After his nightmare round at the Memorial on Saturday, the question to ask about Tiger Woods is not when he will turn around his game. Rather, one is forced to wonder if this really is the abyss of his career, or whether he is going to sink any further.
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In the third round at Muirfield Village Golf Club, a golf course where he has won the Jack Nicklaus-hosted tournament five times and never missed the cut in 13 appearances, Woods shot a 13-over par round of 85 – the worst of his professional career by three shots.
Earlier this year in February, at the Phoenix Open, Woods had submitted his previous worst card, an 82 that was replete with fluffed chips and three-putts.
His only other round in excess of 80 was the 81 at the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield, which came in horrendous weather conditions.
People ask, “Is Tiger done?” Done dominating, absolutely. Done winning? Padraig Harrington was completely lost, then won Honda at 43.
— Rich Lerner (@RichLernerGC) June 7, 2015
If you dissect his 85, I honestly think it was a marginally better effort than his 82 at the Phoenix Open. Obviously, nothing worked for Woods and he missed several makeable putts in the five-10 feet range.
But what finally led to the ugly 85 was the quadruple bogey on the 18th hole, and that effort was symptomatic of the biggest malady afflicting Woods right now.
There is no denying the fact that his game has taken a massive hit, and it can happen when you have a prolonged injury, or when you try to change your swing.
Jack: “Tiger’s running from teacher to teacher… needs to go back and review some of his own things rather than listen to somebody else.”
— GC Tiger Tracker (@GCTigerTracker) June 6, 2015
But what appears completely battered and bruised right now is his mind. The famed Woods fortitude – the one factor that separated him from the boys and made him the greatest player of the current generation – is nowhere to be seen.
It wasn’t as if Woods did not make mistakes in his heyday. But he always found a way to extricate himself from the toughest of situations. If he could not make a par on one hole, he’d somehow make sure he birdied the next.
The ability to bounce back was his greatest strength. It’s completely missing now. Like he did in his round yesterday, a bogey is now followed by another and a double trails a double. But the quadruple bogey at the 18th was indicative of something worse – once he failed to hit his third chip shot onto the green, it was as if he didn’t care.
Woods almost seemed to have given up and that is one thing we have never seen from the 14-time major champion. With his game in complete disarray, and the most important part of the summer in front of him with one major in each month starting with the US Open in two week’s time, there is absolutely no chance Woods can collect the pieces and put it all together.
And yet, 39 is not an age when you can give up on a man of Woods’ stature and ability. At least not in a sport like golf, where you were expected to have your best years in the late 30s and early 40s, until Woods came and changed the demographics of the sport.
For him to win another major will be difficult, especially because of the depth in the field nowadays and the way youngsters like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth are playing. However, it is not impossible.
Woods needs to somehow regain the self-belief his father Earl instilled in him. If it means hiring a full time psychologist in his team, so be it. The can-do attitude won him so many titles in the past. It can do so again…even now.
