The Demise of Tiger Woods

[timdog]

I tend to disagree about the longevity, yes guys still play the tour into their forties but they arent in the top echelon and rarely win tournaments . The other thing is that like every sport the margins have gotten finer and the competition fiercer. I would imagine if he dosent reach the target in the next 3 years he wont ever reach it. What i could actuallly see happening is he will quit totally, i think his personality where he is a bit of a loner etc will make it very hard for him to accept that he is no longer the top dawg, he strived for perfection and i can imagine at the moment his frusturation must be total

I agree with this point.

It's interesting, Tiger won his tournies with a rare combination of pure talent, mental training, and clutch shots. Look at McIlroy, two majors with impressive scores, perhaps too reliant on the pure talent, but no title. Players in golf will experience shorter life spans as more talent come to the game. I thought Tiger was great, but as soon as the shit hit the fan for him, he lost one of his key strengths, the mental edge. There was a great quote along the lines of this "for the past decade players have spent 10% of the mental ability wondering where Tiger was on the course, this no longer exists, and they now have 100% on their own game"

Tiger may never return after this latest rash of knee, leg and back problems. The longer he goes without a win, the tougher it'll be to get back into that column in a game like golf, momentum can mean so much.

I'm looking for Manserano to make a break through soon, this kid is also the real deal.

[ber]

Yes if u lose ure way its really hard to get back, just look at Harrington he has slipped to 48th and probably be outside the
top 50 soon, then his real problems will start as getting invites to top tournaments etc will become more difficult, prob
put place in next Ryder Cup in jepoardy. It really looks now as if he was terribly lucky with the purple patch he hit in his
career as up to that he was struggling with lots of 2nd places, he won his majors and im afraid since it has been downhill
all the way at an alarming rate. Also age is no longer his friend either

[BootSlick55]

4 knee surgeries. Never had back trouble IIRC. Certainly seems to be close to the finish of his time as a competitve force. Everything is gone south at the moment; mental, putting, health. He can get the mental side and putting back but the injury-plagued knee can't take much more competitive road-miles IMO. Hope I'm wrong.

Pity, because he was the best I've ever seen by miles. Hard to compare players of different eras but only Nicklaus, Hogan and Jones come close. Only knock against him was that those others had sterner opposition. Woods' rivals were/are lacking in intestinal fortitude to say the least.

[lovethegirls]

Its a pity to see as he has had such a great career.

[timdog]

Yes if u lose ure way its really hard to get back, just look at Harrington he has slipped to 48th and probably be outside the
top 50 soon, then his real problems will start as getting invites to top tournaments etc will become more difficult, prob
put place in next Ryder Cup in jepoardy. It really looks now as if he was terribly lucky with the purple patch he hit in his
career as up to that he was struggling with lots of 2nd places, he won his majors and im afraid since it has been downhill
all the way at an alarming rate. Also age is no longer his friend either

I thought Harrington had a few more wins in him, maybe not the majors, but to have dropped so quickly to potentially being outside the top 50, could shorten his career as ber has highlighted. Hopefully he can also find a way to just get back to top ten finishes, keep the ranking points, and then he'll be in with a chance to win a few.

Tiger is now officially 12th in the world, if he doesn't play the US Open and any tourney between that and the Open, he may also find himself in the 20's very quickly, as all those behind him are building up the points quickly.

How about an EI golf tourney.... get a few "cart girls" to participate...