Seems O'Hair took quite a bit of flak last week for his inability to keep the lead from the best golfer on the planet on the final day. His score of 74 on Sunday has been deemed a choke job.

Could someone explain how the guy who had the lead entering the final round in Houston (co-lead), wasn't in the presence of Tiger, can shoot 74 and leave most people feeling nostalgic?

Uuuuuuu maybe check the scoring avg of the field, O'hair way over the field scoring avg, Freddy under the scoring avg, THAT is the difference.

it's a valid question, and sports of course is riddled with double standards

but Freddie is so well liked after 20 years of being a classy guy. People are very easy on him

though remember, after the riviera shot on 18 there was a LARGE thread calling him a choker

Simple. Couples is a 15 time winner on tour, including the Masters. He was ranked #1 in the world for a time. He's 49. We've come to expect shaky putting from him, and thus not being able to finish. Conditions were nasty. Couples' popularity rivals that of Tiger or Phil. Need I continue?

Whats so difficult to understand? All around good guy, fan favorite, etc, nearing the age of fifty almost pulls off victory the week prior to his only major. No question I was pulling for him.

Can you explain the comparison with last week's results?

O'Hair is a so called young rising star, Freddy is 49 & ready for the champions tour, sheesh, cut the guy some slack.

I fail to see the double standard. At no point was FC up 5 strokes the final day, a day when a great majority of the contestants failed to break par- if I counted correctly, 60 failed to do so. In contrast, something like all but 11 players scored better than SO on the final day at Bay Hill.

Apples and oranges...

Cut the guy some slack? Who even said anything about him, good or bad? All I did was point out the facts from today, he entered the final round with the lead, he shot 74 and he wasn't playing with Tiger.

Its great that people like Freddy but a week after Sean O'Hair shoots 73 (not 74 like I said above) and gets called a choker, I'm just curious where it is this week?

If I am cutting slack, it isn't to the 49 year old major champion, its to the kid who turned pro before he left high school and has not spoken to his father in years.

I wouldn't say apples and oranges...maybe granny smith apples Vs. Mcintosh apples

Couples has been in a great position to win twice this year, and at riviera hit a very poor shot on 18. And at Redstone finished bogey, bogey, bogey

i'm not saying he's a choker. I'm just saying he's seemed to take less flak than Ohair. Personally i don't think many people deserve to be labelled a "choker" anyway. But Ohair got slammed after playing poorly against Mr Woods, something many have done. I think Leeds's question was a valid one

BTW, Hogans71 we gotta find something to agree on man! We disagree on everything it seems LOL

The lead one has is irrelevant. You don't play defense in golf. Freddy shoots 71 today, he wins. O'Hair shoots 71 last week, he wins. Plus Freddy wasn't dealing with Tiger Woods, just a bunch of guys who have reason to not win.

Couples was tied for the lead going into the final round. O'Hair had 5 stroke lead. Pretty obvious.

How is it not irrelevant? I venture to say if you've got a five stroke lead in (insert any golf event here...), you're feeling just a bit better than if you're tied. Completely different mindset- "playing defense" has yet to enter the equation. And no, FC was not playing TW. This is irrelevant imo- 60 guys failed to break par today. Seems like everyone struggled, not just a handful, as was the case last week...

Couples had a 5 shot lead on JB Holmes to start the final round. That said, I really don't see what the lead has to do with anything. Freddy didn't keep his opponents from shooting a 67 today anymore than O'Hair caused Tiger to shoot 67 against him last week. Paul Casey shot 72 today. You know the difference between 72 and 67? 5. Had O'Hair been matched with Paul Casey today and given a 5 shot lead, he wins based on his 73. The variables are different, course was tougher this week, but there was no Tiger on the leaderboard, just a bunch of guys looking for reasons to not win this event.

