Why do some players choke when playing against Tiger?

Question

Why do some players choke when playing against Tiger?

Answer 1

The prerssure of playing the best player in the world.

Answer 2

the strangle hold tiger woods has on  the rest of the Field is like putting your left testie in the hands of a squirrel.

Answer 3

Cause Tiger's the man. There are none better. I would be shaking if I knew Tiger was watching me play.

Answer 4

I'll make this short and to the point, INTIMIDATION!

Answer 5

Alot of these younger guys (and some of the older ones) have been watching and idolizing Tiger for years. He is their hero, their inspiration. One of them playing against Tiger can be the same amount of pressure as me or you playing with him. They focus so much on trying to keep up with 360 yard drives and incredible short game, that they forget the fundamentals. Hence the choke. I believe it is natural for anyone put under such pressure to choke.

Answer 6

these are all great answers, but you have to factor in the gallery too. The amount of people following Tiger is almost 2 times the size following Rocco. Rocco's gallery will grow today, but so will Tiger's. Watch how Lee Westwood plays today. I bet he struggles with the attention given to Tiger.

Answer 7

The intimidation factor

Answer 8

Just playing with someone like Tiger can be intimidating. And when he pulls off shots like he did Saturday at the US Open (3 eagles) it puts quite a bit of pressure on the other players.

There was some evidence that the other players where making some bad mistakes towards the end of play.

Answer 9

I think it is the fact that time and time again they have seen him pull of the impossible or play "flawlessly" that it makes them feel like they have to play perfect golf in order to beat him.  Whenever you feel like every shot has to be absolutely perfect you are going to be let down quite often and then that will start to mess with your mind even more.  Its a viscious cycle.  They want so badly to beat him but everytime they hit a sub standard shot they think that they have put themselves further into a hole.  This is my opinion anyways.

Answer 10

Tiger is the best player out there, and he is so intimidating to other players because they know that he rarely makes mistakes. So if they make a mistake, it makes it so much more difficult to catch up with tiger.