Mental pressure hinders Woods' form
Practice makes perfect and Tiger Woods needs both if he wants to stand any chance at the British Open next week. But it’s looking less and less likely that Woods can pull off another win on the famous home of golf at St Andrews. Woods needs to get over the mental stress of his personal life, or at least find some way to put it aside, so he can get back to his grade ‘A’ golf game.
Woods tied for fourth place at the US open at Pebble Beach and shot a third round 66 in a game which saw sparks and glimmers of his former self. But at the AT&T National last week in Philadelphia he placed 46th and had many people wondering why he showed up at all.
Woods shot a one over 71, following scores of 73, 70, 70. He failed to break par in any of the competition's four rounds, something he hasn’t done since the Bay Hill Invitational 11 years ago. Woods made three birdies and four bogeys on Saturday, and came in 14 strokes behind champion Justin Rose. Woods is riding out his longest win-less streak since 2004.
It’s undeniable that Woods game is suffering due to mental stress. He is the object of paparazzi, and not the good kind. His every mood, facial expression, and emotion is scrutinized under the post serial-infidelity microscope.
At one point he had it all, the career, the fame, the money, the beautiful wife and adorable children. Now he has lost major corporate sponsors, cost the golf industry millions, and is working through a bitter divorce settlement and custody battle while trying to make a comeback.
Michael Bamberger of Sports Illustrated adequately summed up Woods career and current predicament: Woods “had two major stages in his life, the Early Years (1975-96) and the Corporate Years (1996 -2009). Now comes something else: Tiger alone, in uncharted waters – with the whole world watching.”
After a rough first round at the JP McManus Invitational Pro- am, an Irish charity event, he finished the second day with a four-over after grabbing five birdies and two bogeys. He was still seven shots behind leader Darren Clarke, but managed to salvage some of his fallen golf graces.
When Woods won the AT&T tournament last year he was an unstoppable athlete and corporate icon. Since the scandal broke Woods has been unable to recover on the greens. The only ray of hope for his career is how well he drove the ball at Aronimink.
“I drove it pretty good this week. It was fun,” Woods boasted of the only achievement worth boasting about in the past eight months. Woods has high hopes for the British Open at St. Andrews next week. “I love playing there,” he said of the Scottish golf course, the oldest in the world.
Of the six tournaments he’s played this year Woods believes: “I’m getting better,” and he can notice, “The feel, it's getting better. I feel more comfortable with what I’m working on. It’s so much more comfortable that it was the beginning of the year.”
But then again, there is what Woods says, and what the rest of the world observes. If the McManus Invitational Pro-am is any indication of how Woods is going to fair this year, it will not be lucrative. And if Phil Mickelson ousts Woods from the worlds’ no.1 golfer spot, it will be even harder, mentally at least, for Woods to come back and claim his former glory.
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