Devin: Has Tiger let out his last roar?

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water, but this time Jill fell down and Jack didn’t come tumbling after. Jack stayed on the hill and won 18 Majors. The question is will Tiger ever join him on top of that hill? Admittedly I am no golf guru. I follow the sport lightly but I do try to play a