What Happened Tiger?

Tiger went from tied for fourth at The Masters to missing the cut at Quail Hollow to withdrawing from The Players during the seventh hole of the final round due to a neck injury.

Let’s be realistic here. A few more mediocre shots at Augusta could have given him a fifth green jacket. Instead, he played terrible off the tee throughout the tournament, which made it difficult to do anything. However, his 11 under par was still only five shots behind Phil Mickelson’s 16 under for the championship. One would think that after a remarkable return at golf’s biggest stage that Tiger would be able to revamp his game and come back strong at the Quail Hollow Championship.

Wrong!

After witnessing Tiger’s worst 36 hole performance (153) as a professional, it was quite obvious that his play from the tee has completely vanished since his absence from golf over the past five months. His 7 over par (79) second round score was the second worst round of his career. This begs the question, “What happened Tiger?”

The third test for Tiger to show that he is still the world’s number one golfer was The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Even though he made his 12th consecutive cut at The Players, he once again wasn’t playing well from the tee, as evidenced by popping up a couple shots sky high with his 3-wood. His putting was not as sharp as it has been throughout his career. Tiger was 2 under with scores of 70-71-71 over the first three rounds. This put him in a tie for 45th place going into the final round. After Tiger’s first two shots on the 7th hole, he walked over to Jason Bohn to say that he would not be finishing. He was then taken away in a cart and would eventually receive treatment in the physical therapy trailer for 37 minutes. Once Tiger finished receiving treatment, he was gone, getting into a black SUV and driving off.

Hank Haney announced late Monday that he would no longer be coaching the world’s number one ranked golfer because he felt it was time for him to move on. He had been Tiger’s swing coach since 2004. An MRI on Wednesday revealed inflammation in a facet joint in Tiger’s neck. Treatment for this injury includes massages, anti-inflammatory medication, and rest. The rehab for this injury varies, but Tiger hopes to be back in time to defend his title at the Memorial in early June. The U.S. Open at Pebble Beach is coming on June 17-20, a place where Tiger won the championship in by 15 strokes back in 2000.

With everything going on in Tiger’s life, will he be able to overcome it and be as dominant as he once was?

Only time will tell.