"The loudest cheers were for Tiger Woods. The Australian Open belonged to Greg Chalmers."

Doug Ferguson on Greg Chalmers holding off a charging Tiger Woods to win the Australian Open, which Ferguson appropriately called Tiger's "best chance of winning all year."

"Two holes on the back nine today, and I putted awful yesterday, or I would have been right there," Woods said.

Two tee shots led to bogeys on the back nine, though he also made birdie on the second-toughest hole at The Lakes on No. 12, then chipped in from just off the green for eagle on the 14th. Woods missed a 12-foot eagle putt on the 17th for a share of the lead.

Behind him, Chalmers made his final birdie with a brilliant tee shot on the par-3 15th hole to tap-in range, then played mistake-free down the stretch and picked up a meaningful par on the par-3 18th with an up-and-down from the bunker.

Comments

[Fan]

Tiger sounded pretty good in his post game comments.

Could it have something to do with the interviewers?

[Wilson]

Yes, I think it could have, Fan. Tiger is slightly bruised from all the softballs thrown at him, but he should be good to go in the P-Cup.

[Jimbo]

I thought the same, Fran. Not softballs, Wil. The questions are essentially all the same-- just asked in a different manner

[John R]

Someone (Del ?) predicated that Day would not play well based on past performances from the front. I can remember a couple. Too wound up? Senden made a nice comeback after a terrible start.

[digsouth]

Congrats to the snake charmer. Well played!

TW looked good, and finished much higher than I expected. Congrats to him. Hard work appears to be reaping rewards. Good intrviews. Club slamming off the tee was border line dangerous. A few audible GD's....owe well; shit happensw.


I sure wanted Jason Day to win.

[elf]

Australia seems to agree with Tiger, he's seemed relaxed and comfortable all week, even yesterday after the 75 he gave a good interview.

For the guys who played this week for the US seems like Tiger and Watney are in good form for the US team, Bubba looked ok and let's not really talk about the rest of the team.

For the International team, Day, Ogilvy, Scott and Baddeley all top 10'd at the Aussie Open, and Charl and Ryo at a Japanese event (for whatever that is worth).

[mel]

After Tiger finished the sixth hole yesterday I had a very firm thought - he should be able to win the golf tournament. At that point he had made two birdies, no bogeys, and (as I recall it) Jason Day had two bogeys, no birdies; John Senden had three bogeys, no birdies; Nick O’Hern was plodding along and Greg Chalmers was in the lead after two birdies. Tiger had four par 5’s ahead of him and was moving up the leaderboard as others slipped down. Tiger Woods doesn’t lose to Greg Chalmers or John Senden, he takes full advantage of the back nine and walks away with the trophy. Of course, we know what happened. He made a six on a par five and a five on an easy par four. When he flew his second shot over the green at 14, I thought he had a better chance of making eagle from off the green than he would have if he was facing a putt. That thought was verified when he missed the eagle putt on 17. Finishing third isn’t a horrible result, but let’s face it – the old Tiger – the one everyone wants back – that Tiger would have won.

(I know, I know, he needs more reps – but the old Tiger would have won without them.)

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Mel, the old Tiger didn't win coming from six back very often either.

[mel]

@Erik - point taken. Still....I can't help but feel he really let this one get away.

[Del the Funk]

John R., that was in fact my take. The guy gets an incredible amount of publicity and accolades for only winning once. And in that win he shot 2-over on the last day with a ball in the water on the 72nd. A par would have put his playing partner in a playoff but to Day's relief Blake Adams made double. Read the press stories from after that wound and it's clear that Day was throwing up all over himself, all day long. In the final round of his win he made 6 bogeys, after having only made a total of 3 in the previous 3 rounds combined. BTW, it's been almost 18 months since Jason Day's solitary win. I think guys like Tom Lewis, Webb Simpson, Matteo Manassero, Keegan Bradley, Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland all have a better nose for winning, and will do so more than Jason Day.

