I watched most of Tiger Woods’s 1st round of the Frys.com Open yesterday. After shooting a +2 round of 73 he is tied for 86th place.
Let’s take a look at the stats from his first round and see what is good and what is bad.
Driving Accuracy: 50%
Same old Tiger here. Even though he says his “start lines” are tighter and the ball is flying straighter, Tiger’s tee shots found the rough and many fairway bunkers. Tied for 104th in driving accuracy. Tiger says his start lines are tighter lately. Perhaps he shouldn’t worry about start lines as much as “end lines?”
Driving Distance: 257
Not long. Tied for 118th in the field. This may be skewed due to club choice on the selected driving distance holes however.
Putts Per Round: 27
27 putts is pretty good. Good enough for T13 in the field. But if you consider the greens in regulation stat, this number may not be as good as you think. I have the same thing happen. The more greens I miss, the more one-putts I have.
Putts Per GIR (green in regulation): 1.778
This stat is not bad, but should be better. Tiger missed some putts he would have normally made, especially a 4 foot birdie putt on #10 after hitting a great approach shot. The stroke looks short and stabby. The blade was open on the putt on #10. Later I saw the blade closed on a pull. His putting stance seems narrower than it has been in the past as well.
Greens In Regulation: 50%
This one is a big bad one. T108th in this stat. Hitting only 50% of the greens is a stat even I beat often. I hit usually 10/18. Tiger only hit 9/18. Less GIRs mean less birdie opportunities.
Comments
After starting his first hole with a great approach and making a birdie putt, Tiger made two bogeys in a row. After eight pars in a row Tiger pulled his drive on the long par-5 12th into the left rough. Then he tried to power an iron out of it, but that shot hooked left into a lateral hazard. His drop put him way back and he ended up with a double bogey. There’s a case where the driving accuracy in the wet and thick rough cost him at least two shots.
Tiger’s putting doesn’t look like it used to. He used to pour putts in with authority, damn near denting the center/back of the hole. His putter doesn’t seem to be square at impact on many putts and as mentioned, the stroke seems short and jabby–not as smooth as it has been in the past.
Tiger’s short game was hit and miss, mainly due to distance control. Seems like he was not quite getting the feel for the spin of the ball and how that worked with the softness of the greens.
Despite the criticisms Tiger did hit a few spectacular shots. The approaches on #1 and #10 were excellent.
High Fives
I didn’t see any high fives between Tiger and his new caddie Joe LaCava. The jury is still out on whether or not they can do one better than TW did with Steve Williams.
Round Two?
It will be interesting to see if there are any improvements or differences in these stats for today’s round two. I’ll take a similar look at those stats tonight or early tomorrow. Tiger sits above the cut line and must make a move to play on the weekend.
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