Will Tiger Woods' Mastery of Torrey Pines Be the Start of a Career Resurgence?

This is the central question that has plagued Tiger Woods in a post-fire hydrant world: Can he be the player of the mid-2000s who was destined to equal and surpass Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors? And, more urgently, will this weekend at Torrey Pines serve as the springboard past his troubles and back to greatness?

The Woods cannon loaded while he was at Stanford and won those three amateur championships, one with that straw hat juxtaposed against every fist pump. Before Nike, there was the straw hat.

He wore that hat to victory 21 years ago. At that time he was on the rise, the freshest name, the newest face—a changing of the guard was coming. This was replacing Beefeaters with Navy SEALs.

That time, Act I in the movie Citizen Tiger, is a fading echo as Woods tries again to find his swing. The rise included 14 major championships, and the fall began with the fire hydrant heard round the world.

Woods returned from that, but he's not back yet. 

Finding the Bottom

Woods was once like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz: heartless. But he wore blood red on Sundays and became the greatest front-runner in the history of major championship golf.

His descent started when he lost the lead on Sunday to Y.E. Yang at the 2009 PGA Championship, a tournament where he appeared to have No. 15 by the jugular.

Kamran Jebreili/Associated Press

Yang hasn’t won since and hasn’t had a top 10 in over four years. David’s slingshot only had to hit once—sharply, abruptly, between the eyes.

"All the other 14 major championships I've won, I've putted well for the entire week," Woods said to The Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). "And today, that didn't happen."

Then came that fateful Thanksgiving weekend. With one swing of Elin Nordegren's iron, Woods fell off the cliff and into the depths of Act II, where the injuries snowballed and the wealth of young talent bore arms.

Since the 2009 collapse, Woods has won eight events sandwiched between four injury-plagued years. In 2010 and 2011, he played in 21 combined events without a win. He surged back in 2012 and 2013 and won eight events. Then there was 2014, when the injuries combined with the emergence of Rory McIlroy’s Tiger-esque year to create even more problems.

So Woods began 2015 by heading to TPC Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. Perhaps to reclaim the glory he earned when he raised the roof after acing No. 16, the Hole that Woods Built.

It could not have gone any worse for Woods. A 73 on Thursday and a career-low 82 on Friday sent him packing. And now Woods has fallen to 56 in the Official World Golf Rankings, outside of the top three for only the third time since 1997. In addition, he’s got the chip yips.

“It’s the pattern,” Woods said during a television broadcast. “Overall swing-wise, my swing was much steeper with Sean [Foley]. Now I’m more shallow. I’m not bottoming out in the same spot.”

Woods went on to say he’s struggling to find the bottom. Well, he’s there.

There's nowhere to go but up.

Welcome home

Now Woods returns to Torrey Pines, a place where he has won eight times, once on a knee that had an ACL screaming for reconstruction. Is this where he finally strikes back?

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

There’s bouncing back on a micro scale and bouncing back in the macro sense. If ever there were a course where Woods could, at the very least, make a cut, it would have to be Torrey Pines, right?

It may be the best venue, but it all comes down to that surgically reconstructed swing. Michael Jackson had nose jobs; Woods has swing jobs.

Wood was always willing to stall his plodding, sequential progress for a burst of brilliance. He has seemed content to take five steps back only to bound 15 steps forward. In so doing, he sacrificed time. Now, at 39, he’s running out of it.

His majors have come in two chunks. He had the rather isolated 1997 Masters, then it was a bundle of seven from 1999-2002. The next six came in a flurry from 2005-2008. During that time, he unleashed swing adjustments that baffled just about everyone, especially those in the golf community. 

"Nothing works," said Curtis Strange in an ESPN the Magazine story, via ESPN.com, "like your God-given golf swing."

David Gossett, a once-powerful player with the potential to win several tournaments, was bitten by the swing-change bug. “Chasing the almighty, elusive great swing is not real,” he said.

Through all Woods’ swing changes, his internal clock was always his biggest asset. It makes his path—whatever it may be—to the ball synchronous to his Swiss-watch clock. Whether with Butch Harmon, Hank Haney or even Sean Foley, his swing tempo was 3-to-1. For example, 24 frames of video back, eight frames of video down through impact. It was uncanny.

Of late, the tempo has been unpredictable, out of whack. Chris Como will help Woods find a sense of rhythm and work with him to bounce back and reclaim what once felt so rightfully his: a firm stance above the Golden Bear.

If Woods can’t show signs of improvement at Torrey Pines, it may be time to worry.

The Outlook

It’s hard to see the forest for the trees. There was a time during one of Woods’ swing overhauls when he sacrificed winning several majors then rattled off a bunch. Perhaps there will come a day when we look back at this time and think the same thing.

During his previous droughts, there was never a McIlory, a Jordan Spieth, heck, not even a Bubba Watson (who has found a way to out-fox Augusta, maybe the only other course besides Torrey Pines where Woods feels as comfortable as a pig in a blanket.). 

We can pander to Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh, golfers who won majors during Woods' reign, but they often wilted when paired with him.

Woods was never—and still isn't—intimidated. The problem is, the young guns—unlike those shocked by his arrival in 1997—aren't intimidated either. These millennials grew up on Woods' fist pumps and energy. This wasn't Chi Chi Rodriguez brandishing a wedge like a fencing foil. He changed the game, and now that game is coming for him.

So Woods keeps tinkering. The grip. The backswing. The follow through. The bottom. The tempo. My God, why?!

There comes a time when we as the public simply must embrace that Woods’ extreme perfectionism is part of the package. As Gordon Flett, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, said in the ESPN the Magazine story:

"

Extreme perfectionism is distinguished by never being satisfied. Even when they get to the peak, there's always something for perfectionists to keep working on, always some other way for them to come at it. They're always thinking about their mistakes or ways to get better. If they can't stop thinking about these things, that's when it becomes an obsession.

"

Woods needs more practice and more rounds of golf. This year, he will be criticized after every event. He likely won’t win a tournament. He’ll probably miss at least two cuts at the majors. His best shots at making the weekend will be at Augusta and at St. Andrews.

But it will all be part of the plan. He has the big picture in mind. His body, mended for the time, will soon support a new muscle memory capable of winning tournaments.

“Tiger's had a great career, and I don't think his career is over," Nicklaus said to Larry Fine of Reuters, per The New York Times. "He's had a little lull in his career and we’ll see what happens from here. I had lulls in my career, too. I came back from that and I think Tiger may do the same."

Going forward, Woods will always have Augusta, a place where he hasn’t won since 2005, but he has been in the top five six times since.

This latest swing change won’t yield much in the short term, but it’s never been about that with Woods. He may feel he can squeeze out one or two majors before 2019. 

That year is significant. It’s his end game, the year he could pass Nicklaus if he stays healthy and can patch together a couple of final wins. 

In 2019 there’s the Masters, of course, then the U.S. Open is at Pebble Beach, the site of his emphatic win in 2000 (which will be 19 years in the past!). The Open Championship is TBD, then it’s onto the PGA Championship at Bethpage, where he won it in 2002.

That is the year where all these changes must coalesce and the true apotheosis can be realized.

But first, he must bounce back at Torrey Pines, Act III of Citizen Tiger, for just a pinprick of white against what has been his dark night of the soul. Then, and only then, will we know if Woods has climbed out of the pit and into the light.

I hang out on Twitter @BrendanOMeara.