Tiger Laying Up On 17?

Not too many thrilling questions from the scribblers, but at least the bizarre situation on 17 came up. If you were listening closely, you heard Steve Williams tell Tiger he had 126 to the hole, and then said all he had to do was hit it 115 yards. Peter Oosterhuis didn’t comment because like most of us, he probably thought he didn’t hear the comment right. But it turns out, Tiger was laying up on this approach there. Here’s the entire transcript link:

Q. I don't wish to sound negative, but what on earth happened on 17 and 18?

TIGER WOODS: I hit just a block on 17. What do you call it, the second shot, I got too conservative with it and tried to putt the ball short of the green and overdid it. I just had one of the worst lies you could possibly have for that shot. My ball mark was just behind my golf ball, so I could not make contact with the golf ball flush.

I thought about, you know, could I put the ball up there and leave it short right of the green, but, you know, just try, more than likely you're probably going to fat it and put it short of the green. Just make sure you don't blink it, and that's what happened. I hit it pretty decent but it was pretty fat because of the golf mark right behind my golf ball, spun up and made my putt.