Tiger eyes win at Bay Hill
First of all, what the heck is the “Dartboard”? It’s what was formerly known as the “Open Thread” — you know, where we toss out some talking points and you share your thoughts and/or observations on the day. So, Tiger is looking really, really good early in the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He’s in excellent position to win for the seventh time here.
After hitting a beautiful drive down the middle of the fairway, Graeme McDowell, who started just at -10, one stroke behind Woods, went all 10-handicapper with his short game on the first hole and made double-bogey to quickly extend Tiger’s lead to three shots. He recovered nicely on the No. 3, draining a putt from the fringe at No. 3 to get back to nine-under.
Just when you thought Tiger was going to drop a shot after running a tough chip 14 feet past the hole on the par-5 4th, he rolled in the putt for birdie to get to 12-under.
What are you setting the over/under on for number of strokes Tiger will win by?
C’mon, guys. Step it up, let’s make it a little interesting at least. We gotta continue this season’s trend of crazy exciting Sundays. I mean, how good was this finish in 2009?? Aside: I dug deep in the WUP archives for that gem, which was one of the first posts I wrote ever!
Who else is hunting down Tiger? Well, G-Mac is still three back. Ian Poulter is in solo third at -8, Ernie Els (who needs third or better for a chance to break into the top 50 and earn an invite to the Masters) and Charlie Wi are -7, and Chris Stroud is -6.
A few PGA Tour rookies are making some waves in their first start at Bay Hill. Bud Cauley is now on the first page of the leaderboard at six-under (he birdied No. 9 since I started writing this post and he’s tied with Stroud. Meanwhile, the little lefty Brian Harman, who shot 77 in the opening round, is already in the clubhouse after firing a four-under 68 to make a significant move up the ‘board. He might even sneak in the top ten! Impressive — the kid has a lot of fight in him, obviously.
Oh, wow, Tiger just hit a ridiculously sick shot on the par-5 6th. He has a 16-footer for eagle. Game over. Thanks for playing, guys!
I’m off to watch the action in person.
(AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
GMac’s putting is the only thing keeping him in this. Provided Tiger plays similar to his front nine it is safe to say Tiger is back.
I agree Randy.
Rooo Rrrooo Rory …. He’s Baaaaaack
Marky Mark is MAD.
TIGER IS BACK! He’s sinking putts and slamming a$$ once again. I am going to my local IHOP and hitting on the skankiest waitress I can find to celebrate.
Tiger knows winning tournaments gets the ladies! 60% of the time, it works every time…
Wow! Tiger withdraws from Bay Hill because he’s 500 shots behind and it would wreck his Fedex Cup chances/Handicap/Ranking(take your pick), has a “puffed up achilles tendon” one of the most critical tendons in our body, then goes and plays golf 8 days in a row topping it off with an Arny Invite win?! I need his doctor. Badly. My neck has hurt 5 years in a row. If he can fix an achilles in 3 days, my neck must be a gravy train with biscuit wheels. I’m just upset Tiger didn’t toss in any token limping or now world famous “grimaces” for the people that believed he was hurt 11 days ago. Ya’ plain can’t make it up!
ps. Did anyone notice if he did, in fact, hug a local IHOP waitress after his big win in 3 years since……”his last win”? (the media would never say “since he turned his life upside down cheating on his wife crashing his SUV on vicodin and ambien which for some reason the police didn’t to a tox screen on him…wait, sorry I had a jolt of reality for a second there). What a joke.
pps. Save your “hater” talk. All i want is the next time I smash my SUV drunk on pills not to be drug tested, too!
Oh Skip, do you even rad what you write? In the same sentence you say “crashing his SUV on vicodin and ambien” and “police didn’t to a tox screen on him”. So you know what he was on or not on… how? This affects you… how? You know he was “drunk on pills”… how?
So no, I won’t save all my “hater” talk. You are making assumptions about a man because you want to hate him.
And here comes the Tiger haters….this train is never late.
Skip unless you have a medical degree I would let the whole injury thing go. He won a US Open on a broken leg and torn acl. Give it a rest. It is like listening to “Birthers” regarding Obama. Some injuries heal slow…some heal quickly. People act like he was 20 back at Bay Hill or something. Give it a rest.
