Tiger Woods Players Championship: Star Will Fall Short at Sawgrass

Tiger Woods has been playing bad golf of late, and I'll be shocked if he ends up winning the 2012 Players Championship at Sawgrass.

I'll bet you never expected to be shocked about a Woods win, right? But facts are facts, and Woods' play over the course of the last two years has been downright mediocre.

It looked like he might be making a strong push back to the top recently. He tied for second place at the Honda Classic, finished tied for fourth at the Tavistock Cup and won the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

After that promising display, Woods failed to play well at Augusta National for the Masters—finishing tied for 40th, his worst finish ever. Then he hit a brick wall, missing the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Making matters worse for Woods' chances this weekend at Sawgrass is the fact that he doesn't traditionally play well at this tournament. 

Woods did win the Players way back in 2001, at the peak of his prowess. After that victory, his best finish came in 2009 when he finished in eighth place, and Woods has failed to crack the top 10 every other year since.

Perhaps the most alarming aspect of Woods' game is his putting stroke. He needed 33 putting strokes to finish out his second round at Quail Hollow before missing the cut—an atrocious number.

Woods has lost his marbles, so to speak. 

Per CNN.com, Nick Faldo offered this: "He just doesn't have the self-belief, the self-confidence that he obviously had, the Tiger of old -- simple as that."

I couldn't agree more, and until Woods starts hitting fairways and greens on a regular basis, he'll continue to struggle.

It's hard to tell at this point if Woods will ever get back to the elite level of play he showed us in his early years. At this point, it doesn't seem likely that he will.

Don't tell him that, though. Woods is convinced that he just needs more time to work out the kinks.

When asked whether or not he was over-thinking things on the golf course, Woods responded, via CNN.com:

"

Certainly it is (like that) when you're making changes. I've done this before. I've been through this. I went through those periods where I wasn't quite where I wanted to be. I had some pretty good runs after that, and this is no different.

It takes a little bit of time, and I keep building, and things eventually come around to where they feel natural and efficient. I think that's probably the most important word, is that you get out there and you feel efficient in what you're doing.

"

Woods may indeed come back and reclaim his spot atop the leaderboards of the PGA Tour at some point. 

Just don't expect him to do it this weekend at the Players Championship.

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