Tiger Woods-The Masters

Watching Tiger Woods in the Masters was amazing and frustrating! You watch him make amazing shots year after year so expectations were very high going into this years Masters golf tournament. It seems as if he starts off slowly each year. Why? I think he isn't playing enough tournaments to stay sharp under tournament conditions. Certainly the 9 month layoff from knee surgery impacted his sharpness but if you go back to the last few Masters tournaments since he won it in 2005 you will see a similar pattern. Slow out of the gates the first two days and then he will catch fire at some point but it is almost too late to matter. Last year, he finished second to Trevor Immelman but three shots off the lead.

Well, 2009 was no different. The first two days, Tiger shot birdies followed by bogies. He missed a lot of putts by an inch or two. He made unforced error after unforced error with his irons and missed a lot of shots he normally makes. He could easily have been minus -5 or -7 heading into the final round. Instead, he was -4. Still a good score but 7 shots off the leaders.

He was pared with Phil Mickelson and they had an amazing battle. This was the tournament within the tournament as the leaders were stumbling while Phil and Tiger were hot. Phil shot 6 birdies in the first nine and at one point was 1 shot off the lead. Tiger was -3 on the front nine and picked up another three shots to get to 10 under by the 16th hole. Could he pull this off?! Alas, he and Phil ran out of gas and Tiger bogeyed the last two holes to finish at -8 (Tied for 6th place). Phil Mickelson plunked a shot into the water on the beautifual 12th hole but did fight back to get back to -10 before surrendering a bogey on #18 to finish at -9.

Tiger Woods is a grinder. He never lets up nor will he go away once he starts a tournament. He just needs to play more tournaments to get out of the gates faster. I look forward to following his progress in the US Open (June), the British Open (July) and the PGA Championship (September). Can he add another Major Title to the 13 he already has? We shall see.