What we learned today:
1. The European domination is over.
2. Eldrick Woods now has as many 2012 wins as Kyle Stanley.
3. GMAC is no Phil Mickelson.
4. We won’t have to see Ernie Els waddle around Augusta.
5. Consensus now at golf channel. Eldrick will win 47 majors.
Kudos to Tiger. But here’s the next few things he has to prove:
1) That his feeble, injury-prone body can hold up for more than one tournament.
2) That he can win against a strong field.
3) That he can play in the same group with Phil and not fold like a tent.
It is laughable that anyone would suggest Tiger has anything to prove.
Randy, what medical school did you attend? He probably had a slight fracture, made worse by masking it with vicodin(he admitted to “taking something for my pain”), so by the end he didn’t feel anything so you drama queens can say he played on a broken leg. Realists see the fact probably had a slight manageable fracture managed by pain, but by the last shot of the day when the vics wore off was in bad pain and ruined his leg. What flavor Koolaid do you like? I skip Koolaid.
ps. 47 majors? Why not 100?
Randy- I saw Phillip Rivers play the 2nd half of an AFC playoff game on 2 torn ACLs, so it’s probably easy to play golf on one. Besides wasn’t Eldrick seeing his Canadian “Doctor” back then.
“so it’s probably easy to play golf on one”….is there a minimum IQ to post? Clearly not. That is the most asinine statement ever. Do you even know how the human knee and weight bearing joints work?
You have lost ALL credibility with that ridiculous post. Back under your bridge troll.
UCLA class of ’04. To call yourself a “realist” might be the funniest thing I have read all day. News flash: Unless he was on morphine he could feel every pain. Trust me he was not playing on morphine.
The hate just oozes out of you doesn’t it?
Rob, I like you. Great post. I need to be more concise like you. Best, Skip
I don’t care how many of these lesser events Tiger wins, I just don’t want a non-popsicle sharing douche to break Jack’s record.
Stress fracture, wasn’t it?
Guys..Troll Face.. when guys are acting like Trolls…don’t respond to them. They actually want to draw you into a debate and prefer if you get angry or upset. They post inflammatory comments on purpose…
Great win Tiger..hit the ball solidly..swings looks awesome. Short game still needs a bit of work.
Whats the WUP headline going to be here? Even money on it following something close to Deadspin’s. Congrats Tiger and welcome back. Augusta can’t get here soon enough.
@Brandon um huh? not sure where you’re going with the deadspin thing?
Moving on. Woot! That was fun to watch. Can’t wait till Augusta with so many guys coming in feeling good about their games!
I’m surprised we haven’t seen a WUP headline congratulating Eldrick on the green jacket yet.
Seems to be a media foregone conclusion even though he hasn’t won at Augusta in almost a decade.
If Phil can pull it back together for August – which he typically does, then I suspect Tiger, Phil and Rory will all be in the mix on Sunday which will make for lots of excitement.
With Tiger the big question marks are if he’ll be healthy, and whether his fragile psyche will hold up under Sunday-back-9-at-Augusta pressure. As of late he has crumbled under pressure and at Bay Hill he had a comfy lead all Sunday. Also he had the benefit of GMac crumbling early on, which he can’t count on happening to his Sunday at Augusta competitors.
I think he has a good chance of winning it (Say 20%) and I’d put him and Rory as favorites with Phil a bit behind them (and not because Phil’s 3rd best in the field but because he seems to dredge up his “A” game for the Masters).
Rob, Tiger had a 1 shot lead starting the day and a 2 shot lead on the 7th tee-box, hardly comfy. He hits 6 of 7 fairways on the front 9, and all 9 greens. Overall he hit 10 fairways and 15 greens and only carded 2 bogeys. Tiger was the only players of the starting top-10 to shoot under par. Where are you getting this “fragile” stuff from? He also just walked and played 18 holes 8 days in a row and has probably played 20 rounds in the last 25 days, he should hold up just fine. I suspect there’s nothing Tiger would like more than to be paired with Phil at the Masters in the last round with it all on the line! And BTW, each has a win, and a T2 this year. Are you suggesting that Bay Hill is a weak event? How does it compare to Pebble in your mind?
Tiger played great at Bay Hill. And the situation was a total Tiger win setup – he played well, almost all the other guys choked, so his last round he just had to play solid golf, fairways and greens, and watch everyone fold. What I think the posters are hoping to see is how he would fare in a “need to post birdies” come from behind W, or (say) GMAC would have shot a -4 instead of a +2 and put big pressure on him. So all credit to TW, but we need to see a bit more to determine where his game is.