Embattled Tiger Woods fighting to keep to stay on top
When Tiger Woods made his return at Augusta a month or so ago, it was on the back of a promise that as far as his game was concerned, nothing had changed. In his own words, Woods was "going out there to try and win this thing."
After that first day at Augusta, where Woods seemed pretty much unfazed by his tribulations, many golf hacks - this one included - posed a question something along the lines: "Did anyone really believe Woods would have forgotten how to play the game?" Now it seems such belief in the man (perhaps expressed in a slightly self-satisfied way - sorry about that) may have been misplaced, since that's exactly what seemed to happen at Quail Hollow last week.
If the golfer had exuded an irreducible confidence at the Masters even while his play grew more haphazard over the four days of the competition, at last week's championship the world No. 1 looked like a lost soul, missing the cut for only the sixth time in his career in abject style.
The event at North Carolina had been viewed as a chance for Woods to resume his fierce rivalry with Phil Mickelson, but while Mickelson was in formidable form, beaten only by a sparkling turn from Northern Irish wunderkind Rory McIlroy, Woods' game was a mess. Shooting a 79 to finish nine-over-par for the two rounds, the 14-time major winner ended in a tie for 141st place.
Fellow pros like Colin Montgomerie have suggested that with Woods' fall from grace, the player would lose some aura of invincibility, that the other players would no longer fear him. But forget the competition - could it be possible that Woods is starting to lose faith in his own prowess?
The 34-year-old has always carried himself like some young emperor, striding onto the course, eyes fixed straight ahead; arrogant perhaps, but a winner, impervious to doubt. But if his off-course activities have now reduced him to the level of a joke, could such a crumble in status have affected a similar crumble in the man's hitherto unbreachable focus?
It doesn't take the most incisive of commentators to suppose that problems on the fairways - or more frequently off them, Woods hitting just six of 28 fairways over the two days’ of the competition - stem from the golfer's ongoing problems with his marriage. Of course Woods refuses to give an inch, insisting there's no connection, but consider this - Woods played badly all through the competition, no doubt, but his game really went down the toilet on Saturday after the 10th, carding three bogeys and two double bogeys on the back nine.
Coincidentally or not, Woods was also privy to a spot of banter between two spectators just prior to that meltdown, one likely lad shouting: "Get it in the hole Tiger!", another quickly following up with the well-trod but crassly amusing: "That's what she said." Might such evident deteriorating respect for Woods have resulted in his game going to pot?
There are other possibilities. Perhaps it could be the strain of pretending to be the nice guy that Woods so clearly isn't? While he focuses so hard on getting the PR message across - smiling, acknowledging the fans, making a Herculean effort not to unleash a merry outpouring of profanity whenever his balls refuse to obey his increasingly wayward swing - could the sheer energy of trying to atone be sapping the player's ability to actually play?
Off-course factors may still be hindering Woods game too. While the fallout from the golfer's many disgraces continues, still new revelations emerged this weekend, stories in the press suggesting that the golfer has cheated with as many as 120 women during his marriage to Elin Nordegren. Even if that figure is pure fantasy, the ribald tales that continue to assail Woods' reputation must surely continue to take some toll on his game too, even without heckling spectators reminding him.
Woods has never in his career missed two cuts in a row, but with his game in as poor a state as it's ever been, the golfer must be worried that unwanted milestone is looming. Of similarly disconcerting news is that the golfer's status as No. 1 in the world is under threat, too.
Woods has not enjoyed a particularly happy history at the Players Championship; he won there once, back in 2001, but his eighth place finish there in 2009 was his best showing at the event since '01. Should he fail to finish inside the top five at the event this week and Mickelson can win, the Californian would take Woods' place at the top of the rankings.
After missing the cut at Quail Hollow, Woods offered a weak joke, telling reporters he would spend the weekend "watching how real players play golf".
If Mickelson's irons are shooting straight this weekend, Tiger may just see one real player supersede him as the best golfer on the planet. Should he be able to keep his potty mouth to a minimum under those circumstances, we really will be impressed.
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