Pulling a Weir

[mpare]

What is the matter with Mike Weir? He simply cannot put together 4 rounds of golf. Today he was in contention late in the third round when he bogied the par three. He wasn't finished though. On the 18th he decided not to go the the par five in two. He then proceeded to hit two fat wedges into a hazard fronting the green. He could not have been more than 110 yards (if that) from the green. It's sad to watch.

[Hank Hill]

What is the matter with Mike Weir? He simply cannot put together 4 rounds of golf. Today he was in contention late in the third round when he bogied the par three. He wasn't finished though. On the 18th he decided not to go the the par five in two. He then proceeded to hit two fat wedges into a hazard fronting the green. He could not have been more than 110 yards (if that) from the green. It's sad to watch.

I guess he noticed it was Sunday and got his implosion in early. I don't pay much attention to him nowadays as it is just too disappointing to notice that he has suddenly dropped off the 1st page of the leaderboard and usually doesn't stop there. I wonder what his lifetime average per round as a PGA pro. Probably something like 69, 68, 73, 75...

[jvincent]

He's been watching me play apparently.

[mpare]

Weir's pre-cut scoring average is 70.12, well in to the top 20. However, his third round average is 71.27 (138th) and his fourth is 71 (87th). That says a lot about his psyche.

[mpare]

But on the last day of the Ottawa Golf v. TGN Ryder Cup event you didn't till the soil with your wedges.

He's been watching me play apparently.

[Marcos]

I think that we expect too much from him as Canadians.Lets face it,we only have two guys that play well most of the time and it gets frustrating seeing them struggle.We as Canadians are so proud and we want them to contend week in and week out.Its no piece of cake out there as new and better players are popping out every week.You are right Mike, its hard to see Mike Weir or Steven Hames not play to our expectations but reality is thats all we got.Untill they start funding colleges and Universities like the States do then i guess we cant expect more.

[3Jack]

There's still a lot of golf left tomorrow...

[mpare]

And I'll be the first to root him on. However, watching Mike on the weekend reminds me of watching traffic speed along in Levi, Quebec. You know there'll be an accident. It's just a matter of time. Very painful. I can only imagine how it's gnawing away at him.

There's still a lot of golf left tomorrow...

[fundonny]

I hesitate to say this, but I may be the biggest Mike Weir fan, and the biggest Canadian golfer fan. All we can do is accept his shortcomings and appreciate his successes. Mike is frustrasting, but in the grand scheme of things he is one of the 30 best golfers in the entire wolrd. Think about that!

[Hacker]

Let's forget that it is Mike Weir for a second.......

How do these stats equal a top 30 play in the World??

Mike Weir
PGA TOUR	Events Played	Finish									FedExCup
		Cuts Made	1st	2nd	3rd	Top 10	Top 25	Scoring Avg.	OWGR	Money	Points	Standing
Career Totals	308	228	8	9	8	66	132	--	--	$25,775,532	--	--
2009	20	16	--	1	1	5	8	70.65	28	$1,915,672	1,146	29th
2008	26	20	--	2	--	8	13	70.68	21	$3,020,135	113,118	6th
2007	23	20	1	--	--	4	9	71.16	35	$1,986,053	89,198	87th
2006	24	20	--	--	1	6	12	70.76	45	$1,883,724	--	--
2005	23	14	--	1	--	2	6	71.80	48	$1,363,467	--	--

I've never agreed with the system that they use for the World Rankings, and this is a perfect example of why.... only 1 win and 4 seconds in 5 years......come on now

[fundonny]

Blah blah blah... Whatever, top 30, top 50... He's the best we have EVER produced in our generation and I'm going to root for him come hell or high water.

[Hacker]

Blah blah blah... Whatever, top 30, top 50... He's the best we have EVER produced in our generation and I'm going to root for him come hell or high water.

Can't argue with that and I love your passion for him

..............But he's NOT the 28th best golfer in the world

[fundonny]

You can't deny that he produces excellent results in high pressure situations. His record in majors is damn good, and the he did very well in the 2nd Fed Ex.

[mpare]

I too am a long time Mike Weir fan. My wife and I saw him in the first skins game that he played in PEI against Fred Couples, John Daly and Mark O'Meara. Had he been able to sink a few short putts he would have won most of the money. As it was he couldn't drop them. Things changed dramatically when he started winning. His victory at Augusta was historic. More to the point, he never missed a wedge or a putt that he needed to make. He oozed confidence.

My point is that he no longer appears to have that level of confidence. That is evident by his inflated third and fourth round scoring average in contrast to his pre-cut average, which is in the top 20. I'm sure that this pains him even more than it pains his fans. He needs to regain his self-belief, and that confidence must be unassailable. At the moment, it is fragile. I had hoped that his victory over Tiger in the President's Cup would have put those inner demons to bed, but it hasn't. I wish him the best, but all the swing changes in the world are not going to fix that problem. He needs something more. What that may be, I do not know, but I certainly hope he finds it.

[powerlefty]

I have a theory regarding his high weekend scoring averages.

I think that once he had a couple of years of success (winning the Masters, Valderama Amex, Tour Championship) he solidified his place as one of the best players in the world and rose in the world rankings to as high as 7th at one point. He attained financial security for life.

