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Did Tiger Woods Choke?

After Tiger Woods had missed the cut at The PGA Championship and was debating whether or not to tee it up at the Wyndham Championship his old pal Davis Love III tried to convince him to give it a try.

Love thought the old school Donald Ross layout at Sedgefield Country Club would suit Woods’ game. And Love was right. It not only suited his own game as he won it on Sunday but for the most part it looked like it was the potion to cure Tiger’s ills.

At least for the first fifty six holes Love was right.

Woods had his best three rounds since The Masters in April and was a lipped putt short of playing in the final group on Sunday.woods wyn

He trailed third round leader Jason Gore by only two shots and he was on the verge of possibly breaking his two year drought.

For the first three rounds Woods was finding fairways, hitting greens and putting like the Tiger of old.

But when he put on his Sunday red his game faded in the final round.

While the field was racking up birdies on the front nine all Woods could do was even par for the front. He was back tracking, quickly and things came unraveled on the par four seventh hole.

After a poor drive and a poor approach he skulled one across the green and then flubbed a chip and he was left with a round killing triple bogey.

It wasn’t pretty and that with a following bogey cost him a shot at his redemptive win.

Certainly Woods will take way some positives with his T10 finish after all it was his best finish of the year. And Woods did play more consistent golf. But this is Tiger Woods here.

For those of us that had seen Tiger at his best this is incomprehensible.

This was a Sunday when Woods had a win in his grasp and while fans new to the game have seen Woods struggle mightily of late there was a sense that this could be the day he finally gets it done.

But he didn’t, far from it he went backwards. Thus the question: Did Tiger choke?

Isn’t that what we label it when a player has a shot at the win and blows up? An even par 70 while everyone else is shooting mid sixties and a hacker-like triple bogey has to be considered a choke job for sure.

Woods has had weeks this season where rounds one and two were solid and then he looses it on Saturday.

He got through Saturday this week but Sunday was his downfall.

He used to own Sunday. When Woods stood on the first tee in a final round with the lead we knew it was money. He knew was money and the golfer standing across from him knew it was money.

Sunday red was his color and most likely he was hoisting the hardware come sundown.

He was a lock on Sunday and the word choke would never come close to describing a Woods final round.

But that was then and this is now. And Woods the player and the man isn’t the Woods we had seen take on all comers on Sundays past.

Woods had “put himself in position” on Sunday as he likes to say. But his performance said something else.

It said “I choked.”

And that, not his swing change may be the biggest problem he needs to overcome now.

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2 Comments

  1. I guess you won’t be receiving an invitation down to Jupiter or to the Workd Golf Challenge any time soon. Choke, choke, choke! In years past Tiger couldn’t even spell that word and now he’s playing pressure founds like there’s a noose tied around his neck. Another contributing factor to his poor Sunday performance was his wardrobe. Tiger usually rocks those hi-tech bonded shirts with the vertical stripe down the back. He was in a conventional Nike stitched shirt yesterday. If you want to win Tiger you’ve got to wear those Sewfree shirts!

  2. Spoken like a man who has a vested interest in Tiger’s apparel. Hmmmm interesting!

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