On Wednesday at Chambers Bay, Tiger Woods talked a good game about his swing changes and the status of his play heading into the U.S. Open. “We’ve implemented a lot of the big stuff already, so now it’s just fine tuning,” Woods said, noting that he’s been through this process multiple times before. He then went out and shot 80-76 and never even sniffed the cut line.
Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open was worse than it looked
16-over is bad! How Tiger got to 16-over is worse.
Slamming the trunk on Friday and heading home after shooting 16-over at a major is bad enough for someone of Tiger’s ability. His score left him looking up at pretty much the entire field -- only three players shot worse and one was a 15-year-old amateur. But Tiger’s week was worse than just the scorecard.
Consider a few stats that tell a story about where Tiger’s game is:
- Hit 16 fairways, tied for 145th
- Hit 21 greens in regulation, tied for 128th
- Needed 73 putts in two days (a little over two a hole), tied for 151st
- Only three birdies over two rounds at Chambers Bay
- Averaged 297.5 yards off the tee, tied for 104th
The thing about Tiger’s two-day adventure at Chambers Bay is that he didn’t do anything well. On a course that has played nicely for players with length, Tiger lagged behind the field. His irons were off just about all week, as well.
Perhaps driving distance, fairways in regulation and greens in regulation can be tied to the swing changes. Poor approaches lead to two- and three-putt greens, as well. But still ... 73 putts? Not only is Tiger’s swing in some state of self-inflicted disrepair, but the rest of his game has gone down the toilet, too.
It’s not like there’s a simple tweak that’s going to fix things for Tiger. He’s almost 40 and looks completely lost on a golf course. If it was just one phase of the game, there’d be some kind of hope for a speedy tournament. But everything is broken, and there’s no telling if it’ll come back.
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