Why did Tiger Woods concede the last hole?

[Twire]

There is a touch on madness going on here about the whole situation. Retaining the cup because its a draw and winning it outright are two massively different things to the players, the fans not to mention the bookies and thousands of people who had bets on a europe win.
Mollinari didn't want to lose the match, didn't want it to finish as a draw, didn't want to go home having won nothing and thats just him let alone all the others. People who expected him to concede Tigers putt are stark raving mad imho. As for Tiger it was a nice but also foolhardy decision and i reckon there are plenty of people pretty upset about it.

Molinari isn't the best with the short stick and could have easily missed meaning the match would have been drawn (assuming Tiger holed his last putt!). If that had been the case then all his team mates many would have been undefeated. Many of them haven't got trophy cabinets packed to the brim so it might just have mattered more to them than him. Fans who stood to win fortunes for betting on a draw lost a fortune and what about the poor bookies!
It might have been a nice gesture for him to make but it had massive consequences for many and in a lot of ways it was outrageously selfish of him to put whatever motives he had over their interests.
A win and a draw are very different, retaining a trophy in the event of a draw and winning it outright are very different and thats what putters, balls and holes are meant to decide.
Also you can concede putts to anyone but you should never ever expect or put pressure on others to concede for you. Putts can and are regularly missed and when the pressures on, they become double hard. Tiger also deprived Mollinari the chance to hole a winning putt that would go down in history for ever. It might have seemed magnanimous but it was not that great for an awful lot of people.

So what odds did you get for the draw?


I think we're making to much of this.

In Tigers own words....

Nevertheless, the final score would still have ended tied at 14-14 had Woods, when one up, not missed a putt at the 18th and then conceded a hole to Molinari.

But Woods said: "I didn't pay that much attention - I was trying to get my point.

"I went one up at 17 and asked Joey (caddie Joe LaCava) what was going on down 18, because my responsibility was to be able to get my point.

"And then they said Europe had a chance to win on this hole, or retain the cup.

"Then after all that went down, my putt was useless. It was inconsequential.

"So I hit it too quick and gave him his putt. It was already over."

 

[JezzE]

We had a great match both played above our expectations.
I was never down in the match and won the 13th to go the dreaded 2 up and 5 to play!!

Square at the last he bombed one down the middle and I hooked into the trees, hacked out clean across the fairway into thick rough then hit a great recovery to the back of the green.
He hit a superb 6 iron to 6 foot past the flag. My long putt lipped the hole and I walked forward to pick his ball up.
I then said knock it in for the glory, meaning to win the final with a great birdie. He casually knocked it nearly 3 foot past and a look of sheer desperation hit his face.
What would you have done in the circumstances?
We were conceding each other 'inside a putter' length puts for the match as we were both good putters.

Made him putt it... especially if I'd noticed a look of sheer desperation on his face! Although that would depend just how far your concession of his original 6-footer had got as that is a slightly confounding variable in this incident...

 

[Mary]

Why did he concede the putt ? Probably to remind some about what the Ryder cup stands for in golf, ie fairplay and sportsmanship, I thought it a great gesture from Woods.

+1 (although the Tiger haters will never see it that way)

By the way, is there such a thing as a "poor bookie" As for those who placed bets, they do so being fully aware that putts will be conceded during the match - you could go back to the way GMac conceded his game, I don't think that putt was totally a given under the circumstances either. C'est la vie!

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Made him putt it... especially if I'd noticed a look of sheer desperation on his face! Although that would depend just how far your concession of his original 6-footer had got as that is a slightly confounding variable in this incident...

Jezz
We both seemed to know why I told him to putt for his 3.
I could not have lived with myself if I had gone on to win.
I beat two county players in the previous two games. In the semi I was 2 down and 2 to play and won at the 19th.
It flashed through my brain that I would have been unhappy to win the final at the 19th.
We both know I did the right thing.
I had also won a county event the week before but I don't think that had any bearing on my thoughts.

Sorry OP for going sideways but only Tiger will know why he did it and most folk on here seem to respect him for his decision.

 

[JezzE]

Jezz
We both seemed to know why I told him to putt for his 3.
I could not have lived with myself if I had gone on to win.
I beat two county players in the previous two games. In the semi I was 2 down and 2 to play and won at the 19th.
It flashed through my brain that I would have been unhappy to win the final at the 19th.
We both know I did the right thing.
I had also won a county event the week before but I don't think that had any bearing on my thoughts.

Sorry OP for going sideways but only Tiger will know why he did it and most folk on here seem to respect him for his decision.

