Why Nick Watney Won: Is it Tiger's New Swing?

I warned that I would keep an eye on Tiger's progress.  What I found of interest, in this week's Cadillac WGC Championship, was the  continued talk of Tiger's struggle with his "new" swing.  Shouldn't this translate into a struggle with his Long game?  NOT SO!  Granted, there were a couple of notable, very UN-Tiger-like drives.  One was on the 2nd hole, round 2 - a full, 3-metal that traveled only 122 yards and was featured in an embarrassing graphic that showed Tiger's ball all alone 100+ yards behind the next shortest drive.  OK, Tiger did not drive the ball very well (only 6.5 Fairways a round) BUT he avoided the big mistakes and recovered exceptionally well.  

Tiger averaged 13 GIR's (tied 4th), and was better tee-to-green (more efficient)  than the winner (Nick Watney).  Their ShotByShot.com Long Game Efficiency Indexes* were 2.57 vs. 2.82 respectively.  This means that Tiger hit more GIR's and in fewer long game shots than Nick - Efficiency!   (The hypothetical perfect round is 36 Long strokes/18 GIRs = 2.00.  For more on this see:   A Better Way to Track Long Game).  Incidentally Tiger, the Winners average 13 GIR's with no more than one ERROR per 4-round event, as you did here.  So you are close. 

*US Patent # 7,766,737 

As the graph above shows, the critical difference, AND why Nick Watney won, was his great short game  and putting performance.  Further, if this event is representative, this is where Tiger needs to return to form.

How good or bad was it?  Watney vs. Tiger

Chip and Pitch Shots:

     # Attempts/Avg. distance - 16 /3.9 ft.  vs.  23 /8.7 ft.

                                % Saved  -  75%                70% (Good, from those distances)      

Sand Shots:

     # Attempts/Avg. distance - 13/6.4 ft.  vs.  7/11.7 ft.

                                % Saved  -  69%                43%

Nick's short game was the best I have seen.  His average putting distances were considerably better than our PGA Tour Winner's Profile.  On average his Chip/Pitch shots were 2 feet closer and 2.5 feet closer from the Sand. 

Finally, sick of reading about Tiger (like UJ!), let me know.  For that matter, let me know what would be of interest?

Thanks,

Peter

PSanders@shotbyshot.com