Sunday, January 29, 2012

Rock Solid-Robert Rock Wins at Abu Dhabi

Much to my dismay, the hatless wonder Robert Rock won at Abu Dhabi, posting a 2-under 70 to win by one shot over Rory McIlroy.   I was able to watch most of the round as I braved it out and stayed up until about 6:30 a.m.  Tiger Woods finished two back at 11 under for the tournament in a very frustrating day where he only hit 2 fairway and 5/18 greens in regulation. In my estimation, it was a miracle he was able to shoot even par and hang around as well as he did considering the positions he left himself in.  His drives consistently found less than desirable lies, and his approach shots, even from the middle of the fairway, were suspect and errant.  He was missing greens because he also flag hunted too much with pins that were tucked on the right edge.  He simply couldn't get up-and-down on some of them because he short sided himself.  He started out well with two early birdies, but struggled to find any rhythm after that.  Rock deserves credit for sticking it out and hitting some remarkable shots under pressure on the back nine.  

I'm a little encouraged by Tiger's third place finish, but still pretty upset with his inability to close it out.  This was Robert Rock that got the best of him, not Lee Westwood or Luke Donald.  Hopefully Tiger plays like the first three rounds in the future and starts to win some tournaments before The Masters.

Kyle Stanley sits at -20 with a four shot lead now in the Farmer's Insurance Open.  Unless he falters, he will pick up a nice win.

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