Tiger Woods: Will He Ever Again Have the Mental Edge on the Rest of the Field?

Tiger Woods' disappointing performance at the PGA Championship reheated the question: can Tiger get his mental edge back from the rest of the field?

The mental edge Tiger had came in three major parts: confidence, clutch, intimidation.

Tiger's intimidation factor has been erased. Playing with him is no longer as difficult as previous. He's human, just like the rest of the field. To them, this Tiger Woods has zero majors. He's like most of the 150 players that each week try to make the cut.

He could miss or make. Unless it's a WGC of course.

The clutch of Tiger isn't really being put on display. Clutch is more shown when you're at the top of the leaderboard. In a way, the Masters is the last time we saw that. And it was a slight disappointment that Tiger couldn't keep his momentum.

However the Masters was nothing new. Tiger has never come from behind in the final round to win a major. It's not like that changed. It just didn't improve.

Since then, we haven't had a chance to see anything. Tiger hasn't been in a hold-on situation. He hasn't been near the top of any leaderboard. Is Tiger's clutch there? Probably not, but we really don't know.

Tiger's confidence is nonexistent. He proved it in the PGA Championship. Tiger thought he could let things fly and once he did he could not reign it in.

Tiger can't play feel golf. He has to think about the swing. Does that speak to the drastic nature of the changes? Or to the fact he just doesn't like them? Another question to think about:

Will Tiger have the gall to fire Sean Foley in such a short span?

Tiger's confidence won't come back with a top five finish. He has had those in the past two years. Tiger's confidence will come back when he wins. When he wins, we will know Tiger can be clutch.

And if Tiger Woods becomes the confident, clutch player he is capable of being, he will once again have that intimidation factor.

How can it come back? Simple. Every golfer knows Tiger's struggling. If he can come back to his full self, it will be an anomaly, and ultimately intimidating to know Tiger had the fortitude to come back full bore.

If he's not quite the exact same Tiger, which is much more likely, the intimidation will loom, but he won't be the stone-faced, cold-blooded winner that won a United States Open on a broken leg.

Woods' mental edge is a fragile thing. Right now, it remains in shambles. But if any given tournament field gives Woods the space he needs to win, it should begin the process of repair. 

But it all hinges on getting a "W" in a big way.