Tiger Woods at the Players Championship: How He Must Improve to Win a Major

Tiger Woods has to start striking the ball with more consistency if he is going to contend in a major. He has certainly shown flashes of doing just that this year, but after having a breakthrough win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational less than two months ago, his game is going in the wrong direction.

He is duffing his way around the Players Championship. Woods narrowly missed the cut, and is currently at one-over for the tournament after 12 holes in his final round. 

That leaves him a whopping 13 shots off the lead. Obviously, if he is going to contend in any tournament, let alone a major, he needs to make improvements. The following improvements would be a great start. 

Driving Accuracy 

Lost amid all the criticisms of Tiger's new swing under coach Sean Foley is the fact that he was actually driving the ball wonderfully. 

Before his recent failures in his last two tournaments, Tiger's driving accuracy and distance were very close to career-best numbers. 

Then Tiger hit the Masters and now the Players Championship, and his driving accuracy is suffering. He is wild and erratic off the tee. 

This is not going to take big changes. He simply needs to get back to being comfortable with his new swing. 

The fact that he lost his accuracy should not be overly alarming. Think of it as the old two steps forward and one step back in the process of rebuilding his stroke. 

Silence His Brain

More than Tiger's swing, people have been jumping into his mental state as the source of struggles. This angle has been completely overblown. 

His mental state on the course is a product of his play, and not the other way around. If you've ever played golf and strung together a few good months, rounds, or even shots, you know that when things are going well, it all comes naturally—without much thought. 

When things are going poorly, it's easy to get caught up in mechanics. That is when a golfer is in his backswing and thinking about keeping his elbow in, pace, hip rotation, keeping their hands back etc..

Tiger Woods is no different. He can get caught up in these thoughts too. Instead, he needs to be focused on impact, and not what it takes to get there. 

Woods has an amazing feel. He can see shot and make it happen—when he is not concerned about how he is going to do it. 

He needs to get to this point. Then he will be able to attack a course, and make some noise.

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