Well, the comeback story for Tiger Woods keeps getting worse, as this time he failed to even make the cut in a tournament. Woods missed the PGA Championship cut by an alarming 6 strokes. His game doesn’t seem to be getting better, it seems to be getting progressively worse.
Woods entered the 2011 PGA Championship hoping to answer a lot of people’s questions about his game. All the attention was focused on him and instead of getting answers, we got more questions, and I am sure Tiger got more questions as well. Woods missed the cut for the first time ever in 14 PGA Championship appearances.
The stats for Woods weren’t pretty this week, not even a little. Just when we thought he was starting to look comfortable he would give even more shots back. Not only did he finish an alarming 6 shots outside the cut line, but this missed cut also marked only the fourth time in his career that he won’t be around for the weekend at a major championship. However this one was the ugliest.
As we try looking for silver lining in Woods’ game these last two days, there was simply none to find. Tiger’s game has officially hit rock bottom. He recorded 5 double bogeys, and found himself hitting out of bunkers 19 times, 19! These numbers would be pretty bad for a full four days, however, Tiger put these numbers up in only 30 holes. By the time he had finished his 36 holes, he looked like an amateur trying to find his way to the clubhouse as fast as he could.
So what’s next for Tiger Woods? At this point it is anyone’s guess. At this point even the layman can see that he needs some serious tournament practice as well as more reps with Foley. When will he get those reps though? Woods’ tournament season is effectively over, having not qualified for the FedEx Cup, we may not see him play again in a PGA event until 2012 at Torrey Pines.
He could play abroad between now and then — he’s scheduled to play the Australian Open in Sydney, on Nov. 10-13 — but the chances of fans seeing him are going to be few and far between.
Even if he does play in November, it would be a three-month hiatus for him. Tiger was on the verge of every major golf record in history until the situation with his infidelity broke through and went public. Not only is his game gone, but it seems his mind is still gone as well. Since golf is mostly a mind game, Tiger is struggling even more.
Tiger used to dominate other golfers by playing with their minds, now the tables are turned and other golfers are in his head. Nobody fears Tiger anymore, and that will make his comeback – if it ever happens, harder than ever.
Whatever happens, he better not stay away from the course for too long, as the longer he is away the worse he will be. The only time anyone may see Tiger in the next few months is playing practice rounds. Is he done? Or will he be back? Only time will tell.