make pros **** their pants like tiger woods does? If you saw tom lehman choke in the final nine holes earlier in the year, and how chris fell apart, it shows how much he is in most every pros head. When tiger smells blood he goes for the throat and feeds off others fear it seems. If you saw Dimarco's interview before he teed off this morning and last night you would have expected him to be chasing Tiger with how he spoke. I would have thought Chris would have said something like "I really like my chances and feel I am in perfect position, right where I want to be." instead he says something along the lines of "Anything can happen, lot of golf left" Come on, up four with 27 to go and he had not made a bogey for well over two rounds. I just did not hear confidence in his words, and it shows in his play
Last edited by stlcard_25 : April 10th, 2005 at 01:46 PM.
Reason: inappropriate language
In the past I would say Jack and Arnie and all the rest of them did, maybe not as much as Tiger during his domination phase, but they did none the less. Currently though I don't think there is a pro who can get inside players heads as well as Tiger.
DiMarco did not fall apart in the final round today. He definitely gave Tiger a run for his money especially on the Back 9. Most of the time the pressure was actually on Tiger because when Tiger would do well on a hole, Chris would answer right back and stay fairly close to Tiger. As far as I can tell, DiMarco did not look intimidated at all during the final 18.
DiMarco shot 68, better than Tiger in the final round. But Tiger does have a scary rep.
Deadeye, DiMarco is one of the few who have stepped up to Tiger...and Tiger was asking for it by playing 30 feet away from almost every pin (playing NOT to lose rather than playing to WIN...it'll always lead to mistakes, even for TW). Bob May is another who stepped up to Tiger. But the big names (Duval, Els, Mickelson, Singh) have all choked every time they've had a chance to step it up in a final round of a major with Tiger in the lead.
Good win for Woods - but Jack had better competition.
Bigboy, that's a good argument, although you could say that there are MANY MANY MANY more quality opponents nowadays. Why do you think there were so many so-called "greats" back in the 1950s-1970s? Well, because the depth of fields wasn't like it is now. Now, a Ben Curtis or Shaun Micheel can win a major any week. The list of guys capable of winning is so much deeper when you consider the fact that the "greats" of the 50s-70s was a select group of maybe 15 or something. You've got a group of around 100 players or more who could win a major nowadays. I think the Arnold Palmers, Johnny Millers, and Tom Watsons of Jack's time definitely would have stood up to Tiger better than the other part of the "Big 4" that currently exists.
Bigboy, that's a good argument, although you could say that there are MANY MANY MANY more quality opponents nowadays. Why do you think there were so many so-called "greats" back in the 1950s-1970s? Well, because the depth of fields wasn't like it is now. Now, a Ben Curtis or Shaun Micheel can win a major any week. The list of guys capable of winning is so much deeper when you consider the fact that the "greats" of the 50s-70s was a select group of maybe 15 or something. You've got a group of around 100 players or more who could win a major nowadays. I think the Arnold Palmers, Johnny Millers, and Tom Watsons of Jack's time definitely would have stood up to Tiger better than the other part of the "Big 4" that currently exists.
Except when has Tiger ever faced down one of the Big 3(Els, VJ, Phil) in a final pairing at a major? 2001 Masters perhaps, that's it I think
Inconsistency? I don't know...making the cut isn't a gimme, and while I don't really like Sergio, he'll get it together and be a force in the game soon enough. I think he's still only 24.
Depth of field on the PGA tour has always been good, and it is deep now. But, currently, it just seems different than during Jack's heyday, or that of the 80s and early 90s with several American Slam winners, along with the Euro domination. I dunno', I don't want to take away anything from Woods...
Last edited by BigboyDan : April 10th, 2005 at 10:44 PM.
Reason: typo
Bigboy, I definitely agree that things are different now. But I think the depth is better than ever. Go down to the dead last guy on tour in scoring average and you'll find that of 200 players (or more), there's a 2 shot difference in average score. I doubt you could find 200 or more players within the same amount of strokes between their averages back in the 1960s. That being said, I think the champions of Jack's era are stronger than the champions of Tiger's era.
This may have been true at one time, but not anymore... Darren Clarke beat him in the match play, Hal Sutton beat him at the Players. (not majors but very big events) And this was when he was dominating the tour. Nowadays guys know they can beat him... If anything Tiger fell apart at the end...2 up with 2 to go and he goes bogey, bogey... come on!
Also I don't think he has ever come from behind on in the final round to win a major, granted if he's leading after 54 I think has has always won, so nobody has ever come from behind to beat him either. But if he's really in their heads there should be some examples of him putting a number up on sunday and the leaders falling apart.
someinfidel, I think if you look at Tiger's record, he either wins or finishes 15th or worse in majors. In some of high finishes he's had, he's simply not gotten the job done. Against Rich Beem at the PGA in 2002, Tiger waited until the final 4 holes to make his run (birdied all 4)...it was already too late by that point because Beem did not choke. In the 2003 British Open, Tiger simply did not make a putt on the back nine...the tourney was HIS for the taking and he just didn't grab it. Instead, Ben Curtis made his putts and won the tournament.
Then you can look at some of his other finishes in majors lately, like the 2003 PGA, where he was in 40th place or something bad like that. The 2004 PGA he was in 20th or lower (can't remember exactly what it was, but he had no shot going into Sunday). The US Open in 2001 he played terribly all week and struggled to make the cut. I think he finished somewhere around 20th that week as well. The British Open in 2001 he finished around 30th, and the PGA in 2001 he was somewhere in the 30s with his finish. In 2002, he won two straight majors and then got blown out the door during the 3rd round of the British Open, shooting an 81 that put him completely out of it. At the 2003 Masters, he hit a terrible tee shot at the 3rd hole that gave him a double bogey and took him out of contention for the rest of the final round. The 2003 US Open was similar to the 2002 British Open. He was in good shape going into the weekend, and just fell apart on Saturday. He's had many majors lately where it seems that one round has hurt him quite a bit in terms of his chances at winning. During this Masters, the first round almost hurt his chances, but he came back and played great golf.