5 Reasons Tiger Woods Will Win The 2019 Masters
25 March 2019
1 – His Stats
Shot Scope is all about golf performance statistics. We have
had a look at Tiger’s stats and they highlight how he is shaping up to win
again.
In 2018 Tiger Woods came back, his quote at the Player’s
Championship reminded us of his expectations: “I was still trying to figure out how to play”. Yet he managed to
finish the season at:
Strokes Gained Tee Shots: 100th
SG Approaches: 3rd
SG Short Game: 11th
SG Putting: 48th
SG Scoring: 5th
We know both his tee shots and putting improved during the season and tee shots isn’t closely scrutinized at Augusta’s Wide fairways, so there is no reason to think Tiger won’t be competing for a 5th green jacket coming down the stretch on Sunday.
2 – His great
off-season
Tiger says one of the biggest improvements he’s made over
the last year is his conditioning. He admitted being exhausted at the end of
2018.
“Last year toward the
end of the season I got really tired, because I didn’t expect to play that much
golf and I didn’t train for it” says Woods.
Tiger has been trying to get stronger over the last few
months and hopes that exhaustion won’t be a problem in 2019. His gym work has
left him feeling his legs are stronger and where they need to be now, which
they weren’t at the end of 2018.
We are all expecting Tiger to come back this year bigger and stronger both physically and mentally (if that’s possible) on route to competing for his 5th Masters title.
3 – Gear
It’s official: Tiger Woods has new TaylorMade irons, driver
in his bag for 2019. This major equipment change is going to prove pivotal in
his 2019 season. A big change in equipment is sometimes all it takes for big
improvements to occur.
Clubs
Driver: TaylorMade M5 460, 9.5°,
Diamana D+ Whiteboard 70TX shaft
3 wood: TaylorMade M5, 13°, Diamana D+
Whiteboard 80TX shaft
5 wood: TaylorMade M3, 19°, Diamana D+
Whiteboard 80TX
Irons (3-PW): TaylorMade
P7TW Prototypes, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind Raw, 56˚
and 60˚, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts
Putter: Titleist Scotty Cameron Newport
2 GSS
Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS
Tiger doesn’t change his equipment very often, especially when it comes to his irons and wedges, but he has now found a new setup with Taylormade, two years after Nike stopped making golf equipment. Now that he is comfortable with his new clubs, it bodes well for another Tiger victory in 2019.
4 – He has had ‘reps’
Tiger has been playing golf, and when tiger plays golf, we
all stand back in awe. Compared to this time last year when Tiger said many
statements such as:
“I didn’t really have a golf swing yet”
“I was still trying to figure out how to play”
“I’ll have to see what kind of swing I have”
The difference this year, is Tiger has been playing and he
knows exactly how he’s swinging it. He feels mentally and physically stronger
than this time last year. He doesn’t have to ‘figure out how to play’ – he has
done that in the tournaments he has played this year already. These tournaments
he has played, have prepared him as well as they possibly can for the 2019
season.
Tiger will being going into the 2019 Masters with the best foundation he’s probably had since 2013. He’s dusted off the cobwebs of his come-back and now he’s in the best shape possible to get his name back on some trophies.
5 – Sorted his
putting
After lingering outside the top 100 for almost all of the
season, Tiger finishes 39th in putting on the PGA tour in 2018.
Tiger had gained a total of one stroke on the greens in the 10 events previous
to July 1st. Whereas after July 1st Tiger gained a total
of 3 strokes on the greens in only 8 events! With multiple putter switches,
more than ever before in his career – he found something. That something is
what changed his putting for the better. This puts him right in the mix to be
competing at Augusta.
Conclusion
Regardless of how it plays out, 2019 is going to be an
intriguing year for Woods and for his place both among the PGA Tour and in
history. We have yet to see a tournament-winning Woods play on the PGA Tour in
the post-comeback era, and I think there’s a real case to be made for Woods
winning multiple times and possibly even taking home a major championship. Take
his name out of it. Take all your feelings about him out of it. Just look at
the numbers and the statistics. His profile shows somebody who is one of the
best in the world at what he does as well as someone whose trajectory is
pointing upward toward the new PGA Tour season.
Interested in golf stats like the PGA Tour pro’s? Head to
shotscope.com to find out more about tracking your own game and generating
statistics of your own.
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