Weekend Wrap

So, what would you like to talk about this morning?  Really, the guy that finished third-to-last?

Dateline: Heroshima - First, the AP account of Sunday:

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- Tiger Woods finished his first tournament in just over 15 months, and it showed Sunday in the Hero World Challenge. 

His fourth straight round brought out signs of fatigue and focus. One day after Woods made a brief run up the leaderboard, he made three double bogeys and closed with a 4-over 76, the highest score of the tournament. 

He led the field in birdies with 24. He led the field in double bogeys with six. It added to 15th place out of 17 players. 

But this week was not just about numbers.

As Feherty noted, it was just good to have that guy in red and black out there on a Sunday...  

The good news for you folks in my taking Sunday off is that you didn't have to suffer through my self-absorbed strutting over my Saturday prediction.  When you're the '62 Mets of golf predictions, each of the forty needs to be savored....

"It's really good to be back playing again, competing," Woods said. "Unfortunately, I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of birdies, but I made a lot of mistakes." 

Rust or fatigue? 

"It's both," he said with a laugh . "I made some poor decisions. I hit the ball in some wrong spots. Quite frankly, it feels kind of weird not to be in a cart. Getting my legs back, focusing for a long period of time, these are the things I missed for a year-and-a-half."

Probably both physical and mental fatigue....  Mike Bamberger picks up on something I said earlier in the week (if only) and offers some insight into what comes next (hint, it's the really hard part):

That's golf. You can say whatever you want to yourself and to reporters and to your

caddie but the little boxes on a scorecard leave no room for self-talk. After his third round, Woods was asked what was his strength through 54 holes. "My mind," he said. "Always has been." At the height of his powers, that was clearly true. His mind told his body what to do and it did it with astonishing regularity. That was the root of his majesty, and why he was such an extraordinary Sunday player. But the end of his prime was a decade ago. In the history of golf, you'd be hard-pressed to name a single player who became a better chipper and putter in his 40s. It would defy logic to think that Woods can be a dominating player again. The real question is whether he can win again.

That's a god question, but only one of many....  I'd start with whether he can stay healthy and go from there.... But Mike, please finish your thoughts:

It's interesting. To the layman, Woods's swing in Albany looked terrific, with beautiful timing and balance, on plane, with no hand manipulation, less downswing head dip and, most significantly, less violence. It looks powerful but not, as it often has in the past, one that will make your back ache. But Brandel Chamblee, the Golf Channel analyst and swing savant, saw a whole series of swing flaws that, in his trenchant analysis, explained Woods's two-way misses and his wild highs and lows over the course of 72 holes. Woods's Sunday playing partner, Louis Oosthuizen, seems to swing perfectly week after week and swing after swing. Some weeks he wins but most weeks he just collects a check and moves on anonymously. That has never been Woods's life. David Feherty, playing the Johnny Miller role for NBC, compared Woods's Hero Challenge swing to the swing Woods made as a toddler on the Mike Douglas Show.

Too much there for a lonely blogger to unpack, but I certainly found his tempo more to my liking.  That "less violence" bit might be the key, allowing him to put in the range time necessary to make Brandel happy....   

I do think it was a very good week for him.  He got through the week without pain (assuming he's leveling with us, not always the case in the past), showed he's long enough to compete and can still make birdies by the bushel.  The weaknesses are easy to chalk up to rust and fatigue, although there were far too many 6's and 7's on the card for any of us to be confident in the path forward.

The Tour Confidential panel spent much of their time on The Striped One, first responding to a query about what looked best in Tiger's game:

Michael Bamberger: The rhythm of his swing, the fact that he seems to be making a more natural, less manipulated swing, one that can (he hopes, I'm sure) hold up for the

next decade or so. 

Josh Sens: Like a lot of people, I started out watching his chips and pitches with my hands partly over my eyes, horror movie style, and (though there were definitely some dicey moments around the greens for him) I was somewhat surprised not to have to keep my hands there throughout the entire weekend. But his iron game was probably the most surprising, and the closest he gave us to the Tiger of old.

We all had that reaction when he stubbed the chip on Thursday, but there was a lot of that from other players as well.

And these in response to a question of Tiger, v. 4.0 (2015) vs. Tiger 5.0 (December 2016):

Bamberger: He has lowered expectations. He's more modest, more relaxed, more like a regular guy. None of that might be good for his golf but might be good for Tiger Woods, human being. 

Passov: Tiger did mention he's coming off an illness, which may have made him appear a little thinner than he looked in 2015, but he also commented that he can't put his body through the grueling workouts of the past. Less bulk, some renewed flexibility--smoother, less pressure and torque--I have to believe this bodes well.

As to Mike's point, the lowered expectations is a good thing, but I felt he was raising them with his Safeway WD and comments about having all the shots....  

And did you hear Hidecki's comment over the weekend?

3. Among the many observers impressed by Woods's play was the tournament winner, Hideki Matsuyama. "Only Tiger could take a year and a half off and put up the numbers that he's putting up this week," Matsuyama said after the third round. "I don't care how many strokes I'm leading over him, I still worry about him, fear him." Do you suppose other players feel the same way?

