JustBob said:
There was certainly a big "luck" factor here. Not to mention he played a horrible back 9, his driving was all over the place, and he had a number of other lucky breaks.
Just Bob,
Do you really believe that shot was purely luck? Maybe it going in was luck - but Tiger clearly struck the ball and landed it in such a way as to put it in a position to go in. For him to even be within 10 feet was a miracle, and clearly even if the ball did not roll in it was still a great shot.
Was the fact that DiMarco failed to keep his second shot on the 18th green, two consecutive times, "bad luck"? Or did DiMarco simply screw up in failing to miss the shot correctly? When Tiger missed his shots, he missed them "correctly", i.e., in ways that his score was not going to balloon. However DiMarco twice put himself in position to lose the tournament with shots that he missed and left himself a pitch instead of missing and leaving himself a putt.
The point is that winners make their breaks and losers don't. I give DiMarco credit for playing a great back nine and there is no question that Tiger did get some breaks. But to me he put himself in a position to get those breaks with excellent course management, whereas DiMarco, although playing better than Tiger on the back nine, fucked up on several occasions with his course management.
Brains and strategy are part of the sport too. When lucky breaks happen, as they do in all sports, it's usually because the winner has put himself in a position to be the recipient of those breaks.