Doral Doings

Well, that wasn't the Sunday golf fans expected... or for which a certain golf blogger cut short his ski day.  

John Strege with the Tiger-centric lead:

It used to be said, not necessarily in jest, that Tiger Woods is three back and they'll never catch him. There was an air of inevitability, that if the lead turned up on his radar, he'd own it by the end of the day.

The air isn't so rarefied these days.

Tiger began Sunday, buoyed by a brilliant Saturday, with only two players and three strokes between him and the lead at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, but again produced the stuff, not of legends, but of mortals, those with bad backs.

A great photo of the winner and his favorite tee. 

With that out of the way, let's devote a few pixels to the winner, Patrick Reed.  With his third win in the last eight months, he will move to No. 20 in the Official World Golf Rankings.  Apparently he didn't realize there would be math, per Brian Wacker's game story:

Reed is expected to go to No. 20 in the world ranking. In his own ranking, he feels he belongs in the top five. 

He cited an amateur career that includes going 6-0 in matches to lead Augusta State to two NCAA titles, followed by three PGA Tour wins in seven months. 

''I don't see a lot of guys that have done that besides Tiger Woods and the legends of the game,'' Reed said. ''I believe in myself, especially with how hard I've worked. I'm one of the top five players in the world. I feel like I've proven myself.''

I respect a confident player as much as the next guy, but at a certain point you're just tempting the gods of this fickle game.  Even more amazing than his brashness after holding on to win were these comments from Saturday night:

"I firmly believe, as well as my swing coach and my whole team that's behind me, I'm a top five player in the world," he said in an interview with NBC on Saturday evening. "I just got out there on tour and it takes a while to get your spot all the way up there. But I have that confidence that I'm a top five player in the world. I feel like if I do what I'm supposed to do and play how I'm supposed to, if I'm playing the best I can that week I can't be beat."

OK, then it's settled.  I think Reed has proven himself a surprise amongst the pool of young talent on Tour, but I think he'll find the brashness doesn't serve him well.  This was no doubt a big win, but he's yet to peg it in a major and he'll need to let his clubs do the talking for a longer stretch of time.  

Fellow youngster Rory expressed some ambivalence after his frustrating week in Miami:

Asked if he took anything out of the week, McIlroy paused, then said, “I don’t know. Maybe re-think the schedule next year.” 

Not that McIlroy was suggesting he would pass on a WGC, but he hinted that he wasn’t sure this is a course he would play if it wasn’t the site of a WGC. 

“I don’t know, that’s a good question” McIlroy said after a long pause. “Obviously it is so you come. It depends what you want. It has been a tough couple of weeks. (PGA National) isn’t an easy course. It’s a tough stretch. I’m all for having a tough course but it’s nice to make birdies, too. It depends what you want. 

"It's a frustrating golf course because you feel like you should be doing so much better, and it just doesn't allow you to. You have to be so precise and just to get the ball close on some of these greens and these pin positions. I don't know if it's because you've got memories of the course before, like going low, and the way it is now it just doesn't allow you to do that."

I know, get that box of Kleenex handy.  Interestingly, Rory got himself in contention through 36 holes, meaning he played well on the tough days, particularly in the Friday maelstrom.  Then when the course was somewhat "getable", he fell back.   Rory seems to be a generally likable young man, and has made friends with his reactions to some bitter disappointments, notably at Augusta 2011 and last week as well.

But he also seems to be developing a churlishness displayed in reaction to the rules violation earlier this year and above.  He's an other-worldly talent, though his great successes have been on extremely soft golf courses (Congressional and Kiawah), and to me hasn't proven his ability in wind or on firm and fast tracks.  I still vividly recall his Friday at the Old Course in 2010, when with the wind howling (before the suspension of play) he kept hitting his stock, high-trajectory shots with disastrous results.  Strange that for an Ulsterman.

Shall we circle back to the Striped One for a sec?  From Bob Harig's ESPN piece, Tiger explains what he was dealing with out there:

"Deeper the flexion, the worst it felt,'' he said. "(Hitting) the driver felt fine.''

An increasingly common image, Tiger in red wincing from back pain.

I may have to wait for the English translation.... He did further explain the shot at No. six that seems to have set off the....err...flexion:

"My foot was out of the bunker,'' he said. "That's what set it off and then it was done after that. Just see if I could actually manage through to keep the spasms at bay. But anything in flexion was done, so the deeper the flexion, the worse it felt.''

When asked about the severity of the condition and treatment, Tiger was his usual open book:

Asked if the injury was more serious than back spasms, Woods said, "Well, it is back spasms, so we've done all the protocols and it's just a matter of keeping everything aligned so I don't go into that.''

Asked if he has had an MRI on his back, he replied: "As I said, we've done all the protocols.'

So it seems that flexion and protocols are the key words to take away, assuming that the protocols are used on the flexion.  Got it.

The good news for Team Tiger is that he played well for a couple of days, and especially that he putted well.  His 66 on Saturday was electric, and the Friday 73 in the worst of the winds might have even been better.  He also has almost two weeks before he tees it up at Chez Arnie, whhich should help.

However, the bad news is equally obvious and more ominous.  The clock is ticking loudly in its inevitable countdown to Augusta.  He's got one more event to hone his form, but practice will be limited in deference to the flexion.  

We'll give last word to former Tour player and current Golf Channel analyst Steve Flesch with this tweet:

Steve Flesch ✔ @Steve_FleschFollow

A few years ago, nobody else would dare wear a red shirt on Sunday. Now, nobody cares. It's a fearless new breed of player emerging on Tour.
3:06 PM - 9 Mar 2014