London - Everything you need to know about Tiger Woods in 2015 was demonstrated by where he chose to be just 48 hours before the start of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in southern California on Thursday.
Coming off the worst round of his professional career in Phoenix the previous week, the 14-time major champion wasn’t hard at work trying to rectify the lamentable state of his game.
He was 1500 miles away in Colorado watching his girlfriend, America’s most celebrated skier Lindsey Vonn, compete.
Now maybe he wasn’t healthy enough to practise or maybe he’s just hopelessly in love. Either way, it’s quite clear this Woods is a far cry from the merciless athlete who would never have left the practice ground during the glory years until he was sure he could rectify the public humiliation he suffered in Arizona.
And so what we’re left with is the American equivalent of the sad figure Seve Ballesteros cut at the end of his career.
Where the playing partners are so shocked by what they’re witnessing that they are tempted to look away; where the spectators are filled with a yearning for what they once witnessed rather than any expectation of an encore; where the applause is of the sympathetic kind rather than for glimpses of the greatness that, at Torrey of all places, they once took for granted.
How poignant it should be at the venue where, seven years earlier, he won the United States Open on one leg, that he had to withdraw with yet another back injury.
While we await news as to whether it’s a relatively minor setback or something that’s going to require another long spell away from the game, it’s hardly surprising people are wondering whether, at 39, he’s effectively done.
After back surgery last March, and a wasted summer playing through the pain, he took four months off in an effort to discover a cure through rest.
“I feel fantastic,” he said in Phoenix, on the eve of his first PGA Tour event for six months.
Now, after all that effort, he finds he’s no better off than so many sufferers, not knowing whether his back is going to feel great each morning or whether it’s going to let him down again.
For any golfer, that’s an awful place to be and while some cope well enough to win the odd event, none get close to the top of the world rankings. As for someone hoping to win five majors in his forties, it’s just about a worst-case scenario. How much more can one great sportsman take? Before his comeback in Phoenix, Sportsmail posed five questions Tiger had to answer in five warm-up events to be considered a contender at the Masters in April.
Following two disastrous tournaments, he’s provided only one positive answer: yes, it does indeed look like he’s got the chipping yips. The final two remain irrelevant because he hasn’t come close to solving the first two: is he healthy and can he find a fairway?
With less than nine weeks to go to the Masters, his hopes and dreams, therefore, are in disarray. When the latest world rankings are released on Monday they are likely to show Woods in 59th place - his worst mark since his early days as a professional in 1996.
An illustration of how far he has fallen is that he is not currently in the field for the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Miami next month.
Could you ever have imagined Woods not qualifying for one of the WGCs, the events he used to own? It’s only two years ago, for example, that he won this tournament by a street, never mind made the field. Is there any hope? Precious little, sadly, as the vicious circle squeezes ever tighter. If his back condition is chronic, he can’t practise, and if he can’t practise he will never solve his issues off the tee and around the green.
The erosion of confidence is so complete that even the revered putting stroke that once looked bullet-proof appears riddled with holes.
‘It’s tough to see and tough to watch,’ said Rickie Fowler, his playing partner at Torrey. It’s tough on golf, too, as it clung to the intoxicating idea of Tiger seeing out his prime years by slugging it out with Rory McIlroy.
That looks a million miles away with McIlroy hardly ever outside the top two these days and Woods unable to complete two rounds.
Hard as it is on everyone who loves a good comeback story, there seems more chance of Tiger walking away from golf than walking into a duel with his obvious successor.
How the mighty has fallen:
Woods’s game has collapsed since its incredible peak at the turn of the millennium.
2000 2015
1 World ranking 56
71.2% Driving accuracy 46.4%
720/1,011 Fairways hit 13/28
75.2% Greens in regulation 50%
974/1,296 Greens hit 18/36
67.8 Scoring average 77.1
57.3% Sand saves 33%
67.1% Par or better after missing green 27.8%
Woods’s earnings have suffered greatly since his form tailed off. In 2009, his most profitable year, he earned £6,887,225. Since the start of 2014 he has pocketed just £70,963.
Woods won a massive nine events in 2000 - including three majors. Since the beginning of 2010 he has won just eight.
Since Woods last won a major (2008 US Open) he has withdrawn from six events through injury. In the 11 years preceding it he withdrew just twice.
Daily Mail