U.S. Open 2019: Pebble Beach exposing a weakness in Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods came to the U.S. Open as one of the strong favorites, but this time around, Pebble Beach is giving him all he can handle – and then some.

Tiger Woods admitted he was “a little hot” after completing his second round at the U.S. Open, citing the fact the he couldn’t keep the ball below the hole to give himself prime looks at birdie. Woods finished round two 1-over par for the round and even for the tournament on a Pebble Beach course that is methodically exposing the weakness in Tiger’s game.

Unlike the fast and firm Pebble Beach of yore, 2019’s version is lush and green, the product of a wet and stormy winter on the Monterey Peninsula and plenty of surface and subsurface moisture. Two straight days of thick marine layer, light on-shore winds, and occasional mist have kept the course damp, favoring long-ball, high-ball hitters like Gary Woodland and Rory McIlroy, who both finished round two high on the leaderboard.

Post-spinal fusion Woods has lost the whip in his swing that allowed him to generate such tremendous club head speed early in his career, and propelled his fifteen-shot win at Pebble in 2000. Though he remains longer than the average PGA Tour pro, the Tiger of 2019 benefits from the roll in the fairway that has served as a great equalizer in U.S. Open and Open Championships won by shorter hitters like Jordan Spieth and Zach Johnson.

Pebble’s notoriously small greens demand high approach shots that stick. And when they’re missed they demand a steady stroke on putts under ten feet for par. Unfortunately, Woods has spent most of 2019 at or near the bottom of PGA Tour players in three-putt avoidance.

Woods’ stat line for the U.S. Open highlights the ways in which Pebble Beach and the Big Cat no longer mesh. The fifteen-time major champion ranks 86th in driving distance after the first two rounds, failing to top 300 yards off the tee on average.

Across rounds one and two his longest drives (313 and 314 yards respectively) fell 10 yards short of the longest balls hit by bombers McIlroy and Woodland. Thus far Woods ranks 84th in strokes gained around the greens at Pebble Beach, and T112 in putts per green-in-regulation. Woods has been first in greens-in-regulation for most of the season, but failed to crack the top 50  in that category after rounds one and two.

"“Overall, I kept leaving myself above the hole,” Woods said after his round. “Unlike yesterday, when I missed it, I missed in the correct spots below the hole. Today, I never had that many looks from below the hole.”More from US OpenU.S. Women’s Open At Pebble Beach A Resounding SuccessAt Pebble, it’s The Women’s No-Name U.S. OpenFantasy Golf: 2023 U.S. Women’s Open DFS Player Selections2023 U.S. Women’s Open Makes Historic Pebble Beach DebutU.S. Open Returns to Riviera Country Club"

Tiger’s ability to keep the ball below the hole has been hampered not only by a driving distance that leaves him farther from the hole with a longer club in hand for his approach, but also by muscle memory of a Pebble Beach that played fast and firm in both 2000 and 2010. In those years holding Pebble’s undersized greens with mid and long irons meant bouncing the ball onto the putting surface. Not so in 2019.

In the past Woods has been candid about his preference for major championship course conditions, telling Golf Channel’s Randall Mell years ago of his love of baked-out West Coast tests such as San Francisco’s Olympic Club.

"“I’ve always preferred it to be like that [firm and fast],” he told Mell in 2012. “I’ve always preferred it to be more difficult, there’s no doubt. And I’ve always preferred it to be fast. I just like a fast golf course, because then you have to shape shots. You have to think.”"

After a disappointing second round Tiger still thinks he’s “in the ballgame,” and his fans want to think so, too. Outside the top 30, he’s likely facing another early-ish tee-time on a U.S. Open Saturday, when Pebble Beach is predicted to one again stew under a veil of clouds for most of the day.

The Big Cat will either need to rediscover his precision iron game and fabled proximity-to-the-hole to swing his way into competition or hope for the sun to shine and the wind to blow on Stillwater Cove.