Sad end can offer new start for Tiger Woods
Over the course of the last 15 years, Tiger Woods' dominance of his sport has been such that the man's feats, once viewed with such wonder, have taken on an air almost of predictability.
Of course, that seeming inevitable prowess on the course has faltered in recent months. But one eminently predictable area in the man's life finally concluded yesterday, a joint statement from Woods and his wife Elin Nordegren confirming that the pair had divorced.
Despite initial suggestions that the couple would attempt to overcome their marital problems, in reality the continuing revelations of Woods' multiple infidelities proved unforgivable for his Swedish spouse; and now the couple have at last bowed to the inescapable.
So can this unfortunate but clearly necessary end of Woods' relationship see the 34-year-old rediscover his ability on the course? Woods may remain the world No. 1 - thanks largely to the fact he was so far ahead of the competition when his private life deteriorated into pandemonium - but 2010 has proved, at best, frustrating for the player.
The 14-time major winner is yet to win at all this year; Woods did enjoy decent but erratic performances at the Masters and the US Open, finishing tied for fourth place in both competitions. But elsewhere the golfer has missed a cut, pulled out of a tournament with an injury, and at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational endured the worst showing of his career, finishing 78th of 80 players.
If that performance was enough to convince some onlookers that whatever excellence the player once enjoyed was irretrievably lost, there were other problems. Woods may have tried to exude his old confidence in press conferences this year, but such self-belief has been impossible to sustain when the results were second rate.
Before the Bridgestone Invitational teed off, Woods refused to consider the option that he could fail to qualify automatically for the Ryder Cup, refused even to answer a question about whether or not he would settle for a wildcard pick from the captain Corey Pavin.
Just a few days later, that unshakeable conviction had evaporated as Woods questioned even his right to appear at the tournament. Woods has since indicated that he wants to play the Ryder, and Pavin is unlikely to snub the player - but nonetheless, Woods remains in bizarre new territory where nothing is a given.
It's not just a poor standard of play that Woods has to try and combat, either. Even before the disappointments on the course, several big companies had ceased their association with Woods, amongst them communications company AT&T and management consultants Accenture; should his inglorious showings continue, the worth of Woods' huge endorsement deals will certainly plummet, even if his current sponsors continue to stand by him.
All of which suggest that Woods is at his lowest ebb - and thus ready to start rising again. Common sense tells us that Woods will surely never scale the heights of his greatest glories, finishing majors 10 strokes ahead of his nearest rivals or winning four majors in the space of 12 months.
But with a clearly delineated end to the most devastating period of Woods' life, and with the determination that, for instance, saw Woods win the 2008 US Open on a broken leg, surely this is a man not yet ready to give up.
This year has been a write-off for the golfer. That can mean the beginning of the end, but it shouldn't; Woods' destiny is in his own hands. He may even be able to salvage something from the season with some form of redemptive showing at the Ryder Cup, should Pavin offer him the chance.
But it's the future that offers the real hope for Woods. Some ill-advised pundits have likened the player to Muhammad Ali trying to make his comeback after the boxer caused a political furore by refusing to fight in Vietnam, or to Ben Hogan's return to the golf course after a serious car crash saw the nine-time major winner hospitalised with numerous serious injuries (the golfer also saved his wife's life by throwing himself in front of her as the car crashed).
Such comparisons are unfortunate - Woods may be fighting back from adversity, but it's an adversity entirely of his own making. It may be a shade dubious for us to pontificate about Woods' behaviour, but it's certainly at least as unseemly to compare his trials with those of sportsmen who have negotiated their way back from truly harrowing setbacks.
Woods has messed up on a big scale, and he's done so in a way that will have cost him a whole lot of goodwill. For now though, perhaps bizarrely, the pendulum has swung the other way; Woods is hurting so bad right now, people actually want to see him do well. With a line drawn under the most colossal s***w-up of his life, maybe he can actually start winning again. His legend may be forever tainted, but at least on a sporting level, perhaps Woods isn't done just yet.
And if it is all over for him, even after Elin takes her share, well as the world's richest sportsman Woods will probably get by okay.
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