Tiger Yanged

Pithy title, but hey, it was a long weekend.
Well, it finally happened. The best player in the history of golf succumbed to an opponent that outplayed him. Yes, I said outplayed him. Only thing is that opponent wasn't named Els, Mickelson, Singh, Harrington, or one of the other dozen or so best of the rest.

You may say that, well, Tiger didn't make any putts, but neither did Yang. Well, Yang got lucky on 10, but so did Tiger. I really thought when Yang hit his 40 foot birdie putt on 17 only 30 feet that Tiger would make him pay for blinking, but not today. Bottom line is Asian Dude hoisted a hybrid over a tree from 200+ on 18 with a one shot lead trying to hold off You Know Who, and stuffed it. How is it that this little known one-time tour winner succeeded in staring down Tiger when few if any have before?

Dr. Rotella asks us what comes first, success or confidence? Obviously, the answer is confidence, because if you wait for success to come first it will be a long, lonely wait. Clearly for Yang, he CHOSE to be confident, and seemingly struck nearly every shot today (excepting a few putts) fully believing he would pull it off.

I am neither glad that Tiger lost, nor sad that Yang won. I simply have been waiting for someone to do something other than blow a gasket down the stretch in a Major when paired with Tiger, and see how Tiger would respond. By all accounts, he responded well, but couldn't get critical putts to fall. The shoe is clearly on the other foot in that matter, as we are so used to seeing Tiger being the one that applies the pressure and his victims' putts go awry.

Much will be written about Yang, specifically about the unusual move he makes in the downswing. Props to the crew at CBS that very accurately identified how unusually open his shoulders are at impact. Hard to believe he can be that accurate in that position, but it just goes to show that a swing doesn't have to be perfect to produce great results.

Likely, there is only one person in this world who believed that today would end as it did, and from what I saw that belief did not waiver one bit all day. With all the extremely talented players that Tiger had reduced to quivering piles of Jello, you gotta believe that he was surprised when Yang kept hitting great shots deep into the back nine.

With all great athletes, it will be very interesting to see how Tiger responds.

Might be an interesting rematch in the President's Cup!?

Fairways and Greens.