Colin All Cars! Monty Missing A Title!
Hello. What a day if you were Colin Montgomerie. You start out 3 back of the leaders. After 17 well-played holes you're tied for the lead. You've just made a brilliant 40 foot birdie putt after driving it in the trees. Now, on the 18th tee, you make a great swing and are in the fairway.
Then things go bad. Rather than take the tough area short of the green out of play, you put back the 6-iron and take out the 7-iron. You then make the same swing you made on 10, and end up short and right, like on 10. Only this time you're in deep rough instead of the sand.
After elilminating the trouble short, you are now 40 feet away. Rather than dead-weight the downhill putt, you go for it, thinking +4 will be needed to get into a playoff. The putt rools by 10 feet, and the next putt also goes by. You card +6, which temporarily makes you co-leader in the clubhouse, but there are two guys still out there who are lower. And unfortunately for you, one finishes lower.
Obviously, it's easy to look at the situation now and say Colin made a strategic mistake. He thought he needed par to at least make a playoff. And most times, he probably would've been right. But the 18th hole was playing so tough bogey was a good score that day. And if Colin would've been playing with Mickelson, he would've known his chances of hitting the fairway were very low. He probably could've concluded par was a winner, bogey a playoff if he had these facts. Unfortunately he didn't.
It's tough to say since I didn't see the hole live, but Colin should've been long worst case on his second shot. He would've probably at worst had a chip with lots of green and a sort of back stop long and right of the hole.
One thing I will say is his par putt was atrocious. Monty's weight was the most important thing on that putt. Even if he had hit the hole, his putt was so hard he couldn't have holed it.
A very unfortunate ending for someone who deserved better. I feel for Monty today more than Mickelson, because it was a chance for Monty to get what he deserves, similar to Michael Campbell last year.
Having said that I think Monty will rebound nicely at the British Open. It would not surprise me if he were in the hunt again. And for reasons I'll describe Thursday, I think Monty will be a favourite to win.
All the best Monty, and congrats on a great tournament.
Regards,
Steve
Then things go bad. Rather than take the tough area short of the green out of play, you put back the 6-iron and take out the 7-iron. You then make the same swing you made on 10, and end up short and right, like on 10. Only this time you're in deep rough instead of the sand.
After elilminating the trouble short, you are now 40 feet away. Rather than dead-weight the downhill putt, you go for it, thinking +4 will be needed to get into a playoff. The putt rools by 10 feet, and the next putt also goes by. You card +6, which temporarily makes you co-leader in the clubhouse, but there are two guys still out there who are lower. And unfortunately for you, one finishes lower.
Obviously, it's easy to look at the situation now and say Colin made a strategic mistake. He thought he needed par to at least make a playoff. And most times, he probably would've been right. But the 18th hole was playing so tough bogey was a good score that day. And if Colin would've been playing with Mickelson, he would've known his chances of hitting the fairway were very low. He probably could've concluded par was a winner, bogey a playoff if he had these facts. Unfortunately he didn't.
It's tough to say since I didn't see the hole live, but Colin should've been long worst case on his second shot. He would've probably at worst had a chip with lots of green and a sort of back stop long and right of the hole.
One thing I will say is his par putt was atrocious. Monty's weight was the most important thing on that putt. Even if he had hit the hole, his putt was so hard he couldn't have holed it.
A very unfortunate ending for someone who deserved better. I feel for Monty today more than Mickelson, because it was a chance for Monty to get what he deserves, similar to Michael Campbell last year.
Having said that I think Monty will rebound nicely at the British Open. It would not surprise me if he were in the hunt again. And for reasons I'll describe Thursday, I think Monty will be a favourite to win.
All the best Monty, and congrats on a great tournament.
Regards,
Steve
posted by Irrelevant at 1:24 PM
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