Tiger Abu Dhabi Reviews In: "Remember the certainty when the man in red went marching down the first on a Sunday lunchtime? No longer."
/
Some views of Tiger's--gulp--rocky final round in Abu Dhabi. Lots of names to add to Glenn's list...
Starting with Lawrence Donegan in The Guardian:
This was meant to be the day that Woods finally re-established himself as the world's leading player, if not in the official rankings, then certainly in the minds of his peers. Alas for him, his fans and his cheerleaders in the American press, someone ripped up the script.
As for the red-shirted former Superman, his comeback suffered a setback in the desert. After hitting 46 of 54 greens in regulation and 26 of 42 fairways in the first three rounds, Woods hit just six greens and two of 14 fairways in the final round. He finished with an even-par 72.
“Today I was just a touch off,” Woods said. “I was hitting the ball a little further than I thought I would. So, something to look at, to try and figure out.”
Oliver Brown on an awkward moment in the final round.
On the 10th tee, Rock, who won his maiden tour title at last year’s Italian Open, even had the temerity to admonish a 14-time major champion. “It was embarrassing,” he said. “There were a couple of marshals who had gone off and were making quite a bit of noise. So when I got ready to hit my iron shot and I heard the same thing, I just assumed it was the guy I was looking at. It was Tiger walking back and I shouted, 'Stand still, please!’ He was fine. But I shouldn’t have done that.”
Or maybe he should have been standing still?
John Strege for GolfDigest.com:
Is it conceivable that a man who has won 83 tournaments (71 on the PGA Tour, 12 internationally) has to rediscover how to win, notwithstanding a meaningless victory against a small field in the Chevron World Challenge in December?
Woods was the 36-hole leader of the Australian Open in November and finished third there, too. His last meaningful victory came in the Tour Championship in 2009.
"I was right there with a chance to win and didn't do it," he said on Sunday. "I was just a touch off."
None of it particularly matters, of course. At 36, his focus is entirely on major championships and winning the five he'll need to overtake Jack Nicklaus. His work now is geared toward preparing him for Augusta National the Masters.
And James Corrigan asks if anyone really believes Robert Rock "would have disposed of Woods so easily if the scandal had never broken?"
Think about it: on the first 57 occasions he either held or shared 54-hole leads he only lost six times; since the scandal surrounding his extra-curricular activity began to emerge, he has lost three times out of five when at the top of the third-round leaderboard. And one of those was in an 18-man money-fest.
Something has clearly changed and the longer he goes without a "real" victory – I'm sorry, the Chevron World Challenge is many things, but it's not a "real" victory – the tougher it will become. Remember the certainty when the man in red went marching down the first on a Sunday lunchtime? No longer. Not even when he's playing with a 34-year-old who has won just one measly title in nine years on the European Tour.
