How does Tiger play bad and STILL end up in second place?

Question

Its amazing that he can have a bad day and still be better than 99% of the field.

Answer 1

As usual, Tiger failed to come from behind in a major, shooting a lackluster even par in the final round. He has never come from behind to win when it matters--just one of many of reasons he doesn't rate among the best golfers of all time. I love to solemnly intone "The Greatest Golfer of All Time" every time he misses a green, leaves an approach iron 50 feet from the whole, or misses a short putt--which is pretty often.

Champions don't give up when they're behind. They man-up and play.

Answer 2

That is a testament to how good he is.  He can manage to shoot even par at a very tough course in the final round of a major championship.  He had more experience than most of the competitors ahead of him.  I'm not surprised he finished 2nd.  I'm surprised he doesn't finish second more often when he doesn't win a major.

Answer 3

The fact is Tiger didn't play bad.  Not at all.  Maybe by Tiger standards but those are almost super human usually.  If you watched not just the highlights but his whole week he was hitting the ball really well.  He just didn't make any putts.  He missed enough putts that we have come to expect Tiger to make every time on both Saturday and Sunday separately (not even combined!) that if he had he wins the tourney.  So if he even jst made half of the makeable putts he missed over he weekend he's got another jacket.  He played great, he just didn't putt as we usually expect Tiger to.  We're spoiled by him though.

But in the end the winds were howling and surfaces were slick.  Tiger didn't play bad at all by any means.

Bonus material:  Don't forget Jack also finished second in 19 majors.  The greatest of all time sometimes miss the cup - if only just barely.

Answer 4

I think that Tiger has a plan for every tournament he plays.  To him, a golf tournament consists of four rounds, so it seems that he plays the first two days to make sure he's in a good position to make his move, (if he needs to), in the latter rounds.

I think that many players try to win the tournament on the first day by playing too aggressively....that's why they miss the cut and are not even around come Sunday.

Like all plans...especially a golf plan....everything doesn't always go as planned.  But a plan is better than no plan and that's why he ends up in contention tournament after tournament.

Answer 5

He appearantly is still playing better then the rest of the field. Duh

Answer 6

I suppose it just shows how good he really is . . . a "bad" day for him is still second place in the Masters.

Answer 7

Everyone else except Immelman played even worse.  (Although I guess he was about 3 over and Tiger was even)  Actually Augusta has gotten really difficult since they lengthened it, and with the wind howling only one or two guys that played Sunday were under par.  Tiger just didn't back up as much as everyone else.

Answer 8

Tiger didn't play bad, he just didn't make many putts we and he have to expect of him.  

Conditions on Sunday were blustery and difficult.  Only 4 players scored better than him on Sunday, and they weren't high enough on the leaderboard to be a threat.  

It merely looks like he played bad because everyone's expectations for him are so high.  He plays against the field as well as expectations.  He won his competition against the field, save for Immelman, and lost his battle against expectations.

Incidentally, if you have ever spent time around putting surfaces with scratch or better golfers, their confidence level on a 20 footer is the same as yours or mine with a 5 footer.  You can only imagine what Tigers level of confidence and self expectation would be.