Tiger Woods: Has He Finally Hit Rock Bottom?

Has Tiger Woods finally hit rock bottom?

Sure, you could make the argument that he had hit rock bottom when he checked himself into a rehab facility in early 2010.  

Or you could make the argument that he hit rock bottom when he missed the cut at the Quail Hollow Championship after a second-round score of 79.

Or you could make the argument that he had hit rock bottom at the Bridgestone Invitational, when he finished second to last in the no-cut field with rounds of 74-72-75-77. 

This at a golf course he has owned as much if not more than any other in his career.

Each time we think Woods has reached the bottom of this decline, therefore indicating that the only direction to go is up, he seems to sink just a little bit further.

And yesterday was no different.

Woods was defeated by Thomas Bjorn in the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship, which marked only the second time Woods has been shown the door after just one round in the desert.

It was an ugly match all-around and it concluded in a fitting manner—in a thorny brush out in the middle of the Arizona desert, more than 20 yards right of the fairway.

Woods' short game was once again the culprit in his inability to close the door down the stretch.

Woods failed to get up and down for birdie on the par-five 13th, which cost him the lead. He then missed a very makeable putt on the 15th and yet another 10-footer for birdie slipped by the hole on the 17th, which would have squared the match heading to the 18th where the one big putt Woods sunk all day (an eight-footer for birdie) would have ended the match.

Yes, Woods finally did sink a big putt in an actual professional golf tournament.

The only thing is that he followed up that big putt by hitting a three-wood 20 yards into the Arizona dessert on the 19th hole of the match (the first hole at Dove Mountain), which essentially handed the match to Bjorn.

“I was trying to hit a ball in play,” Woods said of his drive on the 19th hole.

“The fairway is, what, 200 yards wide, and I can't put the ball in the fairway. That's very disappointing.”

"For all the talk of Tiger's poor driving the last six years I have never seen him drive it out of play with a match or tournament on the line," Woods’ former swing coach Hank Haney said on Twitter.

Although most would agree that the beginning of Woods' swing troubles can actually be traced back to the moment he began working with Haney, Haney’s actually right on this account.

During the first 13 years of his career, we were witnessing history every time Woods stepped onto the golf course. The man was unquestionably the most dominant golfer of all-time and well on his way to becoming the undisputed greatest golfer of all-time.

Then we saw history again when Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant outside his Orlando home on Thanksgiving of 2009, unleashing the largest media firestorm in the history of modern day sports.  

Now we may be witnessing history yet again, only this time we may be witnessing one of the most rapid declines ever seen from a dominant athlete in any sport.

Woods’ performance over the past year would be the equivalent of Albert Pujols going out and batting .180 with two home runs this season and then deciding to swing the bat cross-handed.

“Still in the process, still working on it,” was how Woods described his golf swing yesterday afternoon after his loss to Bjorn.

Yes, it’s a process. And truly believing he is working towards something better, is essentially the only way Woods can mentally get through this horrendous slump he is in the midst of.

But those of us who have seen golfers decline in the past, have seen golfers’ short games go and never come back, have seen golfers’ mental edge disappear and never return and most importantly, have seen golfer’s putting strokes leave and never come back, will know all too well that a happy ending for Woods is by no means a certainty.

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