Scott Hollister posted this on the GCM blog site during the Open...
Tiger's wild ride
Among veteran golf scribes, it's well known that much like Jack Nicklaus before him, Tiger Woods often finds fault in everything but his own game when things don't go according to plan. That was the case yesterday when Tiger struggled to a 6-over-par 76 (and will probably be the case later today after he puts the finishing touches on a train wreck of a second round that currently has him at 4 over for the day, 10 over for the tournament and in danger of missing the cut).
The target of his ire yesterday? The greens here at Winged Foot, which he described as "soft," "spongy" and "stringy." Here's more:
"You're used to playing U.S. Opens with fast greens; these aren't. With the pitch on these greens, you have to keep it on the slower side. We're just not used to being in the U.S. Open with greens this slow. If anything, the greens should have been slower last year (at Pinehurst No. 2). You have to make the adjustment. We're all playing the same golf course. You just have to understand that they're just a little bit slower than we're used to."
So that's it. It was the greens fault. Forget the fact that Tiger only hit three fairways on the day (out of 14) or only 10 greens in regulation. And forget the fact that Tiger was sunken-battleship rusty, playing his first competitive round of golf in more than two months yesterday. It was the greens' fault, plain and simple.
Funny, then, that so many other players held completely opposing opinions about Winged Foot's greens. Vijay Singh, who was at 1-over 71 after round one, said the greens were "a little bit too crusty." First-round leader Colin Montgomerie said the greens "were drying out considerably."
I point all this out not to mock the world's greatest player, because clearly he is just that. But it does put a spotlight on how the uber-talented deal with failure, how they often fail to look in the mirror when things go awry and instead pin poor performance on anything but themselves. After all, they are uber-talented -- how could they possibly perform poorly?
One more, somewhat lengthy, player quote to pass on, this one from Jim Furyk, who was asked a very general, very uninformed question about Poa annua greens and responded with a very specific, fairly informed answer:
Q: The USGA mentioned that these are Poa annua greens. How common is that surface on Tour? Is there anything different or special about how you read these or putt on them? Undulations aside, just the grass itself.
Furyk: The grass is real common. I think up here in the Northeast you see a lot of it, and out on the West Coast you see a lot of it. Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, the Olympic Club, even throughout the Midwest you see quite a bit of Poa annua. I grew up on it in Pennsylvania, and most of the golf courses in the area, unless they're brand new, are going to be Poa annua.
As far as preparing, it can be the worst or best surface. If it's dry and firm, it can be very good. If it's wet and soft, it can be pretty much awful to putt on. When it's wet, it gets spongy. When we step on the green you can see pretty much your entire footprint. It gets bumpy and waffleboard-like when it's soft.
I think back to the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 1994, probably the best surface I ever putted on in my entire career, and they're Poa annua greens. It's firm and fast and they got them really smooth and they didn't spike up and they stayed really nice. It kind of has -- it has a lot of abilities.
Usually when we play out on the West Coast we see a lot of Poa annua greens. Riviera is another. If it's rained a lot, it's a tough surface because it's spongy and it footprints up. We're used to it. I'll be you we play, I don't know, about 25 to 40 percent of our tournaments on the surface, so we see it a lot.
It has been a long morning here, as technology has let me down big time. Since I started writing this post (about two hours and three computer restarts ago), Tiger has finished his round with another 6-over 76 and will almost certainly miss the cut here at Winged Foot, his first missed cut in a major since the 1996 Masters. I'm sure we'll here more from Mr. Woods about those dastardly greens when he hits the media center soon.
Off to lunch and then the maintenance facility to hopefully trail some of the crews heading out this afternoon.
Posted by Scott Hollister