The Difference Between Tiger and Phil Right Now

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lia41985

lia41985

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Brian, in a previous thread, made the insanely good observation that Butch probably just told Phil to have fun and hit it hard this week at Augusta.

I don't know what Haney told Tiger, but judging by the "moves" Tiger was working on, and all those practice swings, it had to be more complex.

Phil is playing golf. Tiger's playing golf swing. Phil's soft serve. Tiger's granite. Tiger's obviously the better athlete with the better body, but Phil's playing more athletic golf.

Stop thinking Tiger, just play. Seriously. Enough is enough.

Get a COACH who'll do the thinking for you and will get you to PLAY and NOT THINK. You know, someone like Brian...

In that sense, Butch was probably a better fit for Tiger than Haney. Haney has a junk theory whose execution is complicated, to boot. Butch's methodology, while not perfect, is simpler. Butch has also worked with more good players and is probably quicker to defer to the player's innate abilities. He'll still cash the hell out of the check and take all the credit for it, just like Haney, but he won't do as much damage as Hank.

Sorry for the rant...I'm just very frustrated from watching all these young Tiger clips...
 
jeffgladchun

jeffgladchun

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Totally agree with your take.

Watching Tiger play "golf" again would be wonderful.

I've never seen such an athlete play like such a librarian.
 
gmbtempe

gmbtempe

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lia41985 said:
Brian, in a previous thread, made the insanely good observation that Butch probably just told Phil to have fun and hit it hard this week at Augusta.

I don't know what Haney told Tiger, but judging by the "moves" Tiger was working on, and all those practice swings, it had to be more complex.

Phil is playing golf. Tiger's playing golf swing. Phil's soft serve. Tiger's granite. Tiger's obviously the better athlete with the better body, but Phil's playing more athletic golf.

Stop thinking Tiger, just play. Seriously. Enough is enough.

Get a COACH who'll do the thinking for you and will get you to PLAY and NOT THINK. You know, someone like Brian...

In that sense, Butch was probably a better fit for Tiger than Haney. Haney has a junk theory whose execution is complicated, to boot. Butch's methodology, while not perfect, is simpler. Butch has also worked with more good players and is probably quicker to defer to the player's innate abilities. He'll still cash the hell out of the check and take all the credit for it, just like Haney, but he won't do as much damage as Hank.

Sorry for the rant...I'm just very frustrated from watching all these young Tiger clips...
Click to expand...

I understand what your saying but it gets very difficult to think, heck lets just go play golf and then set up for a cut and hit it all Ian Baker Finch hook style on the tee. Then say well I just will play the hook and start hitting block cuts.

Tiger had a two way miss with the driver, that is death.
 
Richie3Jack

Richie3Jack

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Phil isn't taking those really, really really awful golf swings for now. Tiger is.

If somebody did some CGI work so we wouldn't know it was Tiger, we'd probably look at a bunch of his swings and think he was an amateur with a lot of talent. Some of the swings where so awful that a 20 handicap could say 'that was really an awful swing.'

I will say it's still pretty amazing. He's probably still the best player on the planet and does it with a swing that would probably see most guys lose their Tour card with.





3JACK
 
M

Mad Hatter

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Now lets take a look at 2009 when he came back from knee surgery and his first event was at Doral. His swing was so far in to out and hitting big draws. It did not look good and all he did in 2009 was:
6 Wins
3 Second Place Finishes
14 Top Ten's
16 Top 25's
68.84 Scoring Average
$10,508,163 in earnings

I am not going to say anything because last year I said he had no chance and I pretty much ate my words. Will he dominate at the rest of the year we will have to wait and see.
 
R

Ringer

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I'm going to state a glaringly obvious problem for Tiger that seems to get 0 attention.

Tigers driving problem is HIS DRIVER.

Remember the days when Tiger had a steel shaft and could hit a ground hog sitting in it's hole from 310 yards out? Then he moved to Nike and his driving hasn't been the same since. Even when he was with Butch.

