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Defind "hitting into the group ahead". Have you ever had someone hit within 30-40 yards of you? Did you feel like they were "hitting into you"? If so, than you're obviously more sensative and serious about your game than I am. 30 yards is a lot of room.

Give me a break if you think he was even close to Villegas. Tiger wasn't even close to the green...33 yards is a lot of room between where his ball landed and roughly where Villegas was standing. Go back and look at the video again...Villegas was half-hearted in his attempt to "protect himself".

If you think he was trying to reach the green...you are sadly mistaken. He attempted it last year and made certain the green was clear before doing so. This time around he didn't have the wind to help and knew he wasn't getting it there.

For what its worth (Round 3 16th Hole Shot-By Shot Summary) courtesy of www.tigerwoods.com.

Shot 1: Tiger hit his Tee shot 341 yds to the right rough, 33 yds from the hole
Shot 2: Tiger hit stroke 2 from the primary rough 46 yds to the green
Shot 3: Tiger hit his 1st putt (Stroke 3) 13 yds to 17 in. from the hole
Shot 4: Tiger hit his 2nd putt (Stroke 4) in the hole for a Par
(Par), Today -4, Total -17

If he wanted to rattle Villegas, why not do it on 18 when he took 25 minutes to play his 2nd shot? In fact, I don't think what Tiger did was extraordinary. He simply teed off knowing that he wasn't going to get to the green. How is that different than having the fairway clear of players ahead and teeing off on any other hole? Too much is being made out of this because Villegas made some half-hearted gesture at covering his head when a fan yelled FORE.

The only reason Camilio was covering up is because of ignorant fans kept yelling FORE!!

Tiger knows how far he hits a ball on any given day...he knew he couldn't get there and if the fans had not yelled fore, Camilio wouldn't have even flinched.

Last time I got hit into was on a course that had GPS tracking on each cart. There was no excuse for it, because the GPS shows your cart, and the carts behind and in front of you. So what did I do? I picked up his ball and tossed it in my cart. When the guy came looking for his ball and asked me about it, I told him where he could find it and where he could drop it.

Unless someone comes within 20 yards of me I'm ok with it ... even closer, really. If the sound a a ball landing 30 yards short of the green disrupts your putting, you need to work on those rabbit-ears. 50 yards is asking a lot IMO.

Waz, if you want to talk about letting noise bother you then Tiger should be called Bunny, the guy is distracted by everything.

No kidding. Tour rounds are already long enough...imagine if they decided that you couldn't hit within 50 yards of the group ahead. The rounds would stretch out and the telecasts would run six hours instead of three.

Not only that...but someone making a comment about the sound of a ball landing 30 yards away has little merit on the weekend at a Tour event (especially for a gallery as big as the one at 16 on Saturday).

The sound of people walking, whispering, and other course noises are likely to mute the sound of a golf ball hitting the ground 30+ yards away.

He also has galleries 5 times the size of everyone else.

Ever heard of an oxymoron? Consider the following:

- Tiger plays in front of crowds much larger than the average tour player. In fact, he plays in front of the largest galleries on tour.
- Based on the size of his gallery there is often a lot of noise (people moving ahead to get in position for the next shot, whispering, bumping for a better view, etc.)
- Tiger is possibly the best player in the history of professional golf when it comes to concentration and focus.

Having said that...it typically takes something extraordinary to break his focus. On occasions when that has happened it has been left to his caddy or the course marshalls to restore order. Consider all of the shots Tiger hits and the number of opportunities for things to interfere with his focus and you'll find that your statement simply isn't true. In fact you put other, less experienced professionals, in a final pairing with Tiger on Sunday and they often become distracted by the crowd noise and movement. No wonder Chopra choked on Sunday at Doral.

This still doesn't deviate from the fact that even though you are all well aware that he is known to hit into groups ahead of him you're still defending his actions.

Hey Donna , I weigh in on everything. I didn't see the incident but from what I gathered Tiger was innocent of any offense as Villegas' gallery yelling fore is what caused him to cover thinking there was incoming. I guess Tiger's shot came up well short. We've had a number of non-Tiger threads on this dangerous and rude practice lately and I was just correcting a poster who claimed that Tiger never did it. There is plenty of Tiger love here. The best will always be a lightning rods for praise & criticism. Oh and BTW, he did curse and slammed a couple of clubs too.

Ha ha. I guess he didn't slam enough clubs or he didn't curse loud enough b/c there's no big deal being made about it.

As for this claim that Tiger is distracted by everything, Pistol you should consider the fact that Tiger has galleries that are typically 5-10 times the size of even other top players like Vijay. The other day they said Phil's gallery wasn't even 1/4 the size of Tiger's, and Phil is considered nearly as popular as Tiger! The number of cameras going off while Tiger is playing is ridiculous too...for some reason, people can't just go to Google and search for a picture of him. Anyways, I would say if you wanna talk about players who are easily distracted, look no further than Monty and Padraig Harrington.

Tiger is my favorite golfer - I rarely watch a tournament he is not playing in. That said, I have to agree with Pistol on this one. Quit hitting into groups ahead, Tiger! Dangerous? To his competitors, probably not... Distracting? YES! I have figured out that most of you are average or short length hitters, and don't often get to hear 'Crack' and have to wait on the 'Plop' as you stand over your second shot on par 4's and 5's. Sometimes that plop is a bit close, and many times after you get back over your shot, you hear a new 'Crack' and back off for the 'Plop' again. True, it rarely reaches me - but it HAS reached me and I never know when the next one will. And with the oversize Ti heads they ALL sound like they could reach me. You'd better believe pros hear this 'Crack' too. And by the way - yes pros know pretty much to the yard how far they hit iron shots and within a few yards on fairway woods. But they don't know within 30 yards how far a drive ultimately may go when they take a full bore crank at it - only a fair idea how far it may fly. That applies to Tiger, too. If this gives any creedence to what I say here, in my amateur career I have been paired with about 10 players that made the PGA tour and another few dozen that at least tried the mini-tours. I have seen up close what control they have over their balls.

There is a big difference between guys like Tiger, Phil, Vijay, and Ernie and the guys playong on mini-tours and guys that don't last long on tour. Tiger and other elite professionals play a completely different game than 99.9999% of the golfers on this planet. They know exactly what they are capable of and know their clubs down to the yard. If you don't believe it than listen to their post round press conferences. When asked about specific shots they often are picking a very specific spot in the fairway or on the green to put the ball. Its not about hitting it in a general direction at that level and the control they have is very real. Tiger didn't go full bore "crank it" on the drive Saturday at the 16th. He knew he wasn't getting it there and simply drove it down by the green. 33 yards is a big difference. If he landed it 30 yards closer to the green than yes I'd say he was intentionally hitting into the group ahead...but I don't buy it in this case.