Reality of Tiger Woods' Decline Setting in for Golf Star's Fans at British Open

ST ANDREWS, Scotland — "You guys think I'm done and buried, but I'm still here."

That was Tiger Woods speaking prior to the start of The Open Championship, simultaneously a rallying cry and rebuke to those who now doubt his ability to ever win another major. A few days later, however, and when written down on paper, it reads merely as a statement of fact: Yes, we do think he's done and buried, but he is very much still here.

Except Woods will not be at St Andrews any longer, after a missed cut that many anticipated from about midday Thursday was confirmed with the (belated) conclusion of the second round early Saturday evening.

Woods ended up shooting a three-over 75—having already been forced to wait almost 10 hours on Saturday to complete the final six holes of his second round—to follow Thursday's round of 76, enough to leave him at seven over par for the tournament and on an early flight home.

"The course wasn't playing that hard," Woods told reporters afterward. "I just didn't get much out of it any of the two rounds. It's frustrating."

Perhaps the time has finally come (if it had not come already) to stop trusting anything the 39-year-old has to say about the state of his game and judge him solely by the scores he puts down. That certainly felt like the resolution from much of the crowd around the Old Course, whose cheering for the 14-time major champion grew less and less vocal as his tournament lurched to its early conclusion.

As he walked the course late in his round today, a couple of girls shouted, "We still love you Tiger!" before a lone guy said, pretty unconvincingly, "You'll get it back!" 

At one point in his pre-tournament press conference, Woods also mentioned in passing that he "had a chance to win at the Masters"—an observation almost amusing in its self-delusion. Woods was briefly on the leaderboard over the weekend at Augusta National, but he was never even remotely close to leapfrogging Jordan Spieth, the man who (with Rory McIlroy absent) is the new headline act in these parts.

Nevertheless, his bullish assertions about the state of his game always rope us in, always make observers—especially those first drawn to the game of golf by the heroics of the early part of his career—believe he must know more than us and expect brilliance accordingly.

On Thursday morning, as starter Ivor Robson announced his name on the tee, the roar from the stands that greeted Woods was familiar. Before a shot is played, he still remains the favourite for much of the golfing public.

Peter Morrison/Associated Press

It took two shots for that support to morph into something else. A mishit tee-shot was worrying yet nothing to fret over, but the American's second shot—straight into the Swilcan Burn at the front of the green—stopped the crowd in their tracks.

As Woods pressed the shaft of his wedge against the brim of his baseball cap in frustration, the shocked silence surrounding him told its own story. People could not believe what they had seen: the former world No. 1 making a mistake beneath many of the mid-handicappers who pay to play at the Home of Golf every other week of the year.

"On the very first hole on the first day, I fat a sand wedge into the water," Woods said. "I fatted my 3-iron off that tee [too]…and then fatted my 8-iron into the green on two. It was just one thing after another."

"How the mighty have fallen," one radio commentator following Woods on Thursday said, after the 39-year-old dropped to three over after five holes. But even he couldn't help adding a disclaimer: "For now."

It seemed to sum up the general response to the world No. 241's current troubles: disbelief at how badly he is currently struggling, yet a refusal to fully let go of the hope he will somehow rediscover his form again one day.

"The good thing about it is I saw him struggle a little bit before and he came back and got to [world] No. 1, so I know that he can get back out of this," Jason Day, Woods' playing partner over the first two rounds, said. "It's just depending on how much he wants it." 

Day perhaps has a better idea of what is eating Tiger than most, having seen his game up close after the last few days. For the Australian, the issue is mental rather than technical.

"I mean, he was more…he had that kind of killer instinct," Day said, when asked about Woods in his prime. "I think [this week] he was just struggling a little bit, needed to put his mind somewhere else, and that's kind of how he dealt with it.

"But before, I think the way he used to kind of get back at things, he used to get pissed off at himself and kind of got him back to where he needed to be mentally on the golf course."

Jon Super/Associated Press

There seems to be a certain consensus that much of Woods' problem is in the mind. Day's caddie and instructor, Colin Swatton, told Golf Digest that Woods "never missed a shot" on the range this week. Indeed, during Wednesday's Champions Challenge, Woods' swing looked beautifully fluid and precise, as he even birdied the brutally difficult 17th hole—to his own evident delight.

