Dottie Pepper - February 24, 2012

• By Morning Drive Team
• Feb 24, 2012 9:23 AM ET

Golf Channel on NBC Analyst Dottie Pepper is in Marana, Arizona for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. She followed the Nick Watney-Tiger Woods from the 1st tee to the 18th green and she said that the last putt that Tiger missed is the one that most people will remember but Tiger also three-putted the 7th hole to lose the hole and lose momentum in the match. Tiger drove the ball very well with the exception of the 10th hole and hit the shots he needed to hit when he needed to hit them but in the end lost 1 Down.

All players have bad habits and Tiger’s bad habit right now is not releasing the toe of the putter and he had that bad bad habit all day long. But this is worthy of a small and not a large fix. If Tiger starts making putts regularly, he will regain some of the instincts that he developed as a young kid with his father. But there are a lot more things that are worthy of worrying about than Tiger’s putting struggles.

Nick Watney was struggling with moving his head on his putts and his caddie Chad Reynolds gave him a quick fix on the course. Watney listened and his putting improved and in the end he was able to pull off a 1UP win despite clearly not having his best game on Thursday.

Altitude is not as much of a factor as you would think. Seeing players hit 7 irons between 220 and 230 yards seems like a lot but when you factor in the mountains and the desert, it is actually pretty understandable.

If she could pick a match to watch, she would pick the Kaymer-Kuchar match in the Ben Hogan Bracket. Both players have very good records in this event and are both flatliners when it comes to composure. That match will come down to who makes the mistakes first and most often.

When it comes to Rory and Lee and the possibility of becoming World #1, she gives a slight nod to Westwood this week because he has a bit more experience but we are still far away from having serious thoughts about a replacement at World #1. Rory is the player that the most people are following this week behind Tiger Woods and it is interesting to see how he can get into a bubble of his own and just play his game.

She is the co-author of “Bogey Tees Off” and everything has gone very well so far. It has been great to see so many kids relate to this book and relate to this character. Bogey will be a part of numerous junior clinics but it especially wonderful to see how the success of this book is impacting various junior golf initiatives.