Tiger Woods: Long Break Coming at Perfect Time for Slumping Superstar

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Tiger Woods is used to leaving major tournaments with checks in his pockets worth six or seven digits. He could go to a five-star restaurant to celebrate and tip the waitress a 100, tell her to keep the change, but he didn’t have enough money to buy a cheeseburger at McDonalds after the 2011 PGA Championship. After leaving the tournament empty handed, the long vacation ahead of Woods comes at the perfect time.

Tiger has about eight months to prepare for the 2012 Masters. He needs every second of that time to get back to the top because he’s very far from his peak. The former No. 1 player failed to make the cut recording a score of 150 over two days of action.

Woods has been winless for nearly two years now. He hasn’t won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open. Part of the reason behind his struggles has been injuries and the other reason, the scandal.

I don’t know if it still haunts him on the golf course, but Tiger obviously isn’t himself out there. He fired many people around him including long-time caddy Steve Williams to just get some much needed change. Whichever it is, psychologically or physically, Woods needs to fix something.

Again, he has a long time to do that. If Tiger isn’t mentally scarred for life after his world was flipped upside down, then he has a chance to regain his dominating form. Finding that clutch, determined Tiger is the only way he has a chance to do that though.

Physically, he can be 100 percent, no injuries, not even a scratch, but if he isn’t all there mentally, he has no shot. Eight months until his next shot to catch Jack Nicklaus will do him good. At 35 years old, if the old Tiger doesn’t remerge next year, he may never come back.

- David Daniels