What was the last iron shot or 3 wood you saw him hit poorly? By comparison his bad shots with his irons are minuscule compared to the waywardness of his driver.

Yes, in some cases it IS the arrow and NOT the indian.
 
mjstrong

mjstrong

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Ringer said:
What was the last iron shot or 3 wood you saw him hit poorly? By comparison his bad shots with his irons are minuscule compared to the waywardness of his driver.

Yes, in some cases it IS the arrow and NOT the indian.
Click to expand...

Well, he DID hit two terrible 3 woods on Sunday at Augusta. Both fat hooks...if I remember correctly.
 
1

18in2hours

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I think it will be interesting to see if Tiger essentially takes driver out of play at St. Andrews this summer. I'm sure he can still hit that 2 iron (or whatever it is) stinger that will roll forever over there and then his superior iron game will win the tournament easily since the weakest (by far) part of his game is taken out of the equation. If the conditions are somewhat dry and he can get some roll off the tee it would not surprise me to see him win by 5-8 shots, everyone will say "he's back" and at the PGA Championship he'll be back to hitting it all over the planet with his driver and he'll be just another contender.
 
birdie_man

birdie_man

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I don't think Tiger will ever be as consistent as some. (a "plodder"...like KJ I think, actually) Maybe he could hit more fairway woods off the tee.

He hits em far anyway so...

But his swing he no doubt will keep trying (and should try) to improve. No one wants huge misses esp. in both directions.

But I'm not sure some guys have it in em to as easily plod around. (and he was under added stress esp. seeming to show it on Sunday)

He seems to balance his tendency to rip at it with birdies and eagles and a hot short game. (for now and...we'll see)

I don't know what he should do with his swing. If he is still trying for parallel planes and real laid off at the top that would be a start. And I wonder if he ever tinkers with swinging more like he used to...

The only other thing I can think of is that he seems to want to hit lots of shots. (I know I have been too into this)

Not sure what he does off the tee but maybe it is easier to more often just stick with a draw or something. It's not easy to work it both ways (esp. hitting it 300+)...all I know is it is better to put the reigns on that until you know you can.
 
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M

mb6606

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jenhaoyen said:
KJ Choi is quite a character. He calls Yang a lot when Yang was struggling, encourage him to play well...
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IMHO KJ lost the tourney on 13th par 5 when his well struck long iron bounced off the green and over leaving a tricky pitch. Instead of an eagle putt he took bogey. Showed the value of distance where Phil and Tiger could hit higher lofted irons that stick on the green.
 
F

fronesis

New
Ringer said:
I'm going to state a glaringly obvious problem for Tiger that seems to get 0 attention.

Tigers driving problem is HIS DRIVER.

Remember the days when Tiger had a steel shaft and could hit a ground hog sitting in it's hole from 310 yards out? Then he moved to Nike and his driving hasn't been the same since. Even when he was with Butch.

What was the last iron shot or 3 wood you saw him hit poorly? By comparison his bad shots with his irons are minuscule compared to the waywardness of his driver.

Yes, in some cases it IS the arrow and NOT the indian.
Click to expand...

Spot-on!

Tiger made some unspeakably bad swings at Augusta, but we tend to forget how many unbelievably good iron shots he hit. I'm mean the guy did come in 4th!

Put Tiger on the tee with driver in his hand, and there's no telling how bad he might hit it. Give him a 4 iron in the pine straw and ask him to hook it 75 yards and land it on a space the size of the kitchen table...and we all expect him to pull it off.

To my eye, Tiger still makes a violently aggressive transition move with his driver that just won't work with light, long, graphite shafted clubs. I bet if you gave Tiger a 43 inch steel driver he could hit the thing in the fairway; it would feel a LOT more like that 4 iron.

He either needs to learn a completely different - much smoother - swing with the driver, or he needs a very different driver. If Tiger had driven the ball like Freddy at Augusta he would have shattered his own scoring record.
 
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