Congratulations to Phil Mickelson. He was a great player before; now I think he becomes legendary.
Phil called it yesterday. He said in a post-round interview that he thought even par of -1 would win. He was correct. Second place was even par.
Five under is a phenomenal score in the last round of a Major.
Contrary to many, I have often thought that Phil would win an Open Championship. He has the sort of imagination required to make those crazy, bouncing, curving shots at the Open Championship. The US Open, on the other hand, asks for patience and precision. I’m not sure Phil has enough of those.
Tiger did not look good. Here’s the thing that no one seems to pay attention to—even Tiger: It is not a failure of ball striking. It is a failure of putting. The mid-range and bomb putts that he used to routinely sink just aren’t falling any more. In his glory days, Tiger would bomb a 20 footer and drive fear into the hearts of his opponents. Not so much any more.
Tiger will still be the favorite at the PGA Championship. Strangely.
Poor Lee Westwood. He’s so likable. I’d hate to think of him as the new Colin Montgomerie. I still believe that he will win a Major, though.
Adam Scott continues to perform at a very high level. This just wasn’t his day. I wonder when he gives up the broomstick. If he does, and still wants the anchored “feeling,” I’d suggest that he try a Heavy Putter.
That slow play penalty really cost Hideki Matsuyama. It was the difference between T3 and 6th.
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So I think that the ESPN guys were saying that for the last 7 majors, Adam Scott has the lowest combined score, and is 16 strokes ahead of Tiger in 2nd? Could that be right? That is impressive.
But Phil. Come on. That is ridiculous. Back to back wins. In Scotland on links courses. Very ridiculously awesome.
Somehow we’re the crazy ones for saying that Tiger wasn’t going to win a major this year.
More craziness – He isn’t winning the PGA. He might still win the FedEx Cup though. Said at the beginning of the year, I think Tiger will have 6 wins for the year. Still think that.
I continue to believe that Tiger is done winning Majors. The miracle putts that he depended on are just not falling any more. Bad putting ended the careers of Snead and Hogan, both of whom remained superb ball strikers. Ditto Palmer.
Tiger may back into one, but he won’t WIN another the way he used to or the way Phil did today.
But I realize that I am in a very small minority here
I hate how delusional Tiger is in public (perhaps he’s more of a realist in private, I’m not going to pretend to be certain). But it’s annoying when he says things that he says post-round, such as “I played really well today.”
Here’s the links to ‘The Open Stats Centre’ http://scores.theopen.com/en/Leaderboard.aspx#stats
Let’s break down the stats:
Fairways Hit
Tiger – 5th
Phil – T37
Greens in Regulation
Tiger – T5
Phil – T27
Birdies
Tiger – T8 (13)
Phil – T2 (16)
One-Putts
Tiger – T15 (26)
Phil – T3 (31)
So, yep, Phil had so-so ballstriking for the week. But he made putts. Great way to win.
Nice, Drew. Good to have the stats to back my suspicion.