OT - What has happened to Tiger Woods golf game?

Submitted by trueblue262 on

I know this is far from a golf blog, but it's beyond weird to me how quickly things have changed for Tiger. He just shot a 44 on the front in Phoenix.

Does he need Stevie back? Elin? Butch? 

FauxMichBro

January 30th, 2015 at 1:21 PM ^

he's old and broken while still trying to play a power game. kind of reminds me of justin verlander. both need to adjust to a finesse game.

pdgoblue25

January 30th, 2015 at 2:56 PM ^

Tiger has the yips, plain and simple.  It can happen to anybody, and he's lost his confidence to a point that it's happening to him.

There is no proof, but I personally believe Tiger took steroids.  I believe this because he had several documented appointments with Dr. Anthony Galea, a man who was arrested while smuggling PEDs into the country.  I think Tiger's injury history is directly associated with this.

However, none of this makes a professional golfer stub chips multiple times, which is what he is doing.  Tiger has the yips

pdgoblue25

January 30th, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^

I'm sure they'll be able to do a better job than 3 of the greatest entertainers who ever lived. 

I'm also sure there will be no fat jokes about Melissa McCarthy, and there will be no scenes where she falls through a table.

Finally, I'm positive it's not one of the worst ideas in movie history.

MichiganTeacher

January 30th, 2015 at 1:23 PM ^

<insert cat .jpg>

 

Seriously, intangibles are huge. A lot of people like to discount them around here, but Tiger's a perfect example of how important they are.

Zarniwoop

January 30th, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^

Short version, I don't have a clue.

But, since this is a forum, I'll spout nonsense.

I can't help but think that what happened to him with the sex scandal was the first time he ever felt like "I seriously screwed up". I hypothesize that it shook his unshakable confidence.

His physical talent isn't the same just due to age, but from the moment he got pasted with a 9-iron in the face, he hasn't been the same between the ears (again, my hypothesis).

His mid/late 30s should have been his great surge towards the record. Instead, its just passed with a wheeze.

He's still the greatest golfer ever to play over a 10 year span. But, that experience changed him forever. Maybe not outwardly, but his game just never got back to where it needed to be. And my GUESS is that part that never returned was between his ears.

oriental andrew

January 30th, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^

His body is pretty wrecked in general, too. I think a lot of it goes to the power game. Since he bulked up, seems he lost some flexibility. Constant injuries, too. I honestly just don't think he's as driven as he was. He was untouchable (in more ways than one), now he's still really good, but not the unquestioned best. 

And geez, can you even imagine what it must be like to be the unequivocal "best" at anything in your generation? Because that's what he was, no question.

ijohnb

January 30th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^

the head with the word "power," but the muscles and bulking up is only a small part of the picture.  Tiger does not love golf, he loved dominating people.  He loved power, he loved control.  At about the same time as he started with the girls, he stopped playing golf and began just trying to "control" the golf ball.  You would see him hit a shot with a great result but become visibly angry because the ball did not "do what he wanted" it to do.  When he stopped being able to phyiscally dominate his golfing competition, he began to try to dominate other things, the flight of a golf ball, the shape of his body, the behavior of women who would literallly do "whatever he wanted" due to his stature.  He literally began to attempt to denigrate members of the media for no discernible purpose.

It was never about golf with Tiger.  It was about control.  He never wanted to just "win" he wanted to "own."  He can't do that anymore, and for legitimate mental health reasons, may be actively trying to eliminate that element of his personality, and that would not be condusive at all to competition. 

As much as I have wanted to see Tiger come back as a new and improved version of himself and his game, I have come to believe he is really close to being finished.  Like, retirement finished.  I don't really think he cares anymore, at all.

SpinachAssassin

January 30th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^

Knee problems, back problems, neck problems, elbow problems, Achilles problems - they all come from putting a ridiculous amount of twisting force/torque on his body that, as you said, has wrecked him over time.  To another poster saying he tries to dominate people with driver, likely true.  Staying stubborn with a method that his body cannot physically support on a consistent basis is not a recipe for success.

Surgeries are less invasive now than they were in the past, yet there is accumulated damage over time when one repeatedly has their body cut open to make adjustments.  I'm pretty sure his best days are far behind him.

Steve in PA

January 30th, 2015 at 1:25 PM ^

Other golfers clamored for it which didn't seem to make sense until seeing before/after pics of Tiger.  After that he hasn't really done much.  Also seems to exhibit the symptoms of carrying an artificially high amount of muscle one his frame IMHO.  Lots of joint issues.

maize-blue

January 30th, 2015 at 1:30 PM ^

I'm not a Tiger hater, but I sometimes wonder if he was juicing during his dominating years? (EDIT: Others have already mentioned this as well)

BluByYou

January 30th, 2015 at 1:32 PM ^

with his swing, thus changing coaches every few years, kind of the Devin Garder of golf, it you will.  Also, he's not making the putts he used to make.

ijohnb

January 30th, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^

kind of game.  I don't really know how much "roids" would help.  The golf swing is about angles and tork, it is mechanical, it is about everything being in the right place at exactly the right time, no sooner, no later.  Distance is not the result of size of muscle.  I don't buy the PED thing.  He hit the ball 350 yards when he was 20 and weighed 135 pounds.  Does not add up.

JamieH

January 30th, 2015 at 6:14 PM ^

He broke down around the same time that Ken Griffey Jr. broke down.  Early 30's can be hell hell on a pro athlete.  We aren't used to golfers breaking down because they didn't used to attack golf with the same kind of force that someone like Tiger did.   That doesn't mean he was juicing in his 20's, it just means that when you are young you are semi-invincible.  Griffey used to brag about never really training or doing anything and it worked for him, right up to the point where he completely broke down. 

 

I think it's very possible that his style of golf was just not sustainable as Tiger aged.  The injuries caught up with him.  He was able to compensate for a while, but not forever.

readyourguard

January 30th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^

I theorize that he had to stop taking steroids following that fateful Thanksgiving night.  His life was suddenly going to be put under the most intense microscope and if his steroid use was discovered along with his galavanting around, he'd lose every sponsor he had.  He had to get off the juice or Elin was gonna tell all.

Chameleon Eyes

January 30th, 2015 at 2:23 PM ^

How pathethic is this whole "He had to get off roids" argument? He found his form after the scandal to win 5 times and win player of the year in 2013. The guy further up says Tiger hasn't won a major since the PGA started drug testing, which was in 2007. In 2008, Tiger won arguably his most impressive major at the U.S. Open, along with a boatload of other wins before shutting down for the season due to injury.

This is a guy who found a way to get back to number 1 in the world, and stay there for a solid amount of time, after the scandal and after the PGA tour started testing. But, I guess it is do whatever and and conjure up any scenario necessary to discredit the guy.