This blog is a countdown of the Top 10 Mulligans of the week, in other words, the top 10 parts in which a player deserves a second chance at some point of the tournament. Had the player gotten a second chance, there probably would have been a huge difference in the outcome of the event. Here is the Top 10 countdown.
10. Mark Wilson, 5th Hole, 2nd Round. Mark Wilson called a one-stroke penalty on himself because he suspected that he hit the ball twice while chipping it. Nobody else suspected it but he called the penalty anyway. That proved to be costly for him, because he made double bogey and missed the cut by one stroke. Had he not two-chipped, he would have made the cut.
9. Michael Bradley, 7th hole, 2nd Round. Michael Bradley hit an errant drive and threw his club. But he didn’t know there was a water hazard to the immediate left of the tee box, so when his driver went left, it fell into the water. A fan was nice enough to help retrieve the driver, and was successful. However, Michael Bradley lost his concentration because of that incident and ended up with a triple bogey to miss the cut by 1 stroke. Had he just made double bogey he would still have made the cut.
8. Johnny Miller’s blunders. As you might know, Johnny Miller, the NBC announcer, said on the eve of the tournament, that Tiger Woods had a chance to win. Ironically, Tiger did the exact opposite of winning. He withdrew on Thursday morning because he re-aggravated his already-existing knee injury, and was the first guy out. That drew heaps of criticism and laughter directed towards Miller. This however, was not the only blunder Miller had that week. In the end of the rain-delay-plagued Saturday, Ian Poulter tried to sprint to the finish , playing the last 2 holes as fast as he could, even sprinting and trying to catch to the group ahead of them, so he could avoid having to get up early Sunday to finish his round. Miller made a mistake by openly criticizing Poulter on air. This gave Miller another bout of criticism from Yahoo users.
7. Tiger Woods, 1st hole, 1st round. Coming into the round, Tiger’s knee felt just fine. He looked happy during his practice rounds. But this was probably the hole that re-triggered his knee problems. He hit his drive into the left rough, and left his with an awkward stance. His second shot put a lot of pressure on his knee, and thus resulted in the re-aggravation of his injury. This resulted in a chain reaction of events that resulted in Woods shooting a 42 on the front nine and a withdrawal. His front nine 42 included two water balls on the 4th hole and he had to make a 20 foot putt just for a triple bogey. Had his first tee shot found the fairway, would the outcome have been much different? Would he have been able to finish his round and the tournament? Might as well just be yes.
6. Charley Hoffman, 1st Round. During that round, he hit the ball so solidly, and gave himself a countless number of birdie opportunities. However, his putter failed to cooperate. He missed 8 putts inside of 14 feet. 7 putts inside on 11 feet. He shot a 72 which could have EASILY been a 68. In the end of the round, he was so frustrated with his putting that he broke his putter in half with his bare hands. Had Hoffman putted better in the first round, he would have been a serious contender to win the tournament, and he wouldn’t have broken his putter and had to deal with the embarrassment. This however, was NOT his biggest mulligan he deserved… See below.
5. Charley Hoffman, 17th Hole, 4th Round. When he got to this hole, he was only 3 shots back of the lead and was on his way to a high finish or even a chance to win. But he tried to be aggressive and attacked the pin. But he airmailed the ball over the green, into the water. He ended up with a quadruple bogey 7. That hole alone dropped him from 4th place all the way to 26th place, and made a difference of almost $400,000. Had he not hit his shot in the water on this hole, and putted better in the first round, he would have been a very likely winner.
4. Lucas Glover, 16th hole, 3rd Round. This was probably the hole that derailed him. Coming into this hole, he was tied for second place with 21 holes to play. However, his second shot ended up in the water and he ended up with a double bogey on a par 5 in which almost half the field are making birdie. He never recovered from that mistake. He played his last 21 holes 10 over par; he duck-hooked his drive into the water on the 18th hole (triple bogey) and he found the water twice on the approach shot of the 4th hole (quad bogey). He dropped all the way from 2nd place to 50th place.
3. Graeme McDowell, 18th hole, 3rd Round. This was definitely the hole that derailed him. Coming into this hole, he had a 3-shot lead and looked like he was in total control. This was until he caught one of the worst breaks ever seen on the Players Championship on this hole. McDowell aimed for the front-right pin location for his approach shot. However, his shot ricocheted off the mounds and the ball dove left. The ball rolled so far left that it rolled all the way off the green and into the water, resulting in a double-bogey. That was when he began to lost focus. He was still tied for the lead after 5 holes into the final round but an errant tee shot on the 6th hole was what done him, and he wasn’t able to recover from it. In 19 holes, he went all the way from a 3-shot lead to a 33rd place finish. And probably it was all because of that one bad break he got on the 18th hole.
2. David Toms, 17th hole, Playoff. After hitting a good tee shot to 20 feet in this first playoff hole, he was aggressive with his birdie putt and ran it 4 feet past the hole. He would miss the par putt and lose the playoff to K.J. Choi. This was painful to watch, because I am a HUGE David Toms fan. Though it was kind of understandable why this happened. He probably had a lapse in concentration from playing golf for 12 hours (he had to get up early to finish his rain-delayed third round). It’s hard to keep your focus on for this long. Had he been more conservative with his first putt then he would have been safely in for par. However though, this was NOT the biggest mulligan he could have got… See below.
1. David Toms, 16th Hole, 4th Round. A lot of people say that this was the hole that cost David Toms the championship. He went for the green for this Par 5, but it ended up short of the green. It landed in the water, and he ended up with a bogey on a hole in which almost half the field were making birdies on. Had he laid up and made par, he would have won. Though, I thought his decision to go for the green in 2 on the 16th hole was totally justified. Toms had a great lie in the intermediate rough, and he had a hybrid for his second shot. Toms has hit his hybrid club very well all week, and the shot fit his left-to-right shot shape, so it was easy to justify the reasoning behind him choosing to go for the green. He probably just over-faded the shot a little bit, and the wind might have caught it a bit, resulting in it going in the water. If he wanted a shot back, this would definitely be the shot he wanted to have back. He could have aimed it a little more left and don’t overfade it, and it would have been safe on dry land.
And this concludes the Top 10 Mulligans of the 2011 Players Championship week.
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