Five of the biggest disappointments and Five positives from “The Match”

5. Both Tiger and Phil played below their standards

Tiger and Phil are definitely the two best golfers of their respective era, and in Tiger’s case one of the greatest to ever play the game. However on the Friday after Thanksgiving, they both played like they were suffering from a turkey hang over.

Both these guys are known for having impeccable short games and being able to drain putts and chips from deep. But aside from Tiger’s chip in on 17, the longest putt made in the match was not longer than ten feet.

Phil started out the match driving the ball very well and hitting the first four fairways, but his putter never could take advantage of any birdie opportunities early on to take a commanding lead.

Tiger opened the match very shaky both on the green and off the tee, he uncharacteristically missed a four foot putt on the second hole to give Phil Mickelson his first lead of the day and that set the tone for the rest of his day.

Throughout the day spectators definitely expected to see a multitude of birdies, eagles, and maybe even a hole in one. Instead, Tiger and Phil had to scramble around for most of the round , only managing a few birdies on both sides of the course between the two of them.

The most disappointing thing watching the entire match had to be the putting performances from both players. There were tons of opportunities for them to close it out from holes 18 to 22. Standing out amongst those was Tiger’s eight foot miss on 18 that was a putt he has consistently made his entire career.

Phil had a similar miss on an easy birdie putt on the second playoff hole, which he missed as well. On the final playoff hole they both hit solid wedges on to the green, yet Tiger missed another make-able birdie putt. It took an easy four footer for Phil to be finally able to drain a birdie putt to end the match on the 22nd hole and win the $9 million.