US Open Golf Scores 2012: Tiger Woods' Choke Job Proves That He's Far from Back
The drought continues.
When Tiger Woods teed off at the Olympic Club’s first hole on Saturday, he was tied for the 2012 U.S. Open lead. 10 bogeys (and a double bogey) later, Woods had just blown his best shot to end his four-year drought without a major victory.
Teddy Greenstein and Jeff Shain of the Los Angeles Times reported that Tiger talked about his poor Day 4 after it had ended and said: “The first six, I just didn't play well at all. I just could never get anything going positively and I missed the ball on the wrong side a couple times. That's all it takes.”
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Woods choked. There’s no way around it. The man once labeled the greatest athlete in sports—a competitor with a killer instinct and a clutch gene superior to any other golfer to ever grace the planet—is as vulnerable as he’s ever been.
When Tiger won at the Memorial for his second PGA Tour win since his adultery debacle, he seemed to have made progress. His confidence had returned. But it takes more than a clear head at the start a tournament to win a major.
Everyone feels confident after they win. But it takes a special mental toughness to maintain that edge when trials emerge. It’s impossible to know exactly what ruined Tiger, but when his life was flipped upside down, he lost his killer instinct in the rubble.
Despite a disastrous Saturday, Woods was still in striking distance to pull off a come-from-behind triumph on Sunday. Instead of rising to the occasion like the old Tiger would've been expected to do, he found himself six-over par on the day after only six holes. And just like that, the favorite had fallen again.
Will Tiger ever regain his unrivaled crunch-time ability? Woods can’t even answer that question. But one thing is for certain: Right now, he still isn’t close to finding it.
Here is how the leaderboard rounded out by the event's end (via U.S. Open):
| Player | Score |
| 1. Webb Simpson | +1 |
| T2. Michael Thompson | +2 |
| T2. Graeme McDowell | +2 |
| T4. David Tom | +3 |
| T4. Padraig Harrington | +3 |
| T4. John Peterson | +3 |
| T4. Jason Dufner | +3 |
| T4. Jim Furyk | +3 |
| 9. Ernie Els | +4 |
David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.
