golfrewind.com

You could hear it in their words as early as Thursday afternoon.

Ominous,” Colin Montgomerie said of Tiger Woods’ position atop the leaderboard after the first round of the 134th Open Championship.


“I played with him a few days ago and he was birdying every other hole”, “ When he plays like that …”Fred Couples

“People are scared to say it, but it’s true: If he’s playing well, we’re all playing for second,”......Mark Hensby


“If Tiger plays the way Tiger is capable of playing, it’s over,” said Monty, who was just four back of Woods and playing alongside him in the final group on Saturday. “We know that; you know that.”


“Obviously, the whole tournament depends on Tiger,” Darren Clarke.


"Well, it's hard," said of trying to beat a front-running Woods on Sunday of a major championship. "Nothing's impossible. But it's close."......Olazabal



Tiger is the Man and the rest of the field is worried again.

I think if Ollie wouldn't have made those bogeys and managed to fire a 69 or 68 on Sunday it would've been way different. I know Tiger probably doesn't getscared, but it would've definitely made things more interesting.

I know what you mean....I am a huge Tiger fan and I look at everything through swoosh colored eyes. Ollie was the only one I was worried about...I like Monty but he is not a good closer.

Yeah, but he probably made those bogeys due at least in some part to the fact that he was playing with Tiger. The pressure had to be just humongous.

You're assuming that if Ollie would have been playing well that Tiger would have shot the same number. Tiger knows full well what he needs to do to win especially during the fourth round. If Ollie would have applied pressure then Tiger would have taken more risks and played for more birdies. As it was, he did not have to take the risks and could play for par and secure his victory.

In a press conference after the final round, monty said sommething along the lines of "there's one person out there you don't want to be behind. Because to win, you need him to make a series of mistakes. And while he may make one mistake, he certainly won't make more." He was of course referring to tiger.

Agree with you Pistol...Tiger did what he had to do to win, plain and simple. Those pins weren't to be fired at anyways...

Tiger did what was needed, had someone gone low we do not know if Tiger could have gone lower. I suspect he could have ,but he played the last nine in safety mode. I f the had stretched he could have found a double bogey from a gorse bush.

I am amazed that of the top 20 behind him on Sunday morning only one broke par.He was gifted this one. Monty has never won a major and Ollie has been awy from contention in MAjors for a long time. If VJ and Retief had teed off 2 behind and holed a couple of putts,would Tiger have held on? At the mAsters he wobbled over the last two holes.....

I agree but now that the bigs could not catch him in the back of their mind that have to be saying" oh no not again"

As the ploice in London say , 'he has previous'

meaning he has previous form /convictions.

Gifted this one? What tournament were you watching? Tiger did what he needed to do to win.....and win convincingly. You make it sound like the other guys could've shot 64-65 and won. That wasn't going to happen with the conditions the way they were and Tiger simply cruised to victory.

Simply because no players in the hunt made a move on the back 9 doesn't mean they gave away the Claret Jug. Tiger shot the lowest round of all the "contenders." That's taking control.......not receiving a gift.

Listened to a Radio show(local/Scottish) this morning whilst out in the tractor helping father in law, they were debating whether to put in about 8-10 new, wide, pot bunkers in front of the most vunerable holes on the Old Course (ie the driveable par 4s and the 2 par 5s) and they called this "Tiger Proofing", I,ve never heard any one mention "Singh Proofing" or "Ernie/Phil/Retief Proofing" I think that says it all!

This question about how a player plays, when they play with another player, whether in a tournament or a friendly is very much a case of a psycological factor. some players can be phased, others not. We can't say for certain Olazabal would have played better & beaten Tiger if he had played in a different parring or not, but the supposition does have foundation. But whether or not Tiger can be forced into errors, yes I think he can & probably was on the Saturday, not so much by the likes of Monty, but by following Monty had on the Saturday. And the semi indifference Tiger was treated to unless he played a particularly good shot of merit.

We can all deal with if's & butts till the cows come home, I for one am as guilty of that as anyone, probably more so... What does remain is that Tiger Did win. It wasn't a large lead but he played a round on Sunday with fewer mistakes than others that day. We can't say what was playing on the minds of others, we can speculate, but that is all.

The result of that weekends play is now history & Tiger has the Claret jug, whatever competitions come next is for another day & another test for them all.. I look forward to it.

There does seem to be a fear, that some players exibit for Tiger, that obviously must be some sort of Factor. As fears have a habit of becoming reality if we let them play on our minds enough.

Graham McDowell, a reletive rookie with potential shot 67, Ian Poulter shot 69.
If Ollie,Momty or Goosen had shot 67 or even 69, I still think Tiger would have raised his game ,but it would have been a close thing. When you go hunting birdies at StAndrews ,the pot bunkers and gorse bushes can hit you with a double bogey very easily.

One where Tiger did not break sweat on the back nine.

Tiger had a few lucky breaks with the Gorse & heather, with some near almost disasters. Though he did get cought in a bunker & had a few unfortunate rolls, & yet managed to extricate himself & post a good enough score for the day & the competition.

I do wonder & doubt exactly how much more he would have been able to raise his game... But its probably he might have been able to... but we are dealing in if's & buts again, when he could have as easilly have forced himself into more gorse, or even OOB

One thing that sticks in my mind is one of his missed putts & instead of being annoyed with himself as he usually would have done, he just had this cheaky grin... he went up 100% that day in my estimates, when I saw him do that. He even registered another amazing Ollie putt too