How Does Tiger Hit 3 Fairways and Shoot 2 Under?

I’m a 14 handicap. I’ve played plenty of rounds where I’ve hit seven or more fairways. I’ve never broken 80.

So, how does Tiger Woods hit 3 of 14 fairways, beat most of the field, and shoot 70 (-2) on a tour-level course?

Course management, calm, and a crazy short-game.

Let’s look at his round. (Notes: 1. I believe he started on 10. 2. I don’t know which tees he actually hit driver off of, so I had to guess).

1. Tiger hits his drive 303 into the right rough, leaving 136 in. His approach shot is a 129 yard iron leaving a 24-foot putt. He leaves his putt 1 foot from the hole and walks away with a par.
2. Tiger hits his drive 272 into the right side of the fairway (on a dogleg-right par-4), leaving 104 to the hole. He hits a 116-yard approach, leaves his 31-foot putt 3 feet short, and drills the 3-footer for par.
3. A par 3. Tiger flies the green with a 213-yard iron, leaving himself 13 yards to the hole. His chip rolls past the pin, leaving a 2.5 footer for par, which he makes.
4. Tiger drives it 295 into the left-rough of a short dogleg-right par-5, leaving 178 to the flag. Missing left is notable here, because his miss has generally been right, and if he had done that, his ball would most likely be in a bunker. He hits his approach 168, leaving him on the fringe short of the green, and 14 yards from the flag. He chips it to two inches.
5. 329 down the middle of the fairway, leaving 124 in. He hits his approach 112 yards, leaving him on the front of the green, 12 yards from the flag. He leaves his first putt 1 foot short, and finishes up for the par.
6. He hits his drive 304 to the right rough on a dogleg-right par-5. He isn’t right, so much as just a tad short of the fairway. He hits a 238-yard approach to leave himself a 45-foot eagle putt to a back pin. He leaves the putt 1.5 feet short, and finishes up for a birdie.
7. He hits his drive 305 yards to the left rough, leaving 163 in. His approach is 168 yards to the left-side of the green. The pin is tucked away on the right side, near the front, guarded by a bunker, so this was a safe approach. He putts it 37 feet, leaving himself 1 foot long, and taps in for the par.
8. Par 3. His tee shot is short and right, 166 yards, in the rough. He did avoid the trouble left (a bunker) and long (the same). He has a stock chip, 9 yards, and hits it to 3 inches.
9. Par 5. His drive is 323 into the right fringe. Pretty good. His second shot is 254 to the right rough, leaving him 41 yards to the flag. His chip is a bit short and left, leaving him 7 feet for birdie. He’s 3-feet long, his first short-ish miss of the nine, but he makes the comebacker for par.
10. He actually started here. His drive is 275, way left (left of the cart-path) on a dog-leg right hole, leaving 156 yards in. He hits his approach 146 yards, and slightly right, leaving him a bunker shot. His 19-yard bunker shot is 12 feet past the pin, but he makes the putt.
11. His iron (214) is pin-high but way left, threading the needle between a bunker short and long. His chip is on the green, but 25 feet long of the hole, and his putt comes up 7 inches short. Bogey.
12. His drive is 302 yards, way right. He’s so right that he dodges a fairway bunker, but he has 197 in. His approach is nearly perfect, 196 in, just two paces right of the flag (front-right). He nails a 9-foot putt for birdie.
13. His drive is 314, once again right of the cart-path, sub-optimal for this par-5. With 304 in, he lays up 195 to the left fairway, leaving 111 in. His approach is 113, pin-high and just right of the left-center flag. He makes the 15-foot birdie try.
14. The 14th is a mid-length dogleg-left par 4. Tiger, once again, drives it into the right rough, just 270 yards. He has 162 in. He hits his approach short (152 yards), leaving him in the bunker guarding the front of the green. The pin is back-left. He hits his bunker shot to the middle of the green, leaving a tough 20-footer, but he puts it in to save an improbable par.
15. His drive is 294 to the left rough, leaving 197 to the flag. He hits his approach 185, and about 20 yards left of the flag, to find himself once again in a fairway bunker. 27.5 yards, but he doesn’t care. He hits his sand shot to 5 feet, and makes the par. Notice a pattern?
16. Another par 3, and once again he hits his iron pin-high left. His ball travels 224 yards and lands in the middle of the back-left bunker. The pin is right-center. He hits his 24-yard sand-shot just past the flag, leaving a little more than five feet, but he leaves the putt 2 inches from the cup. A disappointing bogey, given the solid sand shot.
17. Tiger drives the ball 285 to the right side of the fairway, leaving 152 yards in to a center-left hole location. He hits his approach 138, straight down the middle, leaving him in the fringe just short of the green. He leaves his 51-foot chip 2 feet away and finishes up for par.
18. The closing par-5 (although Tiger’s 9th hole of the day). Tiger drives it 290 to the right rough, right of the cart path. He has just 261 in, but he lays up 148 yards to 116. He hits his approach right on the number, leaving an eleven-footer for birdie, which he makes.

So, how did he shoot 70?

• He’s not short. His drive on 5 was nearly 330, and left him a wedge. Distance goes a long way.
• He never leaves a putt more than about 3-feet short, and he’s lights-out from inside 5 feet.
• His sand shots always leave him make-able putts and his chips frequently leave him with tap-ins.
• His tee-shots may not find the fairway, but they rarely find major trouble (with the exception of the par-3s).
• When he’s in trouble far from the green, he finds a way to leave himself a good number on his next shot, and frequently hits that approach shot to make-able range (his make-able range, at least).
• His wayward drives, for as much as the media focused on them, didn’t hurt him all that much. He turned three off-target (sometimes severely off-target) drives on 6, 12, and 13 into birdies. In fact, the two shots that resulted in bogeys for him were wayward long-iron tee shots on par threes.

Tiger shot 70 because, where I would have panicked, he found ways to get himself on the green, and he found ways to two-putt, and he found ways to turn bad tee-shots into birdies. Those three things allowed him to beat the average player in the field even as he fought his own swing.