From that point on, it strikes me that on the weekends he is playing to win, not just to put in a solid day to collect some money. If he misses a put, or hits one in the trees and makes a bogey, he loses momentum and then goes backwards rapidly. I don't think it is a lack of confidence, I think it is more that once he realizes he has lost his chance to win a tournament, he loses his drive.

[3Jack]

I have a theory regarding his high weekend scoring averages.

I think that once he had a couple of years of success (winning the Masters, Valderama Amex, Tour Championship) he solidified his place as one of the best players in the world and rose in the world rankings to as high as 7th at one point. He attained financial security for life.

From that point on, it strikes me that on the weekends he is playing to win, not just to put in a solid day to collect some money. If he misses a put, or hits one in the trees and makes a bogey, he loses momentum and then goes backwards rapidly. I don't think it is a lack of confidence, I think it is more that once he realizes he has lost his chance to win a tournament, he loses his drive.

Well said, I agree. Here's hoping he got his high round out of the way yesterday, and will go low today.

[spackler]

I have a theory regarding his high weekend scoring averages.

I think that once he had a couple of years of success (winning the Masters, Valderama Amex, Tour Championship) he solidified his place as one of the best players in the world and rose in the world rankings to as high as 7th at one point. He attained financial security for life.

From that point on, it strikes me that on the weekends he is playing to win, not just to put in a solid day to collect some money. If he misses a put, or hits one in the trees and makes a bogey, he loses momentum and then goes backwards rapidly. I don't think it is a lack of confidence, I think it is more that once he realizes he has lost his chance to win a tournament, he loses his drive.

You're basically calling Weir a quitter, and I don't think he's that. I'd say he's more the grinding type, but one who has a loose swing on the tee that puts too much pressure on the rest of his game. At Bethpage when he shot that 64, it was incredible but you knew he wouldn't be able to carry it through the entire tournament. He was hitting his tee ball all over the place but kept making miraculous shots with that hybrid. You can't keep hitting hybrids out of the rough into greens and expect to hit the greens.

Right now he's a short hitter who doesn't hit fairways, not a quitter.

[3Jack]

I wouldn't categorize it as quitting, but second place seems to mean little to him. He wants to win, and when he realizes he's out of it, he loses his focus.

I'd not call him short off the tee either. He's average, but not Pavin or Funk out there.

[mpare]

Mike Weir is not a quitter. Nor would I call him short. My assessment of his problem, as I have already said, is that he is not fully confident of every shot he hits. It is not a persistent problem, but it pops up from time to time with disasterous results. Lack of confidence will undermine any swing, no matter how mechanically sound. There is no simple way to overcome it. The only way that I know of is to keep thinking positively (as best as one can), and to keep swinging. Good luck to him.

[spackler]

He's 175th in driving distance and only hitting the fairway 62% of the time. It's one thing for the big hitters to miss fairways when they still only have a wedge or short iron in. Hitting mid and long irons out of the rough is a recipe for missing greens and having inconsistent scoring. If he fixed his tee game, he would be a lot more consistent.

[mpare]

Quads don't help your scoring average either.

[Arrt]

At least he brought it back to a red number today. What happened on that quad hole. I was only able to watch the 18th coverage online.

[sensfan63]

Bunch of sports psychologists in here, I tell ya.

It is SO easy to say "be confident and keep swinging." It is yet another to do it. Even at the PGA Tour level, players do have thoughts that would surprise you concerning their golf swing and whether they think it can repeat in pressure situations.

In terms of Weir, nobody has mentioned his move from the Stack and Scramble team (of Bennett and Plummer) back to his old coach, Mike Wilson (I think that's his name). Surely there is a comfort level that hasn't yet been reached by Weir in transitioning back to his old swing mechanics. Actually, it would make perfect sense that his long game would be the last to "get right", because as the club gets longer it is more difficult to hit accurately. So his troubles off the tee are no surprise.

In the end, he is still a Top 50 player in the world, and he has proven that he has the capability to be top 15 or 20. Surely a Canadian golf fan would deem this respectable.

[mpare]

Mike's accomplishments are exemplary. I, for one, am not suggesting otherwise. My interest in raising the issue was not to slag him, but to point out what to me is self-evident: that Mike is engaged in an on-going psychological struggle that is adversely affecting his game. Am I a psychologist? No. However, I have played sports competitively for long enough to know what happens when the voice of doubt starts creeping in. My guess is that is what is happening to Mike. How else would you explain those high weekend scores, and this weekend's fatted wedges? I don't believe that his mechanics could be so far off to cause the latter to have occured.

In any event, as I have said more than once, I hope that he overcomes this problem and gets back to the kind of golf that he can truly play.

Bunch of sports psychologists in here, I tell ya.

....
In the end, he is still a Top 50 player in the world, and he has proven that he has the capability to be top 15 or 20. Surely a Canadian golf fan would deem this respectable.

[powerlefty]

You're basically calling Weir a quitter, and I don't think he's that. I'd say he's more the grinding type, but one who has a loose swing on the tee that puts too much pressure on the rest of his game. At Bethpage when he shot that 64, it was incredible but you knew he wouldn't be able to carry it through the entire tournament. He was hitting his tee ball all over the place but kept making miraculous shots with that hybrid. You can't keep hitting hybrids out of the rough into greens and expect to hit the greens.

Right now he's a short hitter who doesn't hit fairways, not a quitter.

Quite the opposite. I think his standards have become so high, all that matters to him is winning; finishing second is the same as finishing last in his mind. He's not playing for points or cash, just to win.