Will Tiger Woods get back on track next year and continue his assault on the record for major championship wins? Will he ever win another major?
Those are questions for debate, but what is clear is that Tiger’s days of total dominance on the PGA Tour are emphatically over.
Due to age and growing health issues, Woods, who hasn’t won a major since 2008, can no longer overpower a golf course or his opponents. His intimidating persona is gone, just like his ability to hit fairways.
Now 38, he’s entering the end of his prime as a golfer. Can he be competitive for several more years? Of course. Jack Nicklaus won at Augusta when he was 46, and Phil Mickelson continues to play at a high level into his 40s.
But none of that will matter if he can get past his recent back surgery, and you never know when that bad knee might flair up again.
A lack of confidence and poor putting have also been a big part of his recent decline.
In his hey day, Woods’ biggest advantage was between his ears, as well as between the ears of his competitors. He had a killer instinct and a will to win that was unparalleled, making him quite intimidating.
And when Tiger was at his best, he never missed clutch putts. Every putt that had to go in did just that, and at one point he had a streak of something like 1,000 straight putts made inside three feet.
Now many in the golf world are pointing to Rory McIlroy to take over where Tiger left off.
Admittedly, McIlroy is the closest thing we have to Tiger in his prime, but I don’t think Rory will ever be where Woods once was.
No one, not even Nicklaus or Ben Hogan, the two other most dominant golfers of the last 60 years, recorded two stretches like Woods did with a five-for-six streak in consecutive majors from 1999 to 2001 or his six-for-14 streak from 2005 to 2008.
Woods even said as much recently when asked what it is like to see Rory dominate in a way that only he had in a major. The real question was, I suspect, a gentler way to of asking, “How does it feel to see, as the old king of golf, the new king?”
Golf badly needs a new hero. McIlroy can be that guy but not in that same dominating fashion that Tiger did.
Overall the game of golf is hurting.
Participation in the sport, which was badly hit by the recession, is continuing to decline across the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland — putting some golf courses and equipment manufacturers under strain.
The game’s image is stuck in a rut, looking old-fashioned and out of touch to so many. That doesn’t lend itself to drawing in newcomers to the sport.
Simply put: For most, golf is too expensive and takes too long to play.