I think the wind/weather/quirkiness of the tournament gets crossed out by the Tiger factor.

the conditions were also much easier at bay hill. they had gusts up to 35 MPH and ya SO was playing tiger but freddy was playing more than one player, he had to deal with holmes, casey, and some other top notch players that were close to the lead. I would say it would be easier for SO to win than freddy

If Freddy had to play one on one against all those players I would agree but this is golf where you shoot a number and the lowest number wins. Last week Sean O'Hair shot a 73 and lost by one to a guy who shot 67. This week Freddy shot 74 and lost to a guy who shot 72. Had both players shot 71, they would have won outright. I don't see how there being more players on the leaderboard make it tougher for Freddy to shoot 71 than if he was only playing one guy. Shooting 71 requires the same amount of work, against 8 guys or 1.

BTW, this thread could be/should be about Ryan Moore. He opened the 4th round with the lead as well and he shot 76. Geoff Ogilvy was in the 4 way tie and he shot 75. I just brought up Couples because of the TV exposure he got.

Dumb post.

If a PGA tour pro has a FIVE shot lead on Sunday and loses to someone that doesn't go crazy-low, he choked, simple as that.

Nobody at the Shell ever had more than a one shot lead.

Tim

And this is a feeble attempt to either make O'Hair look better, or Couples look worse. Pretty dumb IMHO.

I have always liked Freddy and was really pulling for him today. However, I don't care if it was 5 shot lead, 10 shot lead, or 1 shot lead, he bogeyed his last three holes to lose today. I think nerves got the best of him and to me that is the definition of a choke. He was going along fine just about all day, then he lost it. He was hitting it everywhere and stabbing puts. So yes....to me.....he choked.

Umm do you have ANY idea how hard of a golf course this was in comparision on Sunday? You umm see Sergio's round today? How about Norman smoking one of the shell sign.

Couples shot a better round than Ogilvy...why aren't you saying he choked? He hit it WAY worse down the stretch. How about Bo Van Pelt, Scott Piercy, Colt Knost? They shoot 70 they are all in a playoff. You can go back and forth all day to call what O'hair did a choke is a little over the top too if you ask me. He was playing defensive golf but I mean come on...it's Tiger.

Right back at you, Timmy.

Who cares what the lead was? Couples shot a 74, 72 would have gotten him a play-off. He blew it. He threw it away. He choked for lack of a better term. Sure the course was tough, but Casey shot 72 and Holmes shot 69. Who cares if he had a lead and threw it away. Either way he threw it away.

I keep reading about the conditions being tougher in Houston than they were for Sean O'Hair at Bay Hill. Really? What would the scoring average be if everyone in the field in Houston had to play with the lead, with Tiger in the final pairing with them? We can come up with variables all day and I would buy the Couples argument about the tougher conditions but none of that had anything to do with the flubbed chip. If it was just a matter of big winds coming up and blowing his ball out of bounds or something, OK, but other guys plodded themselves around the course and didn't make the mistakes Couples did.

For the record the field scoring average for the two tournaments in question, Bay Hill and Houston were identical, 72.19 to 72.20.

SD, if your post was directed at me, I did mention Ogilvy and Ryan Moore, who both started the final round with the lead. I said the thread could/should be about them but that I used Couples as the example because he was so featured on TV.

I thought both O'Hair and Freddy did themselves proud....

The pressure on O'Hair coming from off the course is something he will learn to deal with .......and it would have been immense with the TV trolls prepping for another Tiger mauling story......

Full marks to O'Hair, he has worked his a$$ off to get where he is today....and is getting better.....

A 49 year old golfing idol with a busted back who rarely plays, goes back home and turns back the clock to when he was dominant is great theatre.....Tom Watson in the US Open with Bruce....... Norman at The Open last year and so on..... real stories not created by spin doctors.....and you'll see $hit loads of that next week at Augusta.....all staring with that 'patrons' crap...

Whatever the result - both played there guts out and I applauded them both.....

GUYS!!! Read my post above, if you want a logical explination of if it was a choke or not. It's all about the field average, and Freddy was better than the field average, O'Hair was NOT!!! Simple as that.