A day later, not one of the 156 players in the field managed to repeat that feat.

Woods included, of course, as he looked a shadow of the player we had seen just 24 hours before. Under the pressure of competition, his swing was suddenly jerky and uncertain, catching ground before ball with surprising regularity.

Woods acknowledged that he wasn't the same player out on the course as he has been on the range but refused to read anything further into that.

"Well, it is what it is," Woods said on Thursday. "My best warm-up I've ever had in my career was in Germany…and I started off bogey-double bogey. That's the way it goes."

Any further inference was shut down: "Motivation is never a problem."

His body language told a subtly different story, however, and the crowd seemed to pick up on that energy very quickly. The man himself, reaching for a suitable word, said he was "angered" by his shot into the burn, but "resigned" felt like a more appropriate description. There was none of the old Tiger swagger as he moved to the next tee, his head bowed slightly as he avoided all but the most cursory of glances at the crowd around him. There was a conspicuous lack of belief about his person that lingered for the next 35 holes, and the spectators fed off that.

"I think I only made three birdies in two days," Woods offered. "That's not very good."

The cries of "C'mon Tiger" became less defiant over time, the tone increasingly pleading instead. Some were even less sympathetic, with derision occasionally the pervading emotion. "Oh good, he finally made a putt," one fan said sarcastically when Woods holed a 10-footer for par at the eighth on the opening day. When that moment did not spark a revival, snide asides about his extracurricular activities (out of his earshot) quickly became more commonplace.

By the end of his troubled journey, however, sympathy had taken over. With a missed cut already assured, Woods was nonetheless roared up the 18th. Cries of "We love you Tiger!" emanated from an audience perhaps buoyed to finally see some golf after 10 hours of waiting.

"The people were fantastic," Woods insisted. "To stay out here all day, and to have that kind of a warm reception coming up 18, is awfully special."

That may be so, but it was also the sort of deferential reception previously awarded to departing legends Sir Nick Faldo (10 over) and Tom Watson (12 over) the day before. Woods ultimately finished closer to those two former champions than the cut line, a startling fact in itself.

Jon Super/Associated Press

Woods still draws the crowds—"the Tiger flow," as one Scottish marshal branded the swell of spectators who marched alongside him—but it is far from the circus of five or 10 years ago. He still undoubtedly had the biggest galleries over the opening two days, but that was in part a matter of scheduling, as he was positioned two groups behind the irrepressible Spieth.

In years gone by, Open spectators stationed themselves holes in advance simply to get a glimpse of Woods as he played through. Yet this year, most were doing that for Spieth, deciding after the 21-year-old had passed by that it made sense to wait the additional 20 minutes to watch Woods as well.

Spieth was the main course, the best example of how well golf can be played, with Woods a slightly tart aperitif.

The media is even less wishy-washy about such things: When Woods entered the mixed zone after his first round, hardly any of the journalists who had gathered to hear Spieth speak peeled away to the veteran's podium. It was a symbolic moment, and it escaped no one's attention.

On Saturday, he returned to the same podium, this time with no one else to steal his spotlight. He could offer little insight into his struggles, only further confusion and frustration.

"I'm just not scoring," he offered, another statement of fact. "I haven't gotten anything out of my rounds. I'll hit some good shots and good holes and put myself in position to make a run, and I don't do it."

And then he was off, back to Florida to put in practice before he tees it up next at the Quicken Loans National.

Jon Super/Associated Press

"I think we're all shocked as players how good Tiger Woods is and has been to see him struggling the way he is right now," 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell said. "I'm standing here talking about lacking confidence and belief in what I'm doing [and] you see a guy like that whose career highlight reel would take days to watch. It's a tough old game."

Woods has long been far and away the biggest draw in golf, but perhaps we are now reaching a tipping point (for what it is worth, he is not even featured in EA Sports' latest golf game, released this week, despite lending his name to it for the last 15 years). Crowds love contenders above all else, and right now, it is Spieth and McIlroy who best fit that description.

Woods thinks he remains in that bracket, but the evidence indicates otherwise.

"I felt like I was playing well enough to win this event," Woods said. "I had my opportunities, I just didn't get the ball close enough. And then when I did, I didn't make them."

He may believe that, but few who watched him this week share such a sentiment. For them, sadness and sympathy were the pervading emotions.

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise stated.