[digsouth]

Mel--

John Senden let it get away, not Tiger. Had Senden shot even a pedestrian 2 or 3 under, he would have won

[John R]

Gee Del, you left off your favorite, Bill Haas, from the list. It demonstrates just how mentally tough some of these guys are. I'm not sure to what extent you can develop that toughness. No matter how many mental coaches you see, or how many times you are in that position.

It's too bad because he has a great game. I was surprised at how deft his short game was. He hit some great little pitches stone dead.

[Del the Funk]

LOL, good ol' 3-iron. Got whupped this week by both the over-50 captains in the Aussie Open field! I bet if Daddy Jay played he probably would have whupped him too!

Jason Day is a nice and well adjusted young man, seems like a solid guy. But a simple review of the track record indicates they hype surrounding him is way overblown, IMO.

Gary Woodland is a guy I look for big things from next year. Here's a guy that grew up playing a variety of sports and seems to have won in most. An all-state basketball player in high school and lead his teams to two state championships. Golf was a second sport but when he decided to focus on it full-time, after playing a year of college basketball, he still almost made a Walker Cup team. I think this guy has a knack for competing. By chance I happened to follow him in a practice round at Bethpage in 2009 and some of the places he was hitting tee shots was stupefying -- literally 100+ yards longer than poor Justin Leonard.

Nicklaus once espoused a theory letting kids work on hitting it long as they can always be taught to hit it straight later. Vice-versa, not so much. Similarly, Woodland already has a knack for winning and is just in the process of figuring out how to do it at the tour level. Jason Day does not have a knack for winning...we shall see if he can learn. I have my doubts.

[Trevor]

Baloney to that Del. Track record says Day is #7 and Woodland #43. Maybe you think a Transitions win is better than a Byron Nelson win? Hope all you want for 2012, and beyond. It won't happen.Woodland will be laying in the heap of long knocking underachievers.

Furthermore, he also has to start walking like a man.

[mel]

@digsouth I agree – John Senden did let the tournament get away, but it isn’t surprising to me that he did. It doesn’t surprise me that Jason Day let the tournament get way either. It is (somewhat) surprising to me that Tiger is letting tournaments get away. He let the 2011 Masters get away from him and he let the 2010 Chevron get away and did so because he played poorly on the back nine on Sunday. I don’t want to insult the Australian players who were in the hunt yesterday, but Tiger Woods should be able to beat those guys. I know he doesn’t usually come from behind to win but he had a real chance to do so yesterday and he couldn’t do it. Let’s hope he can find some of the old magic in 2012.

[AK47]

The Old Tiger would never have shot 75 - that's where he lost the tournament. He shoots 72 on his bad day and wins by one.

[Del the Funk]

Trevor, Woodland has played in less than 50% of the tour events that Day has and they have the exact same number of wins -- one. All Jason Day ever did his whole life was play golf. Relatively speaking Woodland is a newcomer to the game yet here they are at the same exact spot. Like Al Davis said, just win baby.

And in case you weren't aware, Woodland was injured for some of 2009 and all of 2010 and had shoulder surgery. 2011 is the first and only full season on tour that he's been 100% healthy. So throw that world ranking nonsense out the window.

Gary Woodland has more athletic talent in his little finger than Jason Day can corral in his whole motor home packed with mates. There isn't a game played where score is kept that Gary Woodland can't whup Jason Day's ass -- write down bro, you heard it here first. And you better hope they don't get paired together too often because Day's fragile psyche will be...

As for this "walk" stuff, what are you talking about?

[LiquidKaos]

@Del -

I want you on my team to repair MY fragile psyche, lol.


-LK

[digsouth]

Del,

Man the motor home packed with mates is quite a visual!

[Del the Funk]

LK, from what I can tell you are doing all the right things!

digsouth, what can I say ;-) Just seeing how committed to his position Trevor was! Day is right on course to be the next Charles Howell...only time will tell if he can change directions. Good on him if he does.