US Open Golf 2012: Tiger Woods' Implosion Should Have Been Expected

Tiger Woods has gone from the most dominant name in golf to the most overly hyped. After his victory at the Memorial Tournament the talk of Tiger returning to form reared its ugly head once again, only to be snuffed out once the third and fourth round of the U.S. Open got underway. Given his recent history, this should have been expected from Woods.

Instead, the previous tournament victory had Woods and general golf fans hoping the Open would showcase the return of the once dominant legend the sport came to know in the late 1990s through the 2000s. As has been his usual case in the past few years, the Stanford product simply faded out of the leaderboard the longer this tournament went on.

After posting a plus-five at the end of the third round, the California-born golfer posted a bogey-bogey-double bogey through three holes in the fourth.That performance took Tiger from the top-15 all the way down to the mid-30 ranks at one time.

He wasn't done after that bogey-filled first three holes however, with another two added on holes five and six during the final round of the Open.

The problem it seems with Woods isn't necessarily his skills on the green. If you've tuned into any of the tournaments the three-time U.S. Open champion has played in the past few years of his decline, there are moments of his past brilliance still visible.

His issue is not related to caddies, putters or nine-irons. Rather, Woods' problem lies with his mind. Since his issues in his personal life became quite public a few years back, the one-time dominant golfer has become a shadow of his former self.

Woods used to be destined to shatter Jack Nicklaus' record for most Major victories, but the former has yet to win one since the Open back in 2008. Four years have come and gone since the greatest golfer of the past 20 years has been victorious at a Major tournament.

The funny thing is, despite such a lapse in victories, many are still believers that Tiger will one day catch Nicklaus. Even at 36 years old, people continue to think that last mark in history is still within Woods' grasp.

I've said it countless times now, the best way to examine Woods is by taking his name out of the equation. Take away the respect, aura and whatnot that comes from the name "Tiger Woods" and look over his body of work since 2008.

Just nine tournament wins from 2009-2012 for the once king of this proud sport. Out of 42 tournaments in which Woods made the cut, he carried home the No. 1 spot just nine times. Those numbers alone should have lead to skepticism about his chances to win the U.S. Open.

At one point in time, Woods was the very best in the world at what he did, but nowadays he should not be expected to win any of the PGA Tour's biggest tournaments until he gives reason to think otherwise.