it lol) is like $400!

 

[Foppa21]

That and to break Sam Snead's 82 PGA Tour wins record. Tiger is at 81 so he should prioritise that when possible. Which means he should look at tweaking his schedule, he only likes playing the biggest events but some of those are at courses that don't suit his current play style, and replace those with some events that are at courses that do fit his current game. I'm a big advocate of him playing the Valspar and Wyndam as those courses don't require many drivers and place an emphasis on irons and 2nd shots (something he is the best on tour at).

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that his strokes gains stats for the Masters weren't exceptional. Don't think he led the field in any stats, maybe top 10 in something like approach to green. I think he was around 30-40 in almost every stat.

Just happened that, it was good enough and the wily veteran made the veteran plays (like aiming for the middle of the green on 12). We'll never know what he'd do though if Molinari's shot on 12 stuck though.

 

[Tearjerker]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that his strokes gains stats for the Masters weren't exceptional. Don't think he led the field in any stats, maybe top 10 in something like approach to green. I think he was around 30-40 in almost every stat.

Just happened that, it was good enough and the wily veteran made the veteran plays (like aiming for the middle of the green on 12). We'll never know what he'd do though if Molinari's shot on 12 stuck though.

He was middle of the pack in most stats at the Masters except for one. Greens in Regulation, he was 1st, which is incredibly important at the Masters because the greens are so undulated that chip shots onto the green aren't trivial like they are on most other courses.

 

[Madmick]

When I say resurgence, I mean that there are people that think he's going to be in similar form to earlier in his career. In a span of 12 years, he racked up 14 majors. Honestly, I'd be surprised to see him take another major. He had 5+ wins in most of those years too. We won't see that either most likely.

I don't expect him to hit that form, but he barely missed winning the FedEx Cup last year. He's definitely in the best form he has been in since he took a golf club to the head from the wifey.

 

[Oblivian]

I don't expect him to hit that form, but he barely missed winning the FedEx Cup last year. He's definitely in the best form he has been in since he took a golf club to the head from the wifey.

Barely missed winning it is a bit of stretch. I mean he was 20th place heading into the final event. He had a huge jump because of the final win. I think a lot of people are holding out way too much hope for him. It will be exciting to see him in contention, but his advantage over the field is gone.

 

[Madmick]

Barely missed winning it is a bit of stretch. I mean he was 20th place heading into the final event. He had a huge jump because of the final win. I think a lot of people are holding out way too much hope for him. It will be exciting to see him in contention, but his advantage over the field is gone.

Well, I just mean to highlight he won the Tour Championship, so this isn't an isolated big PGA tournament win. He was also 2nd in last year's PGA Championship, and finished in the Top #6 in a total of seven PGA events last year.

He's not going to gobble them up. Each one will be a surprise, and an enormous achievement, but I think he might have more wins than this one left in him.

 

[iwhoopedbatman]

I don't follow golf, but have heard the narrative that Tiger 'ruined' himself with strange workout and lifestyle decisions (not talking about all the women). Is this actually the case? I always assumed it was exaggerated, but don't actually know anything about it. Back injuries are just a bitch and I assumed some people decided they needed something to blame.

 

[Graves The Elder]

I don't follow golf, but have heard the narrative that Tiger 'ruined' himself with strange workout and lifestyle decisions (not talking about all the women). Is this actually the case? I always assumed it was exaggerated, but don't actually know anything about it. Back injuries are just a bitch and I assumed some people decided they needed something to blame.

throughout his early years lets face it he was scrawny. at Stanford, ppl referred to him as Urkel. who wouldn't want to change that perception?
it's pretty well known he took steroids to bulk up along with more exhaustive weight lifting workouts.
he injured his back therein and the rest is documented. pain, surgery, drama, etc.
the steroids also made him a world class pussy hound, which he never was before, and that's also more than well documented.
he can afford expensive micro surgery and it apparently worked, along with his renewed will to compete at the highest level.
I used to loathe the guy but gotta give it to him, he's tenacious and I like seeing him win.

 

[Foppa21]

I don't expect him to hit that form, but he barely missed winning the FedEx Cup last year. He's definitely in the best form he has been in since he took a golf club to the head from the wifey.

The only reason he got that close was because of the heavily weighted points system for the last event. In saying that, he had what would be a decent season for a guy not named "Tiger Woods". Won a tournament, contended at two majors (at least one of them was a T2), was in the running in a few more tournaments.

 

[Foppa21]

Well, I just mean to highlight he won the Tour Championship, so this isn't an isolated big PGA tournament win. He was also 2nd in last year's PGA Championship, and finished in the Top #6 in a total of seven PGA events last year.

He's not going to gobble them up. Each one will be a surprise, and an enormous achievement, but I think he might have more wins than this one left in him.

