Tiger's season fizzling out - but Ryder can redeem
The worst season of Tiger Woods' professional career ended this weekend in unremarkable fashion, Woods finishing one-under-par and tied for 15th place at the BMW Championship in Illinois.
The tournament acts as a play-off for the conclusion of the FedEx Cup, next week's grand finale Tour Championship. But Woods won’t be present, having failed to earn enough points to qualify for the big finish. The world No. 1 had needed a top-five finish in order to progress to the final, but three early bogeys on Sunday scuppered Woods' hopes.
As a sign that Woods is approaching his former greatness, the showing at Cog Hill was hardly persuasive. But the 34-year-old's recent play is at least a significant improvement on the lowest points in 2010 - the atrocious showing at the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, missing the cut at Quail Hollow, pulling out of the Players with a neck injury that seemed convenient, given the poor play that preceded it.
There have been peaks among the troughs too, Woods finishing fourth in both the Masters and the US Open, but the truth is that this year, the 14-time major winner has made headlines almost exclusively for his failings, rather than his successes.
To the surprise of precisely no-one, Woods didn't veer wildly off-message in his post-match remarks, declaring himself "pleased" with his final round at the BMW Championship. The player insisted he was "getting along better and very pleased and looking forward to the future."
No less than three times in the space of seven questions, Woods also repeated the less than compelling mantra: "I didn't play well early in the year, and I didn't play well in the middle of the year," presumably as some kind of evidence that his game is improving.
Perhaps, but on Sunday, playing alongside perennial No. 2 Phil Mickelson, Woods was soundly beaten by his would-be successor - and Mickelson has hardly had a year to remember, that fine Masters win aside. Both times this year when Woods played especially impressive rounds - at the US Open where he hit 66, and the Barclays where he had an opening round of 65 - the critics were quick to assume that the breakthrough had arrived. Only for Woods to fizzle out as the tournaments proceeded.
It's a real possibility that the old Woods, the invincible Woods, the dominant figure of his sport over the last 15 years, is gone and never coming back. So where does he go from here? Is the proposed swing-change with new (though not officially permanent) swing coach Sean Foley the cure-all for Woods' ills? Or is it a desperate, tacit acknowledgement that with his game still completely haywire, Woods will try anything to halt the rot?
The PGA Tour season may be over, but we'll see more of Woods this year, of course. There's the WGC-HSBC Champions in China in November, and the JBWere Masters in Australia - both tournaments that may offer more in the way of prize money than they do prestige, though at this point Woods would surely be genuinely delighted just to notch up a victory at either event.
And there's the Ryder Cup, too. So often the competition has seemingly been a distraction for Woods - so much so that on being chosen as a wildcard pick by captain Corey Pavin last week, Woods felt moved to say: "I've always loved the Ryder Cup, I don't know where this perception of indifference comes from."
But that Woods would rather be winning money than honour is tough to dispute; he said as much a few years ago, admitting he'd rather have a million dollars than a Ryder Cup victory. Now though, with his status as golf's posterboy in disarray, and any honour he might have possessed in tatters, maybe the Ryder Cup can be his salvation.
Inspiring the US to victory could go a long way to redeeming Woods, at least in sporting terms. But better than that, it could transform the man into something he's striven for all season - pure and simple, the opportunity to be a winner once again.
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