Following a career-worst 85 on Saturday at the Memorial Tournament, I think it’s officially time to accept that Tiger Woods will never be the player he once was or the Tiger Woods so many of us are dying for him to be once again. It’s just not going to happen.
In related news, this is the first time I can’t honestly say “I can’t believe I’m writing this.”
But, it’s time to really take stock of what’s going on with Woods. It’s time to look at the numbers, look at the history and do some accepting. Believe me, I know it’s more fun when the big cat is in contention and/or dominating a field — but it’s something we haven’t seen since 2013.
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“That was only two years ago,” the Tiger-apologists will cry — and they’re right. But two years from now Tiger Woods is going to be 41 and at that point, who knows what’s possible for him.
Sure, players have won majors north of 40, but not many passed the age of 41. In the last 26 years, one seven golfers have won north of 40 while only Vijay Singh (41, 2004 PGA Championship), Ernie Els (42, 2012 Open Championship) and Phil Mickelson (42, 2013 Open Championship) have done it in the past 15 years — and none of them were battling injury or a swing overhaul during that time.
This past week’s showing at the Memorial was very telling about Woods’ future. This was supposed to be a good week for Tiger, a week where he made strides in his game and found another gear with just two weeks to go before the U.S. Open. Instead, Woods — and the rest of us — are left scratching our heads about what’s next for him and whether or not he’ll ever be the same player he once was.
With his career-worst round of 85 on Saturday, Woods unwittingly provided us with a disturbing statistic. The 85 was his second round in the 80’s in just 13 rounds on Tour this season. How many rounds in the 80’s had Woods posted in the first 21 years of his career? One. That’s just one round of 8o or worse in 1,107 rounds. By the way — that round was an 81 on Friday during hellscape that was the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield.
It’s time to seriously take stock of Woods career and his new standing on the PGA Tour. It’s time to accept the fact that Woods is no more than a decent tour pro. He’s still capable of winning — that’s for sure — but only in so much as someone like Kyle Stanley, Will MacKenzie, Charlie Beljian and Johnson Wagner are capable of winning on Tour. Unless Tiger makes massive gains in his game and soon, there’s little to suggest he’ll ever win multiple times in a season if he ever does again if he wins again at all.
I will say it’s hard to rule out a major title for Woods, but he certainly won’t win five more at this point. As long as Tiger Woods can walk upright and the Masters is played at Augusta National, Woods has a chance to win another major. If guys like Miguel Angel Jimenez, Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer can make impressive runs there year after year, than Woods certainly can, too.
I’m not trying to be a “Tiger-hater” here, I’m just being practical. Simply put, waiting for Tiger’s game to return to it’s old form is like waiting for an NBA official to call a travel — it’s going to be a while if it happens at all.
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