with tiger in that situation hes at least even money. whos better than him? i know theres alot of talk about locke, but theres no stats or much video, so its hard to say he was better IMO.
Geoff ..... Tiger's driving accuracy was poor but his GIR was okay .. meaning he was scrambling a lot and that must have affected his position to the pin on the greens ... thus resulting in his weak putting stats. Nike has never built a decent driver for Woods and his downstroke shaft loading is still too aggressive for carbon shafts. He has a steel shaft in his 3-wood and depended on it quite a bit.
What I did see in the last round was Mickelson's bad misses on two short putts where he was trying to just get the ball to the front of the lip but missed them pathetically as they rolled off capriciously. Both putts went into the "decay" state and slowed down significantly ... thus allowing the vagaries of the green near the holes to throw them off path.
re: Phil - April 12 2009, 6:31 AM ... "whos opinion in golf would you rather listen too? Norman or Sammy?"
I have an opinion, Norman has an opinion, but you seem not to have an opinion, only preferring to judge. Could you provide us with your reasoned opinion on Wood's putting prowness?
phil ... kindly provide the source of your Norman 'quote' to understand the context of Norman's opinion. I trust Norman has backed up his opinion with something more than his subjective proclamation.
Don't know if there is a scientific way to say who is the best putter out there, and I doubt that Norman has done any scientific studies to come to his conclusion that Tiger is the best putter but I do know that it is a commonly held belief on tour that Tiger is the best putter out there. And despite the fact that he did not putt well in the Masters, I don't know if many would change their minds. Do the smartest people always get the best grades?
Nicklaus' Ego-Driven Criterion is Not the Way to Decide, or Accurate
April 14 2009, 6:06 PM
Dear Allan,
Who cares what the Tour players believe? They don't all believe the same thing, but most probably do think Tiger is better than them personally, but how would they know about how good he might be on some occasions versus how good some other players are? It's all just impressions and gossip and opinions shared by a safe number of the herd. It's like a "reputation" -- almost all gossip and little hard facts.
And yes, the smartest people almost ALWAYS get the best grades. It's a matter of frequency and consistency. Tiger does not get the best grades in putting with that same degree of frequency that one would expect of the best putter in the game, as a matter of hard fact, in THIS Masters, in a number of Masters, and in many other majors and Tour events. Sometimes he frankly stinks up the joint, as he did in the Masters won by Mickelson in 2006 (he said, correctly, that he "putted like a spaz"). The post-Masters press reads: "Woods, who was trying to become the first player to twice defend his Masters title, could only blame his putter. He had two eagle putts inside 15 feet on the back nine and missed them both, and he had six three-putts this week. He holed a 25-foot birdie on the 18th hole that just about made him curse, although it gave him a 70 and a tie for third. I putted atrociously today, Woods said. As good as I hit it, thats as bad as I putted. (NBC Sports, 12 Apr 2006).
I don't understand this relentless drive to elevate Woods to the best putter in golf. He's clearly not the best, according to cold hard facts. He's tough and he's very good, but he's also got plenty of room for improvement and there are quite a few others in golf who outperform him regularly with their putting, day in and day out. (There were 45 of 49 other players just this past week in Augusta, when Tiger very clearly wanted badly to outperform all of these guys and failed rather miserably with respect to his putting.)
Historically, this all goes back to Jack Nicklaus' ego-driven claim in Golf Digest in the 1970s that he was the "best" with his putting because, according to him, he made the "ones that counted" more often than others in his day. Uh, folks, they ALL count, and Nicklaus didn't make more putts than others by a long shot. Isn't it a bit childish to label some putts "clutch" and all other putts less important? And besides, Nicklaus was in contention more than others (just as Tiger is), so it's hard to say he didn't make more putts to win than others, but that is only Nicklaus' slant on what the criterion for the best putter should be. It's argumentative and ego-driven. Golf fans have been echoing Nicklaus' criterion whenever it suits their elevating Tiger. This all strikes me as pointless chit-chat.
Tiger had really much improved putting starting in about 2005-2006, but this year so far he's off. He is usually the player who sticks shots closest to the pin than all others, but he's only ranked so-so in putting in the critical 10-15' range (159th in 2008, 144th in 2009). Putts inside 10' are what I call "three-steppers" as that is what happens on television when a player sinks one -- he takes only 2-3 steps to retrieve his ball, so he SHOULD be dropping these, especially if he's leading an event and is on tv because he's playing well.
