Tiger Woods: What We Learned From His Performance in Dubai

Tiger Woods’s new golf swing is still a work in progress. That much was clear with his second consecutive final round 75. It did not measure up to what is expected by Woods or by fans. 

Twenty players were within three shots of the lead when Sunday dawned. Woods started the day just one back along with a gaggle of other golfers. However, during the last round he struggled, and he was not the only one. Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia, both of whom had been at the top during the week, were not able to make up necessary ground, either. 

Woods had four bogeys, three birdies and a triple.  He was not disheartened about his progress, however.   

“There were quite a few positives this week. Also a couple glaring examples of what I need to work on, which is good, and I'll go to work next week,” he said after concluding play.  “All of my old feels are out the window when the wind blows, so that's the thing when you're making change.”

The wind was a problem on Sunday, according to several players. And as any golfer knows, the wind magnifies errors. Woods was matter-of-fact about it all.  

“It's fine (making changes) when the wind is not blowing, but when I have to hit shots and the wind blows, the change of feels and the new swing patterns, they get exposed,” he admitted.  “When it was calm this week, I hit the ball pure, and that's the thing.”

Woods did not start well on Sunday. He bogeyed the second and third holes. 

Despite the poor start, Woods came back with a birdie at the sixth hole, and he made the turn at 1-over for the day. With leader Alvero Quiros taking a triple bogey seven at the eighth, Woods was not totally out of the picture until he started making unforced errors on the back side.

Birdies at the 11th and 13th were offset by bogeys at the 12th and14th. But a triple at the 18th and a comeback by Quiros and others meant a 20th place finish for Woods.

“I improved a lot considering where I was at Torrey Pines a couple of weeks ago,” he said.  “That's a step in the right direction. Obviously I didn't finish the way I needed to finish to win this golf tournament. Put myself there after two rounds and just didn't get it done.”  An honest assessment.

Quiros meanwhile, turned his bad fortune triple into good with a hole-in-one.

“I was lucky,” Quiros said. “I don't know if it's quite normal, to make an eagle in the second hole, birdie on the third hole, be leading by two or three like I was on the eighth tee, make a seven on a par four ( the eighth), come back to the third position, and then make a hole-in-one again and finish suffering to win by one. I don't think many people have been in this situation.”

The triple included a shot that he hit into a palm tree. Quiros borrowed binoculars from a rules official to identify his ball which he could see, but not get to, short of climbing the tree. He took an unplayable, dropped and continued, carding the seven. Quiros thought he was out of the tournament until he and his caddied looked at the leaderboard. 

“I said, hey, we dropped three shots, and we are still in second,” he said. 

When Quiros made a hole-in-one on the 11th, he vaulted back into the lead at 11-under.  

Lee Westwood was back in the pack, finishing in a tie for 16th, and did not lose his No. 1 ranking. 

“Positives are I had a chance to win,” Westwood said. “First long putt I've made all week was on the 14th. I haven't played my best, and had a chance with two holes to play to post a total that would have been probably half-decent.”

Westwood became prickly when asked where he thought Woods’s game stood.  

“He's not going to ask me about Tiger, having stood here finishing 16th?” Westwood said in disbelief, and then answered another question instead.

Martin Kaymer was 31st, and he remains No. 2. Woods remains No. 3. 

Woods's next outing will be at the World Golf Championships Accenture Match Play, and it sounds as though he will also be at the Cadillac Championship at Doral.

“We still have two more World Golf Championships coming up, two big events, so that's something that I think all of us who are playing in those events are looking forward to it,” Woods concluded.