Tiger's length no longer a headline after Buick Invitational win

Everyone is still amazed by Tiger’s length, but on Sunday at the Buick Invitational he proved once again that his length is not why he is the best player in the world. After he struggled through a mediocre round (for him) on an exceptionally difficult course, he came to the 18th at Torrey Pines needing a birdie to get into a playoff.

He had roughly 230 yards left to the hole, and he drew a bad lie in the fairway. Instead of attempting something miraculous, he hit a very conservative shot away from the flag hoping to leave himself a two-putt birdie. After he knocked his first putt 10 feet by, he hammered his birdie effort in the back of the hole to force a playoff. If Yijay Singh, Ernie Els, or Phil Mickelson were in the same situation, I would have bet against their chances of making the putt; as Tiger stood over his ball, I turned to everyone in the room and said, “He’s going to knock this right in the back of the hole. There will never be a doubt.” Of course, as he always does, Tiger made a pressure putt and added to his lengthy resume of wins.

As easy as it is to get caught up in the fact that he crushes the ball, his decision making and putting are what set him apart from everyone else, and it is these parts of his game that should be discussed more than his length. There are a lot of people in the world who hit the ball as far as he does (see Hank Kuehne and his total number of career wins), but there is not anyone who putts as well in pressure situations. In fact, there is not anyone who putts as well in ANY situations.