Tiger Woods at Masters 2015: Grading Tiger's Round 4 Performance
It’s not enough that there are dozens of hazards above ground. Tiger Woods, who finished this tournament tied for 17th at five-under par, hit a subterranean hazard that could have sent his mediocre final round into another injury inquiry from now until Father’s Day.
Woods’ ball sat off the fairway (a trend) in the pine straw on No. 9, and when he thumped his blade down on the ball, he clunked a root that stung his right wrist.
"A bone kind of popped out," Woods said in a post-round interview on CBS. "The joint went out of place. I put it back in."
Oh, boy.
Golf Channel’s Tiger Tracker tweeted, “He’s looked as good as he has in a long, long time and now this happens. Son of a biscuit eater.”
Woods’ final round and final pairing with world No. 1 Rory McIlroy was about as underwhelming a twosome as we’ve seen. That said, Woods put to bed all the questions about his health and his wayward short game by being in the third-to-last group Sunday at the Masters Tournament. Chew on that beef jerky.
Grading this round had everything to do with performance by looking at fairways hit (or not), greens hit (or not) and putts made (or not). Woods was held to his usual standard, not an easier curve that reflects how low he has been the past few months.
Let’s find out how he did in the final round at Augusta National Golf Club.
Driving: D
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Without getting snarky or downright mean, Woods put the "D" in driving Sunday. He was pitiful off the tee.
Woods didn’t hit a fairway until the par-five No. 13. That’s no typo. He was 0-of-9 through his first 12 holes off the tee. As you can imagine, it never put him in a position to go pin hunting.
When he finally striped a drive down the right edge of the 13th fairway, he eagled the hole.
GC Tiger Tracker tweeted, “Apparently hitting fairways helps. Tiger just drains bomb for eagle on 13. Yeah baby. That’s why we do this.”
It wasn’t Woods’ short game that hurt his chances of getting to double-digits under par—it was his game off the tee.
He just hit two fairways all day. No good.
Iron Play: B-
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Woods' irons were a couple of grades better but were at a disadvantage because of his terrible play off the tee. He managed to hit just seven greens in regulation, which, given where he put his second shots, was fairly impressive.
So many times Woods came up short of the green or sprayed his approaches into the greenside bunkers. On the first hole, his drive snap-hooked onto the neighboring ninth fairway. From there he sent a high parabola just short of the green.
On the fifth hole, his approach was short of the hole by 41 feet. On No. 7 he plunked his approach in the bunker.
But it was his approach on No. 9 that could have been the subheadline of the day. This was Rootgate. He bladed a root and sent a shockwave up his right arm. He shook it like a Polaroid picture as he walked up to the green. He’d get up and down for an impressive par.
ESPN.com’s Jason Sobel tweeted, “I mean, could Tiger have worse luck? Just when he's healthy and finally playing better... this.”
Woods sprayed his tee shot on No. 10 and shook that wrist, but it appeared to settle over the next few holes and didn’t crop up as an issue again.
Around the Greens: B+
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Since Woods hit only seven greens, he spent much of his time parading in the sand.
He found traps on Nos. 3, 4, 7 and 16 and managed to land his shots about 10 feet from the hole. Even if he had been rolling his putts like it was the year 2000, those chips didn’t leave him with much.
His shot on No. 16 from the trap used the slope to pull the ball back to six feet from the hole. Woods then speared the middle of the cup for a beautiful up and down.
What’s lost in all this—and this is a good sign—is that there’s no mention (until now) about his chip yips from the Hero World Challenge, Northern Trust Open or Farmers Insurance Open. His short game was very good. He made the kind of mistakes a player who hasn’t played competitive golf in two months makes.
After Round 3, we reverted to our usual criticisms and critiques of Woods. That’s a good thing.
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Putting: C
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When Woods' day started with a three-putt par on No. 2, you could sense it was going to be a grind of a day for the four-time Masters champ. He needed 28 putts on the afternoon.
His pacing was decent, but when he had a five- or six-footer, he failed to drill that nail and score birdies.
"I needed to shoot 31 on the front nine to at least make a little bit of a run," Woods said during the CBS broadcast. "I missed three shorties in a row on two, three and four and didn’t gather any momentum after that. The round was basically a struggle from there."
It all came together for him on the par-five 13th hole. He made an impeccable drive, stuck his approach to 26 feet then rolled his putt in to get back to even par for the day. That’s what he’s still capable of.
Course Management: B-
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The intent was there for Woods’ course management Sunday, but the execution wasn’t. Just look at the above photograph. That’s the result of another terrible tee shot that put his proven fragile body at the mercy of hidden hazards.
That was on No. 9. On No. 11 he was right of the fairway again and stung a low-hooking burner that skidded its way across the green and just off the edge. He nearly holed the chip and then hit the putt coming back up.
Given his rust and his relative limitations due to said rust, Woods handled the course well.
The problem was that any strategy he had at managing Augusta National got scrapped because of his tee shots. It meant he scrambled from 200 yards away over and over again.
He finished his day at one-over par and five-under for the tournament, which leads us to think the best of late-30s Woods is yet to come.
Final Grade: B-
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Woods’ driving and average putting cost him a really good grade for Sunday. These things are relative, and you could very well give Woods better grades based on where he was two months ago. He was an illusionist: He was one thing two months ago, went behind the curtain and came out something else.
“Considering where I was at Torrey and Phoenix to make the complete swing change and rectify all the faults and come in here to a major championship and contend, I’m proud of that part of it,” Woods said on the CBS broadcast. “I wish I could have made timely putts and moved up that board.”
GC Tiger Tracker kept this tournament in perspective by saying, “At the beginning of the day if we knew he’d be tied for 13th we’d be disappointed - at the beginning of the week we’d be ecstatic.”
So while Woods finished the tournament tied for 17th, expect him to go away for a while and come back for the U.S. Open sharp, ready and stronger than he's been since 2013.
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