If Spieth wins, at let’s say 18 under. Is it the greatest major performance ever or is that a bit much to say?
That would have to be Tiger at Pebble Beach in 2000.
This could be a two shots swing.
I was there!
Or not!
IMO, the winning score is not as indicative as the margin of victory. Many golfers commented on how much softer than usual the greens were this week. Spieth had a wonderful week, shooting -18, but two guys were within four shots of him.
When Tiger shot -18 at the Masters (in 1997, coincidentally also at age 21), he was 12 shots ahead of everyone else. That was the second highest margin of victory in a major up to that time. The highest was 13 shots, by Old Tom Morris at the 1862 British Open. That margin was even more remarkable due to the fact that the Open was contested over only 36 holes at that time. It was slightly less remarkable due to the fact that there were only seven other players in the field.
No matter. Tiger broke Old Tom’s record at the 2000 US Open, winning by 15 shots. Most golf fans consider that the greatest performance of all time.
Oops, I just noticed that NFM agrees, so I guess that means that ALL golf fans consider it the greatest performance of all time. 
Tiger played better than I thought he would every single day this week. His 73 on Thursday was three or four better than I expected, based on his previous outings this year, and I didn’t see his 69 and 68 coming at all. I expected around a 74 or 75 today because he’d be trying hero shots, but he steadied down after it got out of reach, and had legitimate eagle putts on the back nine par-5s, one of which he made. His driver was erratic, but when he hit it straight, he was as long as Rory, who is considered one of the longest in the game. And his short game was just amazing, considering it was about as bad as mine just a few weeks ago.
Sure hope he stays healthy and continues to improve.
Yeah, who cares about Spieth and them other guys. Tiger’s Got His Groove Back!
Tiger Tiger Tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger Tiger! Tiger Woods tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger Tiger! Tiger Woods tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger tiger-tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger Tiger! Tiger Woods tiger Tiger* Tiger Tiger Tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger? Tiger! Tiger Woods tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger tiger Tiger! Tiger Woods tiger Tiger!
*Tiger!
Thanks. Today he basically said “not soon,” so Tiger’s next event should almost certainly be the Players.
The WGC-Match Play will debut a new format with more weekend action, and this year’s west-coast venue (Harding Park) enables prime-time US TV coverage.
Congratulations Young Jordan Spieth! Truly a quality performance, and I couldn’t find any reason to dislike him.
Two out of 14 fairways today on Augusta’s massive fairways.
That does not bode well for the Players.
Sawgrass has always been difficult for him. By my count, Tiger has only contended three times in 16 starts. The wins came in 2001 and 2013, and he was edged out in 2000 by Hal Sutton (“Be the right club tuh-day”).
In the other 13 appearances, his best finish is 8th.
Thanks for the responses on the Spieth’s performance.
They spent far too much time on Woods today. He was clearly out of contention after the first nine yet he still got a lot of coverage. More than his playing partner who is the world’s number 1 player and who was playing better than Woods.
Tiger is plagued with injuries because he abused his body for years with a swing the could not stand the test of time. I’ll be shocked if he wins another major. The press loves him because for 95% of the populace Golf = Tiger Woods. For me, I’m happy to see the young guns taking over.
Tiger elevated everyone eels’s game. He marked the end of the era of unathtletic golfers, drinking their way thru tournaments (bit of an exaggeration). It’s a whole different playing field now, thanks to him. But he reaps the down side of that, for him, too.
I like to see good golf, and I’m not too concerned about who is playing it. But the press needs to end its love affair with Tiger. For example, what was the headline in my sports section this morning:
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Spieth Holds the Lead at Augusta by 4 Strokes.
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Tiger Roars Back.
I’ll give you one guess.
They also spent a lot of time, all four days, talking about Ben Crenshaw, who shot 91-85 and wasn’t even in Georgia on the weekend. And when Jack Nicklaus was playing majors in the early part of this century, they spent an inordinate amount of time on him, even though he always missed the cut.
It’s simple. There are a handful of golfers who are in the pantheon. They’ve earned their fans and their coverage, whether or not they’re contending in a given week.
Besides, Tiger’s comeback this week was a much bigger story than Rory playing about the same for the first 60 holes of the tournament. By the time Rory separated himself from Tiger, he was completely out of contention, so you’re lucky you got to see him at all.
What you really need to bitch about is not that they showed Tiger, but that they showed the leaders standing around on the tee, walking up the fairway, having lengthy discussions about club selection with their caddies, and standing around on the green, when they could have shown other players hitting shots. Not to mention the human interest stories and nature shots that nobody cares about.
The Masters has fewer commercials than other tournaments and yet it felt like I saw less golf than I do at other tournaments. The endless Tiger talk was beyond annoying. Yes. It was pretty obvious who was going to win, but the Masters is special. I’d rather see out of contention guys making shots on those wonderful greens then yet another graphic of Tigers scorecard
I care about the nature shots. 
Really, I do. Augusta is absolutely gorgeous and in HD it’s almost like being there. But this isn’t an MTV video where we’re switching scenes avery 3 seconds. If they cut out all the “non golf” stuff by they leaders, it would be confusing as hell because scenes would switching constantly and there aren’t enough roving commentators to make sense of it all.
I for one (err two, thank you John Mace) deeply appreciate the nature shots-one of the main reasons I look forward to watching the thing each year. A great blue heron winged in on the 13th green on Saturday as IIRC Tiger played the hole.
So apropos of nothing in particular other than watching a lot of golf, I was discussing the current US team performance in the Ryder Cup and had an idea:
- The US should start a winter tournament open only to US Golfers. “Invitational”, but all PGA members and a select number of amateurs (US Amateur Champ, NCAA Champ, etc) would be invited.
- Golfers should be told that attendance is mandatory if they wish to be considered for the Ryder/President’s Cup teams. I can see a “injury exemption” for one year out of two.
- The format should match the Ryder Cup (mix of two ball, alternate shot, match play).
- I can’t decide whether the players should pick partners, the Captain for whichever Cup is coming up that year, seeding, or random draw (I lean toward random draw for two ball, Captain’s pick for alternate shot, and seeded* for match play).
- Teams would continue to be selected the way they are now based on WGR with a couple of Captain’s picks, but all selections would have to come from “eligible” golfers who participated in the necessary event(s).
I see the event as providing not only needed format experience and esprit-de-corps development, but also being very popular with the US tv audience and sponsors.
What say you? Good idea? Terrible idea?
- And not 1 v 16-type seeding. 1 v 2, 3 v 4, etc.
It’s a tough call because I know golf, for most people, is boring as hell. So they have to hit the right mix of “golf for golfers” and “other stuff for non-golfers”. Now, even as a member of the former category, I didn’t need to see re-runs of the “Three Legends of Golf” teeing off on the first tee every day of the tournament. But like I said, it’s a tough call and you can’t please everyone. Thank Og we don’t have Michelle Wie prancing around the PGA every other week anymore!!
Do you plan to offer prize money?