Some people poo pooed the Tour Championship as it isn't a full field event. It's a field of about 30. I countered it by saying it's the top 30 players of the year so they aren't exactly mugs and Monday qualifiers either.

 

[Foppa21]

I don't follow golf, but have heard the narrative that Tiger 'ruined' himself with strange workout and lifestyle decisions (not talking about all the women). Is this actually the case? I always assumed it was exaggerated, but don't actually know anything about it. Back injuries are just a bitch and I assumed some people decided they needed something to blame.

LONG POST WARNING

Depends who you believe. He got into heavy lifting and SEAL type training apparently broke him some more.

I don't buy into it all. It's more the swing changes IMO. Tiger's always wanted a swing of his own. After the first Masters he won way back he went into a bit of a funk for about 2 years (as in results weren't what people expected) because he decided to do a complete overhaul of his swing which some considered (and still do consider) to be nuts especially for a guy that was young and already winning. This was probably before his whole "I want a swing people remember me by" thing but I feel it was more his thinking that he could see where golf was heading and wanted to get ahead of the curve. The early 2000s happened then he decided to change (I think as well to get distance).

On the injuries front, because of all the training he was doing and certain "moves" in his swing was putting stress on parts of his body. I could be getting my timelines wrong (ie it could've been after the US Open, pre Sean Foley who I'll get into later) but he adopted a move where you effectively snap your leg straight at impact as another moving cog to create more lag at impact to get more distance. That "snap" puts a lot of pressure on the knee and I believe (again if I have my timeline correct) was a contributing factor in the US Open he won on a "broken leg". I vaguely remember Rory McIlroy doing the same thing and straining his knee a few years ago that was attributed to the same move.

When he came back again following the Thanksgiving attack with a (I believe) 7 iron, he again made changes to his team including taking on Sean Foley as his instructor. He made changes to his swung, including a more forward leaning shaft at impact and a steeper angle of attack. Tiger also became obsessed with numbers (Trackman etc) as this was Foley's style of teaching where it didn't matter how your body got you there, all that mattered was the numbers. I think at the end of the era, he was just doing all these things that put more pressure on his back and blew it out, again, proper. In fairness, he had good success early on (I think it was 2010 where he won 5 tournaments, including the WGC and possibly even the FedEx) but I feel that chasing the numbers just put his body in a position it shouldn't be in.

^^ That is all off memory, so forgive me if some of the stuff is wrong. I did a lot of reading on it as it was about the time I became a bit of a golf addict and tragic.

Now for my opinion. Where he probably overdid was he didn't give himself enough rest. I was reading stuff like he was doing the sleep deprivation stuff. That, without being there, we'll never really know and I don't trawl enough the S&C forum to even pretend like I know what I'm talking about whether it was "good". I don't think the weight lifting hurt as much as people say. He didn't get completely yoked... he was yoked by golf standards which ain't a especially high bar back then or now. I think the only thing it might've hurt is his flexibility, but he was going to lose some of that with age anyways. Brandel Chamblee is going to harp against it (when Tiger was on the shelf, he changed target to Rory). I don't think it hurt Rory's game much either.

Look at the other guys considered big these days in Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. Doesn't seem to hurt them but I think those guys are naturally huge and have been lifting since their teens.


Feel free to dismiss anything I've put up there guys. Fire suit is on

 

[Foppa21]

throughout his early years lets face it he was scrawny. at Stanford, ppl referred to him as Urkel. who wouldn't want to change that perception?
it's pretty well known he took steroids to bulk up along with more exhaustive weight lifting workouts.
he injured his back therein and the rest is documented. pain, surgery, drama, etc.
the steroids also made him a world class pussy hound, which he never was before, and that's also more than well documented.
he can afford expensive micro surgery and it apparently worked, along with his renewed will to compete at the highest level.
I used to loathe the guy but gotta give it to him, he's tenacious and I like seeing him win.

I don't know about the steroids. I don't think there was evidence beyond the eye test.

I thought he looked like a guy that turned pro at 20, realised he had a lot more time on his hands and lifted weights just as his body was maturing. Rory did something similar, but went the other way (chubby to muscular).

My old boss who is a massive Tiger fan, from about 2012 through to 2017 at his lowest levels would keep repeating "let him bang everything and anything he wanted. It's what he needs to win!".

 

[Graves The Elder]

I don't know about the steroids. I don't think there was evidence beyond the eye test.

Yea, there's no direct evidence and even if there was, the PGA would squash it to protect their poster boy.

But he did pay Dr. Anthony Galea $200,000 for "treatment" of some unknown kind. That's the same doctor who provided PEDs,/HGH etc. to A-Rod and others.
I don't hate him for it. Some of my favorite athletes got busted for the same thing. Golf is different though, the PGA doesn't make any of it's findings or suspensions
public so we'll never if his lengthy absence from the tour after winning the 2008 Masters was really due to an "injury" or a failed drug test, since the tour began drug
testing one month after that tournament.