"TEP: what Pete's saying is that the pros weren't playing a "flat" ground game. BEcause there was little wind, they were essentially playing an aerial, target game to spots with less club and gauging roll out. Not to speak for him, but I think he's saying a high aerial + roll game is not a ground game."
Shivas and TomD:
The type of course management Woods put on Hoylake all week (I think I saw the entire Open on TV) was basically the "ground game" to me. Forget about whatever shot trajectory he may've put on any shot at any time (which most certainly did vary tremendously).
Perhaps some on here think the "ground game" is basically hitting most all shots very low and allowing the ball to run a good deal of the way on the ground.
That certainly can be one type of ground game shot selection but there are many more variations of it and Woods appeared to basically use them all at The Open.
There used to be an old saying in auto racing that the driver needed to drive "by the seat of his pants". That essentially meant the driver needed to "feel" or "sense" the limit of adhesion of his tires on the road.
What Woods and Williams appeared to do at Hoylake on all their shots is essentially to "feel" the ground, the shape and consistency of it at particular places on Hoylake with whatever type of shot, trajectory or distance selection they made. Some shots he hoisted high and some he kept low but his entire course management and execution seemed to be to "feel" the ground all the way around whether that was on an approach to a green or on a green surface. They were basically sensing what the ground would do with the golf ball once it landed at any particular place. This to me is the real "ground game" and probably real links shot-making and pretty much the opposite of the classic American aerial game of hitting an exact distance and spot and having the ball stop dead or even suck back.
And to "sense" the ground as Woods did at Hoylake and to "feel" (in the seat of his pants) what the ground would do with both bounce and roll on any particular shot he also had to completely analyze the architecture and inherent strategies of the golf course, particularly cants of the ground and bunker placement.
To me this was ground game course management and strategizing as good as it can be done.
Just like at St Andrews where he won Woods virtually never used driver choosing instead to just not challenge the fairway bunkering on the course and like at St Andrews it seemed like he pretty much avoided them all (fairway bunkering) throughout the tournament. This was the exact opposite over-all strategy and course management plan from John Daly at TOC when he chose to both challenge and carry most all the fairway bunkering of TOC on a somewhat shorter set-up.
One can certainly say that Woods "outthought" the inherent architectural risks of the tee shots of Hoylake by essentially just choosing not to challenge them.
But what is most ironic of all is that he completely outthought all those idiots who once intended to reign in his extreme driver power by making courses longer and putting the inherent "risks" of courses (particularly FAIRWAY bunkers) consequently farther out there to snare his excessive driver power. Basically all tournament long he simply chose to come up short of those inherent fairway "risks". What "Tiger proofers" probably never much considered about him is on courses like that it's not so much a matter of him choosing to hit something very long off most any tees. I guess basically they just never fully realized or appreciated that he doesn't need to do that as his approach shots from even the 230-250 range can be a mid iron either kept down or lofted a mile in the air, if he so chooses.
As usual, Woods showed he is not just the incredibly talented shot executor of whatever type of shot he needs but he is also clearly the best "strategist" and "tactician" of figuring out precisely HOW HE needs to play any golf course best.
The fact that Woods basically never used a driver at Hoylake when apparently everyone else did far more should even teach his fellow competitors a lesson on not just great golf but also great strategizing.
At the final interview and the award ceremony he simply mentioned that he took what the course gave him, particularly off the tees. Clearly too many of the rest tried to force their games and shot selections on the golf course and its inherent "risk" areas.
I think Woods and Williams "felt" the course (the ground and the course's bunker placments) just like the old fashioned race driver "felt" the limit of adhesion of his tires on the road.
The only difference in that analogy to what Woods just did is the old fashioned race driver who did that best went the farthest quickest, while Woods this week essentially slowed down in "feeling" the course and the ground, and let the others make more little wrecks in and around the course's "risk' areas compared to him.
Tiger Woods led the tournament in fairways hit (regardless of how far out
on a type of golf course where that was the essential called for strategy), and he won again.