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Tiger Woods Driving The Ball

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According to Hank Haney, it has never been his strong suit, but in this day and age of short memories, do his fans (as well as detractors) think that with a small loss of distance over the years, he needs to be able to hit driver well again to win?

Now keep in mind before the whole "He's done" stuff, he is about 9 rounds out of back surgery, and nobody would expect any athlete to be at the top after that. But his driving since working with Foley is as bad as I can remember it. This picture kind of sums it up.

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I recall back in the day the only player that was Tiger long was Daly, and his was with that extraordinarily long swing. That gave Tiger such a huge advantage - he could either hit his driver wayward or choose to hit 3W off the tee, effectively without penalty. It is clearly a very different scenario on tour today. So I say yes, he definitely needs to drive the ball effectively if he wants to win majors and events at courses other than the ones that are his favorites (Arnie's course, the Bridgestone WGC, Jack's event, etc.)
 
I think he needs to begin driving the ball better. Not necessarily further but he needs 10x the accuracy he has now. He's still one of the best mid-long iron players in the game and I think his Proximity to the hole' stats from outside 170 are still impressive.
Just look at what he's up against. Mcilroy, Scott, Garcia, and all his competitors have no problem slinging the ball down the fairway.

As long as he struggles like this with the driver he'll be looking up wondering why he can't win.
 
I truly keep waiting to see "Breaking News" to come onto the golf channel at any time about him dumping Foley. Yes I know he won 5 times last year and I really feel he's certainly not done in his career but he needs to learn to hit his damn driver.
 
Just finished reading "Every Shot Counts" and the stats in there showing Tigers past dominance with the approach shots particularly from 150 yards and more indicate that he doesn't need to be at the top of the game in regards to driving to win and be relevant again. Having said that it sure appears he needs to find something he can at least compete with. Not being able to take advantage of the par 5's even close to the way Rory and others can is a pretty large disadvantage. Especially in Majors not named the US Open.
 
Exactly what Army said. Rory's not only longer than him, he's also tearing up fairways on his day, whilst Sergio has been incredibly accurate and consistent, two things Tiger just doesn't have.

Thing is, the more he has to focus on his full swing, particularly off the tee, he'll lose a bit more effectiveness with the putter and recovery clubs that he used to have. Of course, some extra confidence that a return to form with the driver could bring might really help, but I just can't see it...
 
Like you said, he's only 9 rounds into it after back surgery. Its going to take Tiger time to find his timing again. However, I still think he's done and wont win a major again.
IMO, especially in the majors, you have to be able to drive the ball well in order to win. Golf today is all about distance and when you have the top guys driving it 330+ in the fairway, its a huge disadvantage if you arent able to do the same.
 
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Otis32 said:
Just finished reading "Every Shot Counts" and the stats in there showing Tigers past dominance with the approach shots particularly from 150 yards and more indicate that he doesn't need to be at the top of the game in regards to driving to win and be relevant again. Having said that it sure appears he needs to find something he can at least compete with. Not being able to take advantage of the par 5's even close to the way Rory and others can is a pretty large disadvantage. Especially in Majors not named the US Open.
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That is assuming he can get to 150 without the driver.
 
JB said:
That is assuming he can get to 150 without the driver.
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Actually it was outside 150-yards where he was so good. If I recall correctly his strokes gained between 175 & 225 were almost double the next closest player during his second run of majors from 2005 - 2008. Tigers still long enough he doesn't need a driver to get it into that range.
 
Watching the Golf Channel coverage of the round this morning, Nick Faldo did a side by side comparison of Tiger's iron swing vs. his driver swing. It was interesting as Faldo pointed out how much Woods is dropping and contorting his back shoulder in his swing the driver. He compared it someone who is unsure of where it is going as opposed to trusting and hitting it.
 
