Tiger Woods' Golfing Future in Doubt? Not a Chance

This past golf season has finally produced something not seen since Tiger Woods stepped foot on the course as a pro: A year without him winning. These past two years, arguably the toughest of his career, have left many wondering if he will ever return to form.

Answer to those wondering: He will. Woods saw a somewhat similar period in his career when he lost the world number one ranking to Vijay Singh in 2004. Woods responded quickly to this loss, regaining the title early in 2005. What people need to realize is that a swing change for a professional golfer is much more difficult than the average golfer.

With new teacher Sean Foley, Tiger will move more towards the rotation-based swing that he perfected with Butch Harmon. It will not be a duplicate, but you will see his club above his shoulder line and a lot less club face twisting by him.

Although Haney's swing is different than Foley's model, it is a matter of about five to seven degrees on Tiger's swing path. Most golfers who take their first lesson need to change their swing by 15. Add in the fact that for the six years he worked with Haney, he hit a golf ball 500+ times a day in practice, and it's obvious why it's a tough change.

So the miscues that we have seen, including a few blatant shanks by Tiger, are to be expected. His change is so much more difficult than an average golfer, as golf is a sport of habit, and six years of habit is hard to break. However, his history with Butch Harmon's methodology will make this transition somewhat easier.

This swing change has also impacted Tiger's putting. He himself has admitted that he has lost time on putting due to the swing change. If there was one thing Tiger Woods always, always could do it was make a putt inside of six feet. And in the first round of the JBWere Masters, he missed four putts from inside six feet.

If he had made those, as was habit, he would have posted number two on the day in Australia, and this tournament would be a different story than it is. On the last day of the JBWere Masters, Woods putted 27 times, shooting 6-under on the day, and moving all the way up to fourth place. The Tiger Woods from the 13th hole to the 18th is the Tiger Woods that should be. That's scary for other golfers, seeing as he played those holes at six under.

Tiger's comeback will also come in the mental stage. He has proven to be one of the best closers in PGA history, beaten by only Y.E. Yang when carrying a lead into round four of a major. Tiger is mentally the strongest golfer on tour, however there is still recovery to be made.

And I'm not talking about any personal issues, but once again with his swing. He has to have the confidence that his swing is at a point where he can hit any shot. And at this point of his career, he isn't. There is no way that a golfer can make a swing change in such short time, and gain confidence in it at the same rate. Even the best golfer in the world cannot do that.

If there's one question that I can answer right now it is this: Will Tiger Woods win a tournament in 2011 and regain the number one ranking? Yes, undoubtedly he will. He has a proven track record of success, and the work ethic to back it up.