It looks like the Tiger Woods phenomenon has runs its course. After 17 years at the highest level, for most of which he was the dominant player on the planet, Woods is in free fall.
Last week in front of record crowds at the Phoenix Open, he shot his worst score as a professional, an 11-over 82, where he could not chip, skulling several shots right through the green as he missed the cut by 12 shots.
This week he walked off after 11 holes of the opening round at Torrey Pines – one of his favourite destinations, where he has won eight times – saying that a 90-minute delay due to the foggy conditions had seized up his glutes and he couldn’t reactivate them and make a proper swing.
That much was evident as he even missed the green from the middle of the only fairway that he hit, and was two-over when he decided he could take it no more.
Woods, once one of the iron men of the game, has played sparingly since returning from his back surgery last year the week before the US Masters.
In six official events he has missed the cut three times, withdrawn twice and had his worst 72-hole finish at a Major, where he was 69th.
Throw in last place at December’s World Challenge – which he hosts in support of his education foundation – and it paints a sorry picture of a player in decline.
Woods has now fallen outside of the top 50 in the official world rankings, and when the new rankings list is released tomorrow, he will probably have dropped out of the top 64 and not qualify for the next World Golf Championship (WGC) event.
(He will still have entry into all four Majors this year as he was inside the top 50 on January 1 – and the Masters guarantees previous winners entry until they reach 65.).
From the first time Woods played at the Masters as an amateur in 1995, it was clear that he was head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries, and he set off single-mindedly in pursuit of the record of 18 Majors held by Jack Nicklaus.
He quickly ticked off the first 10, dominating the field and leaving his rivals intimidated by his performances.
His 14th Major victory was achieved in 2008 at Torrey Pines, where he beat Rocco Mediate at the 19th hole of a play-off despite playing the entire tournament with two broken bones in his left leg. Woods described it as “my greatest ever championship”.
The following year he led the PGA Championship at Hazeltine going into the final round and was odds-on to win a 15th Major – after all, he had never been caught when in the lead going into the final round... but YE Yang, of South Korea, showed that the Tiger could be tamed.
Yang, reeling him in and doggedly matching him shot for shot, eagled the 14th hole to pull a shot clear of Tiger and was never caught.
Woods’s shock loss appeared to break the aura of invincibility and the new generation of “young guns” in particular, who had no mental scars of being beaten by 12 shots (the 1997 Masters) or 15 shots (the 2000 US Open) set about proving he was a mere mortal.
Woods’s personal life, filled with strippers, hookers and others, became public after his wife, Elin, attacked him at their Florida estate and he hit a massive downward spiral for two years.
But in 2013 he was back, apparently over his personal and on-course woes as he won five times and won the money list and his 11th Player of the Year award.
Woods has won the money list 10 times, and is three behind Sam Snead’s total of 82 wins on the PGA Tour.
Will we see him coming back?
No doubt he can do so. But whether he will ever be the same force again in the game appears highly doubtful.