The old number 1 golfer in the world and the new number 1 golfer in the world both played last weekend. They weren't in the same tournament, and it is a shame they weren't because both golfers lead going into the final day. Tiger Woods was playing at his own tournament in Thousand Oaks, California, the Chevron World Challenge, for the first time since 2007. Lee Westwood participated in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. By the end of the final day, Woods was fighting for victory in a playoff with Graeme McDowell while Westwood cruised to victory. The difference between the former and current best golfer in the world? Mechanics.
Tiger Woods went into the final day with a four stroke lead over McDowell. He struggled from the start bogeying on two of the first three holes. He had a birdie in between those bogeys though and birdied again on hole 5 and seemed to regain control parring up to hole 13. Hole 13 was Wood's downfall as he double bogeyed it and fell from the lead. He then birdied Hole 18 to salvage the tie out of a miserable day. McDowell hit two long birdies to beat him in the playoff though. Woods' failure is widely attributed to bad form he had gained from being away so long. He had reverted back to his old ways for most of the tournament, which is why he was leading. But golfing experts saw the flawed form come back into play, and it was clearly visible what they were talking about. Former golfer Paul Azinger tweeted this Sunday while watching: "Tiger reverting back a bit today. When he starts to keep left elbow pointing down again, on bcksw/and after impact he'll stop pulling shots!" This is obviously refers to his swing form and that his elbow is sliding out during the swing, which causes the ball to pull to the right. Woods will need to go a whole tournament without letting his elbow slip if he wants to win again.
Taking a complete 360, all Lee Westwood needs to do to win is to enter a tournament. Westwood dominated the field in Sun City, South Africa at the Gary Player Country Club, which is said to be one of the harder courses requiring both stamina and accuracy to succeed. Well Westwood had both working over the weekend and you only need to look at the stats to prove it. Westwood ranked first in birdies with 21 as well as greens in regulation, hitting 75%. He was also second in driving accuracy with 57.14%. His Round 2 and 4 scores were either the best or tied for the best on the day. Westwood's only real blip was Round 3 when he hit a 71. Westwood finished at 17 under, which was better than second place finisher, Tim Clark, by nine strokes.
With Tiger Woods seemingly on the cusp of winning again and Westwood proving that he should be number 1 in the world, it will be interesting to see if a battle for number 1 between Woods and Westwood occurs over the course of next year. Such a battle would be great for golf because Woods would be quite the comeback story and Westwood is playing so well that if Woods retakes number 1 it will be even more astonishing. Golf has not really seen a battle for number 1 since Woods and Vijay Singh battled for it back in 2005. Woods won the battle and has been number 1 ever since Westwood overtook him on October 31th, the longest streak of being number 1 ever. If the past are any indications, Woods would win a battle for first if one does happen in 2011. The battle would be great all the same though considering what Woods is coming back from this time. The battle would truly be a battle of old versus new.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=5888817
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=5887260
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/players/scorecards?playerId=462
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard
https://twitter.com/#!/PaulAzinger
http://www.nedbankgolfchallenge.com/content.aspx?id=20706&cat=NGCHistory
http://www.nedbankgolfchallenge.com/scorecard.aspx?id=68
http://www.nedbankgolfchallenge.com/leaderboard.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods
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