In the recent Masters, Steve Flesch, Sany Lyle, Aaron Baddeley and many many others putted MUCH better than Tiger. Flesch took 14 fewer putts than Tiger, even though Tiger took 14 fewer full swings, and these two tied for 6th. If Flesch had outputted Tiger by ONLY 10 strokes, Tiger would have been in the playoff. If Tiger had putted HALF as well as Flesch, Tiger would have beaten the entire field by 3 strokes. If Tiger had putted the same as the field AVERAGE, he would have won the Masters by 2 shots. These bad putts were all "clutch" in every sense of the word, so Tiger LOST. He has an "L" to show for his lack of excellent putting. That's just the fact, and Tiger knows it and says it. He lost the Masters to OTHER GOLFERS who all putted better than he did. He's done that many times in his career, when a person with more consistent skills would not. So he has some room for improvement -- a lot.
Re: Nicklaus' Ego-Driven Criterion is Not the Way to Decide, or Accurate
April 15 2009, 2:08 PM
Was not trying to say that tour players are knowledgeable about what they do, just that most of them do believe, rightly or wrongly, that Tiger is the best putter out there. Which they do!
Re: Nicklaus' Ego-Driven Criterion is Not the Way to Decide, or Accurate
April 16 2009, 11:18 AM
Recently I seem to have seen Tiger's practice schedule on many times on t.v. for some reason. And every time I have seen it, it surprises me how little time he dedicates to putting-- if what we have been shown is accurate. A small fraction of his practice day goes towards putting.
I just played Whisper Rock and my caddy was talking about the pros who belong there and their typical routines. Some play full rounds, some a few holes, some 9 holes, some just play in from 100 yards and putt but one he said-Aaron Baddley only putts. In fact he said he has never seen Aaron do anything at Whisper Rock besides putt. Mark Timms at Cool Clubs told me that Aaron will come in and wear out the green on his putting contraption. He will sit there and putt same 7 feet over and over for hours, literally making a groove in the carpet. I know Geoff spends more time on putting greens than anybody in the world and his putting shows it. Maybe there is a correlation between practice and results? Why does Tiger not put more hours into his putting practice? Why does he not throw his driver off the nearest cliff and use his 3 wood?
Re: Nicklaus' Ego-Driven Criterion is Not the Way to Decide, or Accurate
April 16 2009, 12:31 PM
Old Frog Legs ... Once you have your putting stroke under control, there is no reason to continue refining it. Baddley's 7 foot repetitive obsessive compulsive putting drill is futile. Reinventing your putting stroke every time you play is incompetence. You can master the mechanics of your putting stroke at home on a carpet and then take it out for accommodation to the golf course greens.
The putting challenge is to properly read the topography of the greens, the speed of the greens and the amount of energy that must be imparted to the ball to reach the hole. If your putting stroke is inconsistent because it's out of control, you have failed at half the quantitative part of the game of golf.
First develop a putting stroke through off-course practice, and then develop your ability to read greens by walking the course in the evening when traffic is low ... with a 7-iron, a putter and pocketfuls of golf balls ... or just walk the course with your putter and throw a bunch of balls on the greens ... for putting only..!!!
Re: Nicklaus' Ego-Driven Criterion is Not the Way to Decide, or Accurate
April 16 2009, 12:57 PM
I agree Sammy. I could not putt the same 7 feet for more than 17 minutes. But what I can do and I think is great for your putting stroke is spending a lot if time on greens putting from all over the place just like you suggest.I can spends hours outdoors on real greens putting. I'm sure Aaron spends much more time on real greens than indoors but I just wanted to make the point that the guy dedicates his practice time to putting and it shows.
There is a problem in the way Aaron Baddeley goes about his putting practice. You really don't "groove the move" to the point that it is "automatic" so it is a habit so you "don't have to think about it" so you can avoid "paralysis by analysis". The "groove the move" golf folks really, really need to check back with modern motor learning science about that. You have to LEARN WHAT WORKS AND WHY and then hone performance from that foundation. You ALWAYS have to KNOW HOW because you believe the HOW you choose is sound because you actually understand the WHY it is sound.
Conventional golf instruction absolutely RUINS this essential learning process. The whole idea of feel and repetition and automaticity according to "muscle memory" is just not correct, and results in only so-so performance skills, and really leaves golfers prey to loss of skill under pressure and to streakiness.