Otis32 said:
Actually it was outside 150-yards where he was so good. If I recall correctly his strokes gained between 175 & 225 were almost double the next closest player during his second run of majors from 2005 - 2008. Tigers still long enough he doesn't need a driver to get it into that range.
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The benefit of that stat only happens if all players are hitting the same number of shots from the 175-225 range. The lack of a tee game is making Tiger hit those shots while others are hitting from as much as 50 yards shorter. Nobody is good enough to overcome that.
 
tequila4kapp said:
The benefit of that stat only happens if all players are hitting the same number of shots from the 175-225 range. The lack of a tee game is making Tiger hit those shots while others are hitting from as much as 50 yards shorter. Nobody is good enough to overcome that.
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He wasn't hitting his driver all that much during the second run of majors with Haney anyway so he already has used his approach shot advantage pretty effectively against guys who were already hitting driver's past his 2-iron & 3-wood. The main difference was that he was still able to hit it well enough at that time to take advantage of the par 5's which he just can't do right now. In Haney's book he very often laments the fact that Tiger didn't trust his driver swing back then and left the club in the bag way too much.
 
Orange Hog said:
I have said it all along and I firmly believe that he needs to drop Foley like a bad habit. When you see guys like Fowler moving to Butch Harmon and all the improvements it's made in his game I wonder why Tiger is sticking with Foley. I don't think the back surgery is what's causing his problems this weekend, as he's had issues with the driver for some time. Based on how he's hit the ball off the tee at Firestone CC this weekend I think his driver has potentially cost him a chance at defending his title. If he doesn't get that part of his game figured out then I think we'll continue to see him struggle week in and week out.
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yeah I mean why did he leave Butch Harmon? That to me was a stupid move by Tiger to even leave in the first place. He had the best he should have stuck with the best coach.
 
He just needs to be able to put the ball in play. He looks lost with driver in his hands
 
I've told my friends Tiger needs to adopt a game like Zach Johnson. Throttle back off the tee to find the fairway and rely on your irons and short game. Wasn't long ago when Tiger was one of the if not the best iron player over 175yds. I think he should go to his stinger "if" he can and work on irons and short game.
 
Trevino had a great interview about it....Basically said stick a steel shaft in it. Hit it 275-290 and fire Foley. I am going to agree with him. Said if Tiger drove like Jack he would have 2x as many majors. Was a good interview.
 
He needs to hit the driver well 50% of the time but limit his miss to one side of the course. He gets this done and it will take stress off the rest of his game. But he has never been proficient with the driver.
 
He definitely had to get better. He should at minimum get to a one way miss. Since switching to foley, his miss can literally be any direction. I heard them talking about how good his swing is with his irons and just how awkward he looks swinging driver. Maybe he should loft up like so many others are doing to get the ball going a little straighter. Lol
 
I can remember him just bombing balls straight down the fairway or cutting the corner, now he always seems to be letting go of the club and it flying off line.
 
The driver always seemed like Tiger's only real weak point in his game over the years. As long as he is, if he backed off to even 80 or 90%, he'd STILL be as long as the normal driving average I bet. Still, coming off back surgery can't be easy for anyone, even Tiger. I just don't see Foley working out, he hasn't seemed to work from what I can tell...at least for Tiger.
 
I think if he could get his driver in check it would fix a lot of things in his game
 
There are many guys on the tour who surprisingly don't hit a lot of fairways. With the distance guys nowadays hit tee shots it seems like they aren't concerned faith accuracy due to have shorter clibs into the green. For Tiger right now I think with the shorter swing he is using after surgery that he is out whack with timing as a result. Let's see where he is after more than a few months after surgery with only a little more than a handful of rounds. I would like to see him get back to working with Butch.
 
Has Tiger ever been a great driver of the ball? My memory says no but could be wrong.

I don't see a lot of shots lost for him with the driver. His irons aren't spot on and his short game is no where near what it used to be.

Drive for show, putt for dough. Tiger needs to get his putter going again.
 
rtparty said:
Has Tiger ever been a great driver of the ball? My memory says no but could be wrong.

I don't see a lot of shots lost for him with the driver. His irons aren't spot on and his short game is no where near what it used to be.

Drive for show, putt for dough. Tiger needs to get his putter going again.
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If his driver is a one way miss at least he will know where it is going but the two way miss is killing him

But if his putter was going better it might cover up driver issues time to go back to the SC
 
rtparty said:
Has Tiger ever been a great driver of the ball? My memory says no but could be wrong.

I don't see a lot of shots lost for him with the driver. His irons aren't spot on and his short game is no where near what it used to be.

Drive for show, putt for dough. Tiger needs to get his putter going again.
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You should have watched the replay of the 2000 PGA that was on last week. His driving in that period of time was really good.
 
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