Tiger Woods: Poor Masters Performance Proves Comeback Talk Was Premature

Tiger Woods never officially made a comeback.

After winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five strokes, Woods entered his 18^th career Masters feeling rather confident he could secure his fifth career Green Jacket and 15^th career major victory. Vegas set Woods’ odds of winning at 4-to-1.

The stage was set and Woods shanked it.

He finished five strokes over par for his worst finish ever at Augusta National, finishing tied for 40^th place. It was only the second time in his career he failed to register a single round under par. It was that bad.

In the first round, he couldn’t drive the ball with any consistency and was staying afloat thanks to some strong putting. That wouldn’t last.

His putter failed him during the weekend as he missed multiple putts that have to be made to win the Masters. In a moment that summed up his entire week, he kicked his club in front of the cameras as he could no longer hold in his frustration on the course.

That happened on Friday.

After finishing up his awful performance, he sounded like a man that was mentally exhausted after four-straight rough days (via CBS Sports):

"

Well, you're not going to play well every week. Unfortunately it was this week for me. I had the wrong ball-striking week at the wrong time. I get out there and I just don't trust it at all. I fall back into the same old patterns again, and I just need to do more reps.

"

So, what should we take away from this weekend?

For one, it’s clear that Tiger still doesn’t feel comfortable with his new swing. The process of re-tooling his stroke is taking much longer than expected and it’s the main reason Woods has one win in 30 months.

The other aspect of the weekend was the weak mental state of Tiger. It’s clear he doesn’t possess the killer instinct of years past and he allows himself to get rattled far too often.

This is a new Tiger, one that’s vulnerable and wildly inconsistent. Woods will never truly make a “come back,” as it becomes obvious this is a different era with very different results.

When will that change?

Maybe never. 

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