Tiger Woods — 2012 U.S. Open, Great Start, Poor Finish. Here’s His Playing Stats
Like a roller coaster, only backwards, thrilling at the start, dull at the finish, thus did Tiger Woods mismanage the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco this past four days. Slipping back into tendencies that plagued him almost mortally in 2010 and 2011 – the errant drives, poor recoveries, bad sand play, and yippy putting – he lost the edge he had on the field in the first two rounds and finished a dismal 73. Naturally enough, he had a flash of brilliance on the final nine, finishing it at two under par. . . Go figure.
Yet, as I wrote earlier this week here and here, predicting Tiger’s performance based upon his more recent results is dangerous. He’s regained sparkle, for sure, but inconsistency dogs him, week to week, round to round, as we witnessed this week. He’s not alone in this, of course, witness nice guy Jim Furyk, newcomer Graeme McDowell, and old warrior David Toms, all abused by Olympic’s terrain. Indeed, the winner finished at one over par, not all that unusual for a US Open, yet it does bespeak the difficulty of Open courses, especially Olympic. The average score for the field on this par 70 course was nearly 74 strokes!
Tiger’s fans are clearly spoiled, me among them (as I was by Palmer, Nicklaus, and Watson – I spoil easily). Yet in this US Open he was not very far off the pace that others set; in fact, he was part of the small group who set the pace through 36 holes. In the end, we saw what happened.
So, Tiger will struggle on. Possibly, he may now be the golfer he will be for the remainder of his career, among the top five, but no longer dominant, scarily inconsistent, playing with the wind in his face, rather than at his back. Will he even choose to continue playing that kind of game, if major championships seem out of reach?
Nonetheless, I still believe – against my reticence to believe or to predict – that Tiger will shake off the inconsistency by continuing to play. I think there’s still a good chance he will retire with 20 major championships, and a legacy that may never be challenged. But don’t hold me to any of that.
Tiger Woods 2012 US Open Stats
