Tiger Woods: Opening Round Grind Sets Up Bleak Run in Arizona
While Tiger Woods did manage a win against Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño, he failed to give any real hope that we'll see a lot of him this week. Actually, he gave plenty of reason to believe that we won't see him.
For starters, we haven't seen Tiger put four good rounds together in the better part of three years. Even his win at the Chevron World Challenge featured a 73. When you consider the course is hand picked by Tiger, that is exceptionally high.
Today we watched a match that, by all rights, Fernández-Castaño should have won. Tiger missed the green on too many routine shots, found the desert way too much and didn't putt terribly well. Yes, he made a nice putt to win the match, but missed a highly make-able putt on 17 that would have ended it.
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The bottom line is that Fernández-Castaño let Woods back into this match.
Meanwhile, the man who will share the Thursday stage with Woods, Nick Watney, was thorough in his flattening of Darren Clarke. He made one bogey, three birdies and an eagle in only 14 holes. Take a look at how the two matched up against each other on Wednesday.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| Watney | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Woods | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| Watney | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | - | - | - | - |
| Woods | 6 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
Had they been paired together, Watney would have been three up after 14. Considering Woods played only one under (par) in that stretch, there is no doubt that Watney would have closed the deal.
Consider that and realize that Watney is not the best player in the world. If Woods manages to advance, it's only going to get tougher from here on out.
How can we expect a guy who hasn't put four good rounds together to do that, plus two? That is what needs to be done to win this week, and it's not going to happen.
You can't expect to win a match based on what your opponents do wrong, and you certainly can't think that strategy is going to hold up for an entire tournament.
By seeding, Watney is the better player. In reality, that's the case right now. Woods will do extremely well to advance past Thursday, but if he manages that, we're not going to see much more of him.
The one-and-done format is just not a good one for Woods right now. It is certainly possible to see him winning a stroke-play event, as an average round just means that a really good one has to follow. An average round this week against an opponent who can hold it together for 18 holes means that Woods' stay in Arizona is over.
That is going to happen this week. Failure to put good rounds together will lead to a short week for Tiger.
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