Utterly Fascinating, Bizarre But Maybe Brilliant: Tiger's Conservative Strategic Approach
/The setup of Royal Lytham has been lacking in the kind of thought-provoking touches that Mike Davis has brought to the U.S. Open, and it's a shame because there are some wonderful opportunities to present holes at Lytham with a decision.
Tiger has said he is playing to "spots" and sitting perfectly at -6 after two rounds of The Open Championship he is sticking to an ultra-conservative game plan, as Robert Lusetich points out and but also says could backfire.
Woods, though, didn’t adjust. He has hit just three drivers through two rounds, and only a few fairway woods. Instead, he fires irons off the tees and, even though he’s been very accurate — he’s tied for the lead in fairways hit — he leaves himself longer distances into the greens, making it harder to hit the ball close.
Woods is 129th in driving distance, giving up almost 50 yards to Scott, who leads the field at 312.5 yards. The strategy hurt Woods most on Friday on Lytham’s two par-5s.
While Snedeker and Scott birdied both holes — Scott taking driver and hitting both greens in two — Woods played them in 1-over par. Irons off the tees left him no choice but to lay up.
On the seventh, his mediocre approach gave him little chance for birdie, while on the 11th, he missed the fairway off the tee and in the end was made to scramble for a bogey.
Bill Fields looked at Tiger's holed bunker shot on the last and noted that this is close to where he was at Olympic last month, and also reminiscent of Hoylake six years ago.
It is a strikingly similar spot to the one Woods occupied in last month's U.S. Open at Olympic Club, where he shared the 36-hole lead. Woods' play was uneven over the closing two rounds there, however, and he shot 75-73 to finish T-21.
Here's where it gets bizarre. He actually made a strategic decision based on where fans were standing. He explained after the round.
Q. You've been very patient the last two days. Today there were a lot of guys hitting more drivers and the course was softer. There were guys going low like Adam and Brandt. Did you ever think maybe I should be more aggressive off the tee?
TIGER WOODS: Well, there's only a couple of holes where I could have hit driver, and those were the two par‑5s. The problem is at 7 the wind was off the left, and I'd like to hit that low fade out there, but the problem is the gallery is right there on the tee box, and I can't start it where I want to start it. Then I've got to hit up over the gallery's head. But then I bring in to the right side. And I didn't want to do that, so I figured I'll just lay it up and go ahead and give myself an opportunity to make birdie a different way.
The stewards here are quite accommodating, I'm sure they'd move the people back if Tiger wanted to play driver!
He also addressed the 11th, which has been lengthened this year and is a terribly dull three shotter where Tiger chose to lay back again Friday, with unfortunate consequences.
And then at 11 it was down off the right when we were teeing off. And I can carry the left bunker, but I can't stop it short of the right. And that makes no sense to go for it if I can ‑‑ if it was slightly in off the right, then I could go. I could carry the one on the left and stop it short of the ones on the right, then that's fine. But there's no guarantee I could stop it in time. So I didn't do it and hit a bad shot off the tee.
Meanwhile in the tabloids, Tiger apparently threw a tantrum and get this, dropped an obscenity! Ian Ladyman reports:
But he was chastised by a spectator after uttering the words 'm****r f****r' after pushing his drive into the rough on the par-five 11th.
With young children present on the crowded tee, one fan was heard to say as Woods headed down the fairway: ‘That’s charming with children around.’
Friday's incident was not picked up by TV but was witnessed by Sportsmail.
Well that should hold up in court!