The Goat Pen

hedge wrote:Cletus, any thoughts on Tiger's round yesterday? Is this more of a "shit happens" round or an indication of something worse with Tiger's game?

His mind is broken. He's confused about how he wants to swing and, in the heat of competition, he's got no confidence at all in his approach. He's clearly got technique problems now but not enough to shoot these scores. There is no way he would shoot an 80 in a casual round on any golf course in the world. But, add the tension of a competition, and suddenly he's got a two way miss with a miss dispersion of 150 yards. It's really incredible. It's hard to be that bad and almost impossible at that level.

For some reason, he's decided that getting more technical about his game was the way out of this and it looks like that's not the case. I'm really surprised he's gone down this road since anyone who has ever played a tournament knows that the best rounds are always the ones when your mind is uncluttered and you just play by feel, almost as if you aren't even paying much attention to the round or tournament. I play with a guy at my club who plays with Tiger at Medalist in the winter. He said that Tiger almost never shoots above 65 out there (and that place is hard) when he's just playing with the guys. The game is mostly still there but the issues he's got are magnified on tour level courses. He probably isn't ready to win big events with the state of his game but when you add the mental issues, he's got no chance to win or, apparently, break 80.

It's all because he didn't lock his phone. Beginning of the end.

I didn't realize he was mentally constructed in the way he is. I thought he was more a Kobe Bryant type who gets more focused the more his "off the field/course/court" issues get crazier.

I appreciate Cletus's analysis, and esp. the first sentence, which shows that the Dick Cheney of the internet (with a touch of Ivan Drago thrown in for good measure) is still alive and well...

I really doubt the thing with his wife has much of anything to do with this. The problem, in my opinion, is that he just tinkered too much with his swing. The most alarming thing to me was when Sean Foley somehow convinced him that he needed to change his short game approach. Why he touched the best short game in history is beyond me but that was a disaster. He went from having the most imagination and feel on earth to worrying about release points on a simple chip shot. He's become so analytical and has lost what made him so great - his feel for the game. Maybe he's too far gone at this point but I'd like to think he has another run in him if someone can convince him to simplify his thoughts and let his all-time great talent and feel take over.

Does the USGA need to be investigated like FIFA as to why they picked Chambers Bay for the U.S. Open?

Tiger sucks without the roids.

sardis wrote:Does the USGA need to be investigated like FIFA as to why they picked Chambers Bay for the U.S. Open?

I don't know why. It's great and a nice departure from the typical Open course.

Dustin Johnson is choking...

That was a spectacular choke. When he stepped away from the first putt, you could just tell he wanted nothing to do with this one. I figured he'd whiff it and miss short right. What he did was so much worse. Short right and he's got an uphill tap in. Poor guy, that's a brutal way to lose.

Damn, Johnson. After all those missed short putts, you had a chance to win it (would've been a remarkable putt for the win, but still) or at least force a playoff with a what should've been an automatic two putt from that distance, and then you three putt from there? Unbelievable. Of course, you would've beaten me by 50 strokes minimum, but that's cold comfort (arctic, even) considering the circumstances...

"I figured he'd whiff it and miss short right. What he did was so much worse."

I agree. Everybody always says "if you don't get it to the hole, you don't have a chance to make it", but the fact is, if you hit it past the hole, you didn't make it either and you may have fucked it up worse than leaving it barely short. He missed so many shorties on the back nine, though, it's hard to say he deserved to win. But of course, deserved's got nothin to do with it...

Speith is making quite a name for himself. This tourny gave him good practice for the British Open. Way too early, but it would be cool to see somebody win the grand slam, esp. at his age. Fucking A, he's younger than the MIF's oldest and barely older than her youngest. Unbelievable...

He got really unlucky that his ball didn't feed down the hill on the 2nd shot. That could easily have been 5-6 feet and more up the hill.

Poor Dustin Johnson. Wins 500K for second and gets to get home to fuck Wayne Gretzkys daughter with daddy patting him on the back. Yeah, he choked. Enjoy your Hungry Boy.

He'll need quite a bit of cocaine to forget this one.

This is the clubhouse?

he was missing putts the entire round --at least 3 I remember less then 5 feet but so were a lot of people.

absolutely obliterated the golfball from tee to green all weekend

he'll get his major

spieth will derail at the british--only played one round there--not getting there until 3 days before

I remember tigers 3rd round there when he tried to win the slam. most brutal golf weather I ever saw where they played.

aTm wrote:He'll need quite a bit of cocaine to forget this one.

There are plenty of hot Russian hookers and lots of quality drugs in his hometown of Myrtle Beach to help him...

Three holes in one in a round? I know the course was set up to be easy, but still...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/golf-devi ... -golf.html

That guy claims something like 23 aces.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a lucky guy...

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports ... 20065.html