Tiger Talk

First of all, congrats to Phil Mickelson on winning the Open Championship for the first time in his career. He played great last week, particularly on Sunday, especially on the back nine, and truly deserved to win.

With that said, Tiger Woods was in the mix again, but like we've seen over the last few years, he failed to get it done. He's still stuck on 14 majors and is still "majorless" since his big '08 injury, since the scandal broke in '09/'10, and since his most recent swing changes. Are any of these factors? Are all of these factors? What's his problem?

On the course, I still believe his problem recently has been his short game, not his ball striking. Sure he misses fairways at times and can't hit a driver... but over the last year he's hit the ball well enough to win 4 majors. He simply isn't the putter he once was and is failing to get up and down like he used to.

This week was a perfect example... After playing terrific golf on Thursday, Tiger failed to take advantage of an early tee time Friday. He missed two tap-ins, and couldn't get up and down on a number of occasions. Yet, he was still only 1 back entering the weekend thanks to the way he hit it.

On Saturday, he seemed to 3-putt every time he wasn't in the same vicinity as the pin. After taking the solo lead early on, he failed to pull away like he used to. And down the stretch, he made crucial errors while winless Westwood dropped everything. His mistake on 17 loomed large, but he still could have made the final group by making either putt on 17/18. Neither dropped and he didn't even get his putt on 18 to the hole.

That led to yesterday (Sunday), where he started the day with a 3-putt on #1. A few missed putts and opportunities later, and he was out of it by the back nine. Mid-round his confidence dropped so low that he started making errors off the tee for really the first time all week. It was pathetic. We saw the same thing at The Masters this year and in multiple majors in 2012.

So why is he struggling so much now? I believe it is because he's a control freak. We've seen it in all areas of his life. He was in control of his personal life and public perception for a long time. But when the sex scandal broke, he lost that control. It literally took him years to recover, but he's getting that control back now as people no longer obsess over it. So he's back to playing golf.

Due to his injury history and lack of success, Tiger once again took on another swing change. For a long time the last couple years, he hasn't been in control of his swing. His results therefore sucked. Now in control of his swing, and he is winning (regular events) again. For him, it was all about his "trust" and control. Nearly every other golfer would have made adjustments faster, but it took him years. Because he needs sole control...

Tiger seems to only win big tournaments when he has the lead entering the last day. Why? Because he is in control when he has the lead. He dictates how others have to play. When he is trailing, he can't control things, and he ends up just falling away helplessly. We've never seen him do what Phil did yesterday. Cause he must have total control!

We even see his mental game get altered by his lack of control. The speed and firmness of the greens this week changed nearly every round he played. At the start of the week, it was fast. He was in control and playing well because he was used to it. When they slowed down on the weekend, he lost control of his feel, didn't adjust, and fell apart. A slight adjustment could have been made and he would have been fine. In fact, the course was set up easier over his final 3 rounds as opposed to round 1, when he played in the afternoon. But he threw a mental pity party because he lost control and therefore lost the tourney.

NOTE: Slight adjustments that I'm talking about are simply landing it farther on the green when it wasn't releasing like it was earlier in tourney. And simply hitting putts/chips harder when the green speed slowed. I, as an average golfer, do those things on a round by round basis depending on course/conditions. He seems to suck at these things over the course of a tourney.

Why can other players adjust to all these things but he can't? Like I said, the man is a control freak. His largest issue going forward is that he can't control the media now when they are starting to say he won't catch Jack. It's becoming to big of a distraction that he maybe won't overcome. Or maybe I'm wrong and he he'll win the next 4. Who knows?

By: The Sports Guys