Tiger Woods just can’t live up to what people perceive his name, his brand, to be. If his terrible performance at Augusta wasn’t enough of a warning sign to fans and experts regarding Woods’ place in the current pecking order, came his terrible Wells Fargo Championship performance, missing the cut of a tournament for only the 8th time in his career.
Winning the Arnold Palmer invitational back in March, his first PGA tournament win in over two years had people believing the old Tiger is back. Winning in Chevron in December was another indication, but people want Woods to be back on center stage in a positive way so bad that they overlook all of his problems. Augusta was a hammer on the head for those actually claiming Woods was the favorite to win the tournament after not winning a Major since 2008.
Everyone in the world has had his share of opinions on Woods struggling with his swing. Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer offered some opinions as well on Tiger’s slump. Basically, it all revolves around his swing, with Trevino saying Woods needs to ditch his swinging coach and simply work at it on his own. Like the old greats used to do, dating back to Ben Hogan.
Woods claimed he hits well when he’s uncomfortable and hits bad when he’s comfortable over the ball. When he’s comfortable, he tries to hit the ball like he did before he changed his swing coach, reverting back to bad habits according to him.
It all has to do with my setup. When I get over the golf ball and feel uncomfortable, I hit it great. I want to get comfortable, and I follow my old stuff and hit it awful. I just tried to get uncomfortable and feel as bad as I could and then I striped it. I know what I need to do. I just need more reps doing it. We’ve changed a bunch of different things, and every now and then, I fall into the old stuff. And that doesn’t work, the combo platter of old and new.
Woods has missed a tournament cut for the 8th time. This is the first time he’s missed a cut for the same tournament twice. He now has the players championship next, an event he withdrew from the last couple of years. People expecting the old Tiger just won’t be finding him anytime soon. Even if Woods gets over his habit of reverting to his old swing, which doesn’t work for him, he just doesn’t have that edge he had over the rest of the field in previous years.
Long gone are the days when Woods didn’t miss a cut for 142 consecutive PGA tournaments. Since then, no one has made it 50 straight, although Steve Stricker is currently at 49, heading into the Players Championship. Don’t be surprised if Woods, who has more problems, inside his head, than just his golf swing, won’t make a streak even that long again in his career.
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