Nice choke Chris DiMarco

About what I would have expected from a Gator. He woke up today with a 4 shot lead then carved a nifty 41 on the back nine, including an emphatic double bogey on his opening hole #10. Tiger finished off a 65 and has a 3-shot lead entering the final round, 11 under to -8 for DiMarco and -7 for Bjorn.

Mostly I'm ticked because 7/1 was available on Tiger to win this thing, compliments of a couple of Las Vegas sportsbooks who love to freelance but have no clue. They put those odds up in December while I was holidaying in Miami. My friends pounced on it. You could see late last year Tiger's swing was rounding into form. He even won a couple of times overseas.

When Tiger won at Doral, -24 to Mickelson's -23, that was the worst thing for the PGA Tour if you love competitive golf. I said so at the time. Mickelson was playing the best of anyone yet Tiger overcame a huge deficit, stared him down and won. The top players in this generation, unlike the '70s, have a tendency to back off when Tiger is playing at or near his best. If Tiger were out of contention this week, I'm convinced Phil and Vijay would be several strokes better in relation to par, at absolute minimum.

Ernie was an easy call to flounder this week. You can't survive all the near misses in the majors like he had last year and bounce back as if nothing happened.

I suppose it's not over. But Tiger's track record is to destroy his final round playing partner by an average of 3 shots.

He fades on the last day regularly. He just got an early start this year, with the end of the third round on Sunday. But he played so well yesterday afternoon, I hoped he would avoid his usual plunge. But no, he went down in grand Norman-esque fashion.

I mean, they didn't change pairings until the end of the third round. I was hoping DiMarco could retain at least a 2 or 3 shot lead to make the final round somewhat competitive. Then I turned on Masters.org and was shocked when it said Tiger had surged into the lead.

I looked at DiMarco's card. He bogeyed 14, 15 and 17 after the double on #10. It almost looks like he was trying to dodge the pairing with Tiger, although that's probably a cruel assessment. I'm guessing he put it into the creek to bogey the par 5 #15.

It could be he just started out badly with the double on #10, then tried to regroup, but saw Tiger continuing his birdie-fest, and tried to push it a little too hard at the end. Like I said in another thread, I'm just disappointed there won't be a nice, close shootout to the end. I would have loved to see Mickelson and Tiger go at it.

This wasn't a choke. He hit one horrible shot at the start of the last day. Tiger went nuts for several holes at the start of the day.

The lead evaporated because of that. There was NO choke!

Then, they were paired, and he stared Tiger down. He actually shot a better 4th round score. That's not choking.

You pegged the cause correctly. One hole, while he still had the lead, and before Tiger made his charge. That's not choking.

Then when the pressure was one, he went punch for punch, losing in a playoff!

How anybody could call this a choke is baffling.
The Professor

One double bogey while Tiger went back to his 2000 form isn't really a choke. Like you said, he fought back valiantly, and managed to take Tiger to a playoff. If not for 2 chips (Tiger's commercial on the 16th; DiMarco's that didn't grab and hit the cup's edge on 18 in regulation), he might have become the first player ever to come back on Tiger in a major. Norman's 78 on Sunday was a choke, van de Velde's 39 on the water hole at the Open was a choke, but DiMarco made too much of a comeback for it to be a choke. I still wonder why he didn't hit a smooth 5 iron on the playoff hole though......

My guess is that the greens by then were so firm and fast he figured he couldn't hold a 5 in place. The last place anybody wanted to be on that course, this past Sunday, was above the hole.

Remember, the harder one hits the ball, the more back spin one gets and the higher the trajectory, due to that spin. So, the balls falls more vertically and will check quicker. (Well, for those guys. I'm pretty good but i don't spin the ball much, so this doesn't apply to me.)

My guess is that he was so worried about being above that pin placement that he tried to hammer the next club down. He may have just barely missed it and came up short, but the spin and trajectory things still applied. So, he never got up to the green.

Of course, i'm just guessing. It's not like i was there.
The Professor

Tiger was a good deal closer and was able to hit a sky-high shot and hold the green. I wouldn't have a chance at holding the green with a 5, but I thought DiMarco might have hit a 3/4th speed shot or opened the clubface just a little. Then again, he may have also figured that at the worst case the ball would roll back to the spot where he almost holed out from. I hope that he is able to close the deal one day. He seems like a pretty nice guy who took the loss well, and put it in perspective.

What's your handicap? I finished last year at 3.2. (Course is 6625 yards, with a rating of 71.2 and a slope of 124.)
The Professor

I just started playing seriously last summer. I had played on and off for a few summers, but only 1-3 times a year at most, and that was more for fun than as a sport. I've really started taking it seriously over the last year, and try to play at least once a week and also go to the range as much as possible. For practice, I'm really focusing on my short game, as that's where a beginner/intermediate like me can cut the most shots. I'm probably around a mid-20's handicap now, and would like to get down to around a 10 or so. I can shoot a 39 one day (par 36 course), then go out and put up a 51 the next time. The 51's are slowly coming down to a more consistent mid 40's, but I'm still going to have a few bad holes every round.

And if you can shoot a 39, it's a highly realistic goal. You'll do it.

I was a plus handicap until i contracted MS. I went blind in my dominant eye. My balance to my left is now different than the balance to my right. My legs slowed down, and i don't feel the palm of my right hand.

So, it went up to about a 12 the spring after i got it. It took me 10 years to get it back down to a 3, by simply (sarcasm) reinventing my swing until it was one that worked with the MS.

I'm pretty happy with my game now. A bad day is low 80's for me. A good day is about even par.

I play a lot though. My wife told me to play as much as i could, because it's highly possible (given the illness) that i won't be one who can play everyday when i retire. If i can, then bonus! If not, at least i got my rounds in when i still could.

Good luck on your goal!
The Professor

A 3.2 is great regardless, let alone for someone who has had the level of physical problems that you had. It's extremely impressive that you were able to adapt and succeed in spite of your physical changes.

I'm hoping to be able to play a lot more over the summer, now that the weather is good. I'd be happy to get to bogey golf, but think that a 10 might take a little longer. From what I've heard, improvement comes at a steep pace at the beginning, but it then gets tougher to cut each incremental shot. My driver is the biggest wildcard. I can bomb it if I catch it on the screws, but can also put it into a pond, adjacent fairway, tree, or someone's backyard if I'm off. The range is helping some, and I also bought one of those Jack Nicklaus inside approach things from ebay. I also can't hit a fairway wood, but like the new hybrids a lot. My short game is pretty good for someone at my level, as I spend a disproportionate amount of time on it.

'cause for two years in a row now, he's fitted his playing partner for a green jacket.

and lost in a playoff with arguabaly the best playoff player in the history of golf, now 9-0. Dimarco earned alot of respect from me after this Masters. I can't believe he hit his ball short on the playoff hole like his regulation play 18th hole.