Sens: I'm sure Hideki stands in rightful awe of what Tiger accomplished in his prime. But the idea that he fears him seems like a stretch to me. Sounds more like a smart guy saying the right and polite thing about the tournament host. As Jeff says, Tiger's fellow pros are well aware of what he means to the game. They've got to respect what he's accomplished. But fear him? Let's put them all on that lie detector from the Zurich ads. If they said they were afraid, I'd expect the needle to go haywire.

Josh nailed it...  But of course they can't avoid the bottom line question of what to expect from the man in 2017.  

Click through the link above to see their responses, completely reasonable in their own way expect, perhaps from Mike Adams, who seems to work the concept of "owning his swing" into each response. 

I think the week was a big success and Team Tiger has to be excited and relieved.  But what comes next is quite unknowable and without historical precedent.  Golf history is not kind to those in their forties, but those that were successful (Veej, Boros, Snead and Jack) seem to have been those that got to their forties without significant injuries....  

I find it difficult to be highly optimistic because of that, but I always like most hold out the hope that he can claw his way back....  and the idea of Tiger in the hunt at a major is enough to get this observer through a cold winter night.

Oh, and did I mention that Hidecki won?  In case you haven't heard, he's on a bit of streak, one though that's not well-timed.

Things we've missed with our eyes on Tiger....

Dateline: Portrush, NI - Via Shack, we have our first image of one of the two new holes at Royal Portrush, in this case the new Par-5 7th:

The dunes into which these two our-and-back holes were to run are so spectacular that I've never worried about the quality of the holes....  though the Big Nellie homage seems of a smaller scale than the original.  

Our buddy Lowell is trying to lure us there in the Spring, so I'll have to check whether these new holes can be played then...  

Dateline: Augusta, GA - The rich get richer, don't they?

Retired quarterback Peyton Manning has been invited to join the Augusta National Golf Club, according a report on an Augusta, Ga., radio station.

Given Augusta National’s policy to not discuss club business, we aren't likely to know definitively unless Manning publicly acknowledges (or denies) it or he turns up at the Masters wearing a green jacket.

They probably took pity on hime becasue he seemed so sad when inviting Eli to come watch the Sunday games with him in the DirectTV ads....

Dateline: Texas -  Remind me not to play golf in the Lone Star State, as it's a war zone out there.  First this:

According to newsandobserver.com, the incident took place on Friday at the Indian Creek Golf Club in Carrollton, Tex. Michael Plumlee, 27, was on the 16th green in a round with friends when a golfer in the group behind hit into them. To show his displeasure, Plumlee threw the golf ball off the green -- and then things got really ugly.

An argument broke out between Plumlee and one of the members of the other group, 

Kevin Sivilay, 42. Witnesses told police Sivilay then beat Plumlee with his golf club, not stopping until well after the victim had been knocked to the ground. Plumlee wound up being taken to the hospital, where he remained through at least Monday.

Plumlee's mother, Sohnya Suarez-Cope, told another news outlet that her son had suffered a fractured skull.

Let's see, using a golf club as weapon on Thanksgiving weekend......  Guys, Elin had gotten some really bad news, let's not be using her as a how-to guide.

Then this:

For the second time this week, tragic news has emerged from a Texas golf course. This time, it resulted in a fatality. 

According to multiple reports, Collin County police were called to the shooting at Hurricane Creek Golf Course near Anna at 9:40 a.m. on Wednesday morning. There, they found Julio Garcia with a gunshot wound. The 55-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital, but he died. 

The investigation is still ongoing, but John Robert Sim, 20, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. According to Collin County Sheriff's Capt. Jim Moody, the shooting was not a random act of violence, because Garcia and Sim both worked at the golf course.

Can't we all just get along?

Dateline: Suburban Connecticut - I know, but that's actually where he lives.  David Owen is back with a wonderful suggestion for a holiday gift for golfers:

The great English humorist P. G. Wodehouse -- the creator of Jeeves, Wooster, and

Psmith, among numerous other unforgettable characters -- wrote two dozen stories about golf, most of them featuring the Oldest Member, who no longer plays but haunts the clubhouse at Marvis Bay Golf and Country Club and, once he has begun reminiscing and philosophizing, can't be stopped. Wodehouse published 19 of the stories in two golf-only volumes, The Clicking of Cuthbert and The Heart of a Goof.

Wodehouse, or The Master to my college roommate George, is a shear delight, whether on golf or otherwise.  Most gift suggestions for golfers are laughable, but this is spot on.

The Overlook Press, which for 45 years has specialized in books that other publishers have paid insufficient attention to, has re-published both volumes in an attractive boxed set. Wodehouse should be considered mandatory reading for all serious golfers, and the boxed set makes an especially appealing gift because it is perfectly rectangular and therefore easy to wrap.

Obviously David hasn't seen Employee No. 2's wrapping skills...  But still a great suggestion, and the mere mention of Wodehouse has put a smile on my face.