Tiger Woods: Has He Lost His Mental Edge on the Rest of the Field?

After winning 14 major championships in 14 seasons, Tiger Woods did not win a major championship in 2010. After winning 71 PGA Tour events through 2009, Tiger Woods did not win a PGA Tour event or any event in 2010.  The suit of armor that he brought to the course since turning professional, once spotless and shiny and indestructible, now has several dents and dings, all self inflicted. 

The 2010 season remained as much a series of questions as answers. 

Why would he choose to start the season at one of the most difficult tests in golf, Augusta National?  Other than the lockdown on media scrutiny at the tournament, why begin there?  Yet, coming off five months without competition, he finished fourth.  With that result, most expected Woods to bounce back with a victory in the next month or two following The Masters.  Most thought he still had a chance at the US Open and British Open since he had won at Pebble Beach and St. Andrews on previous occasions.

But strange things happened.  His next two outings, Wells Fargo and The Players, he had a missed cut and a WD. No one anticipated those.  You could probably count his missed cuts on one hand.

US Open, he was again fourth, giving his fans hope. But that was to be his best finish for 2010.  He did not sniff the top ten until the HSBC – a Tour sanctioned event in Asia held after the end of the PGA Tour fall events.   

Finally, in December, it looked as thought he might rally to win his own tournament, the Chevron World Challenge, only to be out-putted by US Open Champ Graeme McDowell.     

After taking six months off,  posting two fourth place finishes as his best, with no victories,  no majors in 2010, Tiger Woods finally became something he had never been as a professional: beatable. 

And he was upstaged by people who were little known as champions, at least in the US. Even Graeme McDowell said after winning the US Open, “To win at Pebble Beach, to join the names, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Tiger Woods, me (laughter) wow. I'm not quite sure if I belong in that list, but, hey, I'm there now.”

Woods and others succumbed to unheralded Louis Oosthuizen at the British Open. He  was nowhere to be seen on leaderboards at the PGA Championship.

It would be difficult to say that Woods’ mojo was gone, but it was certainly absent for most of 2010. 

As 250 or so professional golfers on both sides of two oceans prepare for their tournaments in 2011, one thing is certain. Seeing the name Tiger Woods in the pairing guide doesn’t mean what it did in 2009.  It no longer gives golfers the yips or makes them twitch half way in the middle of their backswing.

Woods may still become the best golfer in history, but the doubt he had etched into the minds of some of his competitors is half of what it was 18 months ago. Sure, Woods will win again. 

He will win by large margins. 

He will hit amazing shots to do it all. 

But he will never be feared quite the same way he once was.