Indeed not... but I still find the whole subject of gimmes quite an interesting one. In your instance, I could kind of understand it if his 3-footer had been for the half, but I know I would never give anyone a 3-footer for a win, although as you say, there was perhaps a kind of 'unofficial' concession on your part over the 6-footer and you may well have felt a little guilty if he'd missed the 3-footer after suggesting he should have a go at the 6-footer.

 

[Dodger]

I make my opponent hole 12 inch putts if it's to close the game out....why not,holing out is the name of the game and we have all missed from anything from 18 inches in have we not?

 

[drutz]

Tiger is quoted at saying the cup was lost and he would rather lose as a team. Just conceed the hole and get off. Well that's on the BBC website anyway. I can understand that, get off go with your team mates rather than be in the middle of the European celebrations.

 

[Swinger]

Personally if I was American I would much rather see match halved on the trophy then a Europe Win.
I also think it took a moment away from Europe and Molinari to hole the winning putt which would be remembered and shown over and over. I doubt the moment Tiger gave him his putt will be as it doesn't seem like a great sporting gesture it seems like someone who wanted to get out of there quick. I don't blame Tiger for feeling that way at all but the ball wasn't dead and even though you didn't win the trophy, you didn't lose the match.

 

[Snelly]

I think he just wanted to get off the course and back to the locker room so that he could tear up his comics with Michael Jordan. Nothing to do with sportsmanship.

I suppose that makes me a "hater" to quote forum therapy-speak.

 

[Blademaster]

With this single act he has started building a reputation which will hopefully continue with him into the history books.

:thup:

I am not sure it was a sporting gesture from Tiger. I think he was throwing his toys out of the pram.


"You come here as a team and you win or lose as a team, and it's pointless to even finish. So 18 was just, hey, get this over with".


Tiger's words show his state of mind. I can't imagine any European team member taking that attitude to the last hole when there was a point left to be won for the draw rather than defeat.

 

[garyinderry]

a draw is no good. the holders of the trophy effectivley start one point up so it 14-14 is not a draw!

 

[Tiger]

I wonder whether Tiger was frustrated that potentially he had the opportunity to win the match for the US on the last and Kaymer beating Stricker took that opportunity away from him so he was doubly disappointed?

 

[dufferman]

I am not sure it was a sporting gesture from Tiger. I think he was throwing his toys out of the pram.


"You come here as a team and you win or lose as a team, and it's pointless to even finish. So 18 was just, hey, get this over with".


Tiger's words show his state of mind. I can't imagine any European team member taking that attitude to the last hole when there was a point left to be won for the draw rather than defeat.

I'm not one of those Tiger lovers (or Tiger haters) but, you have to put it in his perspective - he's lost 3 points so far, probably went into the day thinking he wouldn't be needed as the game would be well tied up after the 1st 6 or 7 holes, to then watch his country crumble throughout the day, and finally be told on the 2nd shot of the 18th hole it doesn't matter anymore, you've not won the Ryder Cup. That is a pretty demoralising place to be. Then, to miss his final putt of the whole day, whole weekend, whole competition... I really do not think that he was thinking about 2 years time when people say "Europe only drew" - which of course they will never say anyway, because of the battle to come back, it will always be seen as a win in the eyes of the Ryder Cup... I think he was absolutely ready to go off and get home to forget the whole weekend.

 

[Swinger]

a draw is no good. the holders of the trophy effectivley start one point up so it 14-14 is not a draw!

Would 14 - 14 not go down as a tie to retain the cup for Europe instead of a win for Europe or a loss for the States?

 

[Khamelion]

Controversially I think Tiger missed on purpose, he knew the contest as a whole was lost, so in a gesture of sportsmanship he threw in the towel. I guess we'll never know for sure, but with no pressure on him at all, he doesn't miss those short putts.

Either way, genuine miss or on purpose miss, conceding Molinari's was the gentlemanly thing to do and hats off to Tiger for doing so.

 

[Piece]

Doing the 'right' thing doesn't need explanation. Tiger did the 'right' thing.

 

[JezzE]

I make my opponent hole 12 inch putts if it's to close the game out....why not,holing out is the name of the game and we have all missed from anything from 18 inches in have we not?

Correct!

 

[JezzE]

a draw is no good. the holders of the trophy effectivley start one point up so it 14-14 is not a draw!

That's not correct...

 

[JezzE]

Here's what I think happened. He missed the 4-footer, moved in as though to scoop it up with the back of the putter in frustration, suddenly realised he couldn't do that as it hadn't instantly been conceded (as far as I'm aware), felt a little embarrassed and awkward and decided the easiest course of action in the circumstances would be to quickly concede Molinari's and get the hell out of there. But this is, of course, only my opinion and may well be wide of the mark...

 

[Swinger]

Doing the 'right' thing doesn't need explanation. Tiger did the 'right' thing.

It may have seemed like the right thing to some but not to me.