It's great that Aaron spends lots of time on the practice green, but uh he choked choked choked on the greens in the US Open when it mattered on Sunday and there's no hiding from that. And I can pretty safely predict that there will come a day when Aaron is not that great a putter and won't KNOW HOW to recapture former brilliance. At the very least, he is highly unlikely to improve much over the years doing what he is doing.
Practicing a) with a contraption b) repeating exactly the same exercise ("mass practice" in motor learning lingo) for c) too long a period in session after session with d) a constant stream of feedback knowledge of results e) on the same putting green f) when none of the putts really count and g) without integrating any one putt with the read, aim, and touch required for that putt are exactly the wrong a, b, c, d, e, f, and g's. The only PURPOSE this sort of practice serves is to "groove a move" you don't understand or want to understand so it will work without you having to understand it when you play. But motor learning science says watch out: you THINK you're grooving a move, but you're really "grooving your practice". Your stroke may SEEM golden as long as you don't get under pressure or lose the stroke a bit and not know why or how to get it back on track.
Note to anyone missing a post: sometimes I remove a post because it is too personal without contributing to the conversation in a substantive way for content. If you don't "like" someone or what they say, please take it up with them on a personal basis elsewhere, and save this forum ONLY for advancing the ball of knowledge. It's not really my choice, either, as the people at "Network 54" own this forum and let me use it only IF I keep ALL "trash talking" (so to speak) OFF the forum, which I am more than happy to do. I don't personally agree with or even like a lot of what people say, and sometimes I don't even like the person, but that's for me privately, and not for this forum. Criticize the content to your heart's content as rough as you like; just don't go to personality sniping with snideness or intentional meanness. If someone displays impenetrable stupidity or bullet-proof ego or knuckleheaded and offensive arrogance, that can't be helped, so just either ignore it and respond to the content or don't respond at all. Thanks, as I want this forum to really advance the ball!
I saw this recently about Seve Ballesteros. He appears to be the model of the fabulous talent who doesn't know why and how he plays well, and so stands to lose everything in one fell swoop:
"What I recall most from one-on-one interviews with Ballesteros are his mindfulness of the growing toll of his obsession, and his acute sense that the clock was running out. Even in English, he had a knack for a good sound bite"I was Tiger Woods before Tiger Woods"but his considerable insight was best expressed in quiet moments. He could admit that where Woods had made good career decisions, he had made bad ones. The one he rued the most was the first: turning pro "too young, too young" at 16. He recognized himself as a prisoner of arrested development.
Biggest thing, he never learned how to lose...Yeah, the game made him. And the game destroyed him.
Lee Trevino
It most stunted his ability to improve. Ballesteros treated his gift as a fixed entity, magically formed on the sands of Pedrena, not to be tampered with. When it finally stopped being enoughhis crooked driver betraying him at the U.S. Open in particularhe worked furiously to change his swing, but with the impatience of someone unable to find a diamond he had dropped. Just as he distrusted the specialists who tried to help him with his troublesome back, he distrusted swing coachesand saw dozens of both. Once, asked to put his flawed impact conditions under the scrutiny of a launch monitor, he countered with bravado: "My hands are my computer." The truth is, Ballesteros didn't really know how to get better, and was essentially finished at age 35."
Jaime Diaz, "The Sadness of Seve: Haunting memories linger long after his game faded", Golf Digest, Jan. 2009.
This echoes my basic point: talent without know-how is not a reliable way to get thru the years of professional golf competition. Ian Baker-Finch, Johnny Miller, even Arnold Palmer all reached a point where the winning ground to a halt and couldn't be fixed. Certain supposed top putters have lost it and haven't yet gotten it back: Chris Riley, Nick Faldo, ... others. Mike Weir lost his putting for about five years -- exactly the wrong five years, too. He seems to be doing better, but you never know whether he has real know-how or he's just on a streak. We'll see.
Bottom line: learn about the body, rather than rust grooving a move and thinking you're talented.
Tiger Putting at 2009 US Open: Touch Problem Again
June 24 2009, 5:43 PM
Here's the June 23, 2009, story:
U.S. Open commentary: Putting, weather leave Tiger seeing red
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Jim Litke, The Associated Press
Charles Krupa/Associated Press
FARMINGDALE, N.Y.
He didn't need to hear any more.
"Do you beat yourself up over this one," the question began, "or ..."
"Yes," Tiger Woods said abruptly.
This once, at least, the best player in the world wasn't interested in alibis, never mind that a very tidy one was available. Woods got stuck in the bad half of the draw, weather-wise, from the start of play Thursday and beat every other player in the super-soaked flight at this U.S. Open. That was only good enough to tie for sixth place.
The sun was trying to peek through the clouds on a breezy, overcast morning at the Black Course at Bethpage State Park, but Woods wasn't interested in that, either. For five days, he had seen little besides rain and gray skies. Now he was seeing nothing but red.
"I striped it this week," he said after finishing at even-par 280. "I hit it just like I did at Memorial."
That was two weeks ago in Ohio, where Woods found every fairway in the final round and came from four strokes back on the last day to win.
"Unfortunately," he said, back in the moment, "I didn't make anything.
"I hit so many putts that -- my good ones are not going in, and then my bad ones aren't even close. It's a little bit slow and bumpy, but you have to be committed to hitting it that hard, and I left a lot of putts short. And then, when I tried to hit it harder, I gunned it past the hole."
He tugged the bill of his black cap lower.
"I didn't make the adjustment the right way," he said.
Nearly every time Woods loses, he pins the blame on the shortest club in his bag. This time, there was no second-guessing him. He made only 14 birdies all week, and left two more very makable ones sitting on the final two greens. In hindsight, the 3-footer Woods missed for bogey at No. 15 in the opening round became a template for the rest of his tournament.
Most weeks, Woods is among the boldest putters out there, because he's supremely confident in his ability to make the short ones coming back. But here he seemed positively spooked. Steady rains forced USGA officials to leave the lawn mowers in the shed, and the greens, which were just shaggy at the start of play, soon became pockmarked and bare in some spots, inexplicably fast or slow in others.
Everybody had to negotiate the same surface, of course. But they drove a world-class control freak like Woods to distraction. He craves consistency above almost everything else, and Mother Nature simply refused to go along. If you want to know why Woods rarely shows up anymore for the PGA Tour's swing through the West Coast in late winter, when rain plays havoc with the poa annua putting surfaces, that's the short answer.
He didn't expect to find them at Bethpage, despite having endured at least one day of rain-soaked greens en route to his U.S. Open title here in 2002.
"This is a great golf course," Woods said. "It's just that the USGA just got the short end of the stick on the weather. We have yet to play it hard and fast the two years we've played. It was kind of getting that way in 2002 in the beginning of the week until it rained on Friday."
If Woods was looking for consolation, there was plenty. Returning from knee surgery that kept him out nearly eight months, he has finished in the top 10 or better in every stroke-play event he has entered since. Woods also became the first Open champion since Curtis Strange two decades ago to finish in the top 10 defending his title.
Then again, top 10s never meant that much to Tiger. For the first time in five years, he doesn't have the trophy from a major title in the glass cabinet back home, which should be motivation enough to start beating up on the other players when they gather next month at Turnberry for the British Open.
Re: Tiger Putting at 2009 US Open: Touch Problem Again
June 25 2009, 12:10 PM
When Woods appeared on the PGA tour, he had Harmon and then Haney to help him with his golf swing ... but who does he have to help him with his putting stroke and green reading?
Perhaps he believes he can resolve his putting woes all on his own ... but isn't that like a lawyer representing himself in court?!
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Tiger Woods played a lot like the guy who didn't make the cut at the British Open.
Woods shot a 1-under 71 on Thursday at the Buick Open, his first tournament since disappointing at Turnberry.
He finished the first round tied for 128th on putts inside 10 feet and eight shots back of leader Steve Lowery.
"Probably one of the worst putting days I've ever had," he said. "It was just terrible."
Two weeks ago in the British Open, Woods was 7 over during a six-hole stretch and ended up missing a cut for the first time in three years.
If Woods fails to break 70 in the second round Friday morning, he will put himself in danger of missing cuts in consecutive tournaments for the first time as a pro.
It's too early, though, to count him out for the weekend at Warwick Hills even though the cut is usually 3 or 4 under. He opened the 2005 Buick Open with a 71, bounced back with a course-record tying 61 and finished tied for second.
"I not only have to play well to make the cut, I got to play well to get myself back in contention," said the two-time Buick Open champion, whose worst finish in eight previous stops at here was a tie for 11th. "Guys are going to continue to go low. That's the way the golf course is playing right now.
"It's going to be 20-plus to win."
....
Woods didn't see his awful performance coming.
He was pleased with his practice sessions following his flop at the British Open and had five birdies on the front nine during Wednesday's pro-am.
Woods was accurate off the tee early, missing only one fairway before making the turn, and his approach shots were solid much of the day.
But his putter let him down.
Woods three-putted from 12 feet on his second hole for bogey and missed a 6-foot par putt on 5, leading to a a big sigh and slumped shoulders. He pulled makable putts at 15 and 17.
Woods did make a clutch putt from 20-plus feet to save par at No. 4, but the result was the only thing he liked.
"I actually pulled it," he said. "I hit a bad putt there, went in. I hit a really good putt at 15, hit something and went left.
"It's just one of those days. One of those weird days."
who cares if hes the best putter ever. he is undisputedly at least the second best GOLFER of all time. if he ever gets to 19 majors he will be the best ever. people forget that putting is only half the game of golf. same thing happens with hogan fanatics who think that having a perfect swing is the point of the game.
The reason I care to evaluate Tiger's putting is because putting is the NEGLECTED half of the game. According to Hank Haney in the Fall of 2006 Tiger had only recently begun working on his putting. Uh, what's up with that?
Geoff .... Would you teach putting to tour pros differently than you would to good amateurs or novice golfers? How would you set up priorities for teaching putting to different types of golfers?
By Telegraph staff and agencies
Published: 9:10AM BST 17 Aug 2009
Self-destruction: Tiger Woods hangs his head after another putt goes begging Photo: AFP
Famed for his peerless putting game, the world No 1 crumbled under the pressure and surrendered a final round lead for the first time in a major.
He defended his all-round game, claiming some of his tee shots and drives were champion quality, but conceded that without the putting to back it up, you cannot win majors.
"I made absolutely nothing. Terrible day on the greens and I had it at the wrong time," he said.
"I hit the ball so much better than my score indicates. I hit it great all day.
"I was certainly in control of the tournament for most of the day, but just didn't make anything today. I hit the ball great off the tee, hit my irons well. I did everything I needed to do except for getting the ball in the hole."
Woods missed three birdie putts from 10 feet, another from 12 feet and a crucial 12-footer par-saving putt on the 17th that could have put him back at the top of the leaderboard.
But he admitted that his defeat was not just down to his putting nightmare, but also to rival Yang's rock-solid final round.
"It's both. I was in control of the tournament most of the day. I was playing well, hitting the ball well. I was making nothing, but still either tied for the lead or ahead.
"And Y.E. played great all day. I don't think he really missed a shot all day. He just made that mistake at 17 (three-putt bogey). Other than that, he hit it great all day.
"It was a fun battle. Unfortunately, I just didn't make the putts when I needed to make them."
so what you are saying Geoff is that when Tiger putts horrendously(33 putts final round), he still barely loses major championships? for the volume of tournaments that they play, you could find off day stats for anybody's putting. have you done similar studies for the players you consider to be the best on tour? or is it that you are just looking to pick on tiger because he is considered to be the best putter by his peers, while not using your preferred putting mechanics?
I'm simply reporting facts. If the facts make you think I'm "picking on" Tiger, please allow me to say that its quite the opposite: I'm PAYING ATTENTION to Tiger because he's very good, and I want to know what his problem really boils down to. Most players I don't really care to pay attention to. I have never said that Tiger "putts horrendously" -- he has. I certainly don't "pick on" Tiger because I think he should putt the way I say -- I just want to really come to grips with why the most "talented" golfer in the game today has a problem on the greens. Of course one suspects the problem lies in his technique. But the best I can tell, he doesn't really know touch, which causes misreads and iffy strokes. Tiger's technique is what you think is the main deal, not me. I think he has a problem with his timing mostly because he is trying technique for stroke RATHER THAN using a sounder timing pattern that would result in a different emphasis on the technical aspects of the stroke.
By the way, here is this week's report from Tiger's mouth to your ear without my interpretation:
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Heath Slocum might have been the one player no one expected to win The Barclays.
He was locked in a tense battle over the final hour Sunday at Liberty National with some of the biggest names in golf -- Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els.
Even more incredible is that a week ago, Slocum was not even sure he would make it to the opening event of the PGA Tour Playoffs. Having missed the cut, he had to wait until the tournament was over to learn that by the slimmest of margins -- two points -- he was the No. 124 seed out of the 125 players who qualified.
"My fate was not in my own hands," Slocum said.
He had his hands around that putter on the 18th green, however, and delivered the biggest shot of his life.
On the same green where Woods stunned the crowd by missing from seven feet, Slocum knocked in a 20-foot par for a one-shot victory at The Barclays to get this FedEx Cup bonanza off to a compelling start.
Slocum closed with a 4-under 67 to win for the third time in his career, and first time in four years. The victory, worth $1.35 million, moved him from No. 124 to No. 3 in the FedEx Cup standings, giving him a shot at the $10 million prize next month in Atlanta.
"It was an incredible day, incredible experience," Slocum said. "I was just kind of lucky to come out on top. A lot of good players. At the end of the day, that putt on the last was magical. I'll remember that for the rest of my life."
It was another finish Woods would like to forget.
In his first tournament since losing a two-shot lead to unheralded Y.E. Yang in the PGA Championship, the putter again cost Woods a chance to win -- not only the final round, but all week on greens he could never trust.
Woods rimmed out a three-foot par putt early in the round. He twice missed from inside 10 feet on par 5s. And after another clutch shot on the 18th hole, this one a 6-iron from 189 yards to seven feet with a chance to tie for the lead, the birdie putt slid by on the left.
"It happens," said Woods, who shot a 67. "Not too many golf courses that you misread putts that badly. This golf course is one."
The drama unfolded even after some of the stars had left the course.
Els finished his bogey-free 66 and had his clubs in the trunk of his car when he heard the loud cheer from the 18th green after Woods stuffed his 6-iron close. Then came a groan after the missed putt. Els had his golf shoes in a plastic bag when he was told that Slocum and Stricker, tied for the lead at 9-under had driven into fairway bunkers on the 18th. He quickly changed shoes and headed to the range.
Stricker caught the lip of the bunker, which left him short of the green, and hit wedge to 10 feet. Slocum also came up short, as did his wedge, leaving him 20 feet from the top of the ridge.
Slocum raised both arms in the air when his par putt broke gently back to the left and disappeared into the cup. Stricker's putt to force a two-way playoff caught the left lip of the cup.
In the third year of these playoffs, the FedEx Cup finally has a winner that resembles a real underdog.
"That's what it's all about," Slocum said. "I was sweating it out last week. I didn't even know if I'd be here. I came in here with the attitude that I had nothing to lose."
He turned into a huge winner.
Slocum, who came into The Barclays at No. 197 in the world ranking, finished at 9-under 275 for the biggest win of his career. His other two victories were opposite-field events, when the best players in the world were competing elsewhere.
He faced an All-Star cast across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and Slocum shined.
The 35-year-old knocked in a 25-foot birdie at No. 2, the toughest par 3 at Liberty National, then surged into a share of the lead by holing out from 157 yards with a 7-iron for eagle on No. 5. He was steady the rest of the way, especially on the 18th.
"Anybody here in this field has the potential to win the tournament," Stricker said. "Heath is a very steady player. He's a very good player. I don't think we should be surprised that he won."
The surprise came from Woods.
The world's No. 1 player was lurking most of the day, unable to get any traction while missing so many putts. A 3-footer for par rimmed around the cup at No. 4, and he failed to convert birdie putts on two of the par 5s from inside 10 feet.
Down the stretch, everything changed.
He made a 10-foot birdie on the 14th, saved par with a 15-foot putt on the next hole, and got in range with pitch to 2 feet for birdie on the 16th. And with everything riding on one shot, he nailed his 6-iron to birdie range.
Any other week, any other course, Woods making that putt was practically a given.
This one never had a chance.
"Usually, he makes it," Slocum said. "Ho-hum for him. I guess you can't make 'em all."
Els played bogey-free and pulled into a tie for the lead with a birdie on the par-3 14th. He might have been hurt using a new driver, after discovering a crack in his other one on Saturday. Els felt his tee shots were getting away to the right, and he didn't want to risk such a mistake on the par-4 16th, which played only 287 yards in the final round. He laid up and made par.
"From where I've come from, where my game has been, where my confidence has been, this is moving in the right direction," said Els, who has not won since March 2008 at the Honda Classic.
Harrington continued his solid form, getting into the mix for the third straight tournament. He finished with four birdies over the final seven holes, making a long birdie at the 18th.
The final round featured endless possibilities, except for the guys atop the leaderboard.
Steve Marino and Paul Goydos, tied for the lead at 9 under to start the final round, and Webb Simpson and Fredrik Jacobson, both two shots behind, combined to go 11-over par. Marino shot 77, while Goydos made only one birdie in his round of 75.
By Bill Doyle TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
wdoyle@telegram.com
NORTON Usually, golfers rank among the top 10 in putting the week they win tournaments.
Tiger Woods is tied for 51st in putting midway through the Deutsche Bank Championship, but believe it or not, he's not completely out of the hunt. Woods trails co-leaders Sean O'Hair and Jim Furyk by seven shots, and he figures his putting has to improve the next couple of days.
If I putt well, Woods said after carding a 4-under 67 yesterday at TPC Boston, then I'm right there, and I win golf tournaments. And then if I don't (putt well), I'm still right there with a chance. But you have to make putts, you can't out-ball strike these guys.
Woods said the drivers and irons have become too forgiving. So putting wins tournaments more than ever.
Woods, 5 under for the tournament, did make enough putts to birdie four of his last seven holes to give himself a chance at winning here for the second time. He rolled in a 7-footer on 12, a 9-footer on 14, a 10-footer on 16 and tapped in an 11-incher on 18 after blasting out of a greenside bunker. But he also lipped out five putts by his count.
Putting woes also plagued Woods in his last two tournaments, the PGA and The Barclays.
They had pretty bumpy greens at the PGA, Woods said, and then last week was a golf course that was very unique and very different for us. These greens are absolutely perfect.
Woods knew he was on the cut line at 1 under when he stood over his ball buried in the side of a hill in a greenside bunker on 11. He managed to blast out to 19 feet past the cup and made the putt coming back to save par and kick-start his round and avoid what would have been an embarrassingly early departure.
I saw a lot of media guys out there, Woods said. So I thought I'd better turn this thing around and make them go away.
Furyk, O'Hair and Retief Goosen played together the past two days and fed off each other's momentum. Furyk followed his opening-round 63 with a 67. O'Hair shot 64 after opening with a 66. Both are at 12-under 130. Goosen is two shots back tied for third with Marc Leishman after shooting 65 and 67 the past two days. The threesome is a combined 34 under par.
I'm not sure I've ever played in a group, Furyk said, where all three guys played so well.
Jim was playing great, and Retief was playing great, O'Hair said, so it was very easy for me to kind of say, hey, I've got to get this thing going.
It's been an amazing three-ball, Goosen said.
The second-round leader has not gone on to win the Deutsche Bank Championship in any of the last three years, and the second-round leader has won only 15 of 37 stroke-play events on the PGA Tour this season. So this tournament is still wide open.
Leishman shot a 9-under 62, one shot off the tournament record set by Vijay Singh in 2006 and equaled by Mike Weir last year. Weir, Dustin Johnson, Scott Verplank, John Senden, Justin Leonard and Kevin Sutherland are tied for fifth, three shots back. Steve Stricker, who shared the first-round lead with Furyk, skied to a 72 to fall back into a tie for 15th at 7 under.
Whoever makes the most putts will likely come out on top, but it won't be easy.
These greens, Goosen said, I'm sure by Monday, they're going to be dead. It's going to get tougher and tougher out there.
Sergio Garcia made a 53-foot birdie putt on 15 to just make the cut at 1 under. Garcia entered this weekend one spot out of the top 70 who will advance to the BMW Championship next week. So he'll need a couple of good rounds today and tomorrow to play next week.
Garcia wasn't the only big name to make the cut on the number. So did Kenny Perry, Anthony Kim and PGA champion Y.E. Yang. Among the notables who missed the cut were Ernie Els, Heath Slocum, Rory Sabbatini and Fred Couples.
Slocum, who won The Barclays last week, missed an 18-foot eagle putt on 18 that would have enabled him to make the cut.
Sean O'Hair 66-64130 -12
Jim Furyk 63-67130 -12
Marc Leishman 70-62132 -10
Retief Goosen 65-67132 -10
Dustin Johnson 68-65133 -9
Scott Verplank 65-68133 -9
John Senden 69-64133 -9
Justin Leonard 65-68133 -9
Mike Weir 68-65133 -9
Kevin Sutherland 68-65133 -9
