He Might Be Human Afterall

Jack Nicklaus finished 2nd 19 times. He won 18 majors. Even Tiger Woods will not finish his career with 37 Top 2 finishes. That being said he added an unlikely top 2 this weekend at Hazletine. After holding the lead of a major after 3 rounds he relinquished it. After 14 successful final round victories, Tiger Woods finally lost one. He finally had a poor final round and it cost him. However to say he choked would quite frankly make you wrong.

Losing under pressure doesn't mean you choked. Losing because of pressure does. Tiger Woods lost Sunday for a few reasons and none of them were the pressure he was under to win his 15th major. First and foremost he couldn't hit a putt to save his life. If his read was good his stroke was off. If he hit it where he wanted he shouldn't have hit it there. Secondly he is still not used to having two legs. As absurd as that sounds its true. He was hitting the ball too far with every club and hasn't gotten his distances down yet and thus he had to hit out of some horrible lies which then in return means any putt he did make was for par.

Everyone has a bad round. It happens. For Tiger a bad round is 75. For most its in the high 70's or 80's. Every great player has them, and Tiger is now no exception. It wasn't Phil at Winged Foot but it wasn't Tiger-like. Sadly this is where the story probably goes horribly wrong for Tiger's competition. Tiger will now work harder than ever to come back "roaring" next year (excuse the horrible pun) and he'll be fully adjusted to having a fixed knee and thus two legs. If that happens don't expect too many of these bad rounds again. As a matter of fact don't expect any of them.

And as for this "choking" business? Tiger Woods doesn't feel pressure. And if he does he uses it positively. Unfortunately that doesn't help you if you just don't have the feel for your flat stick. He had a bad day. It happens. Maybe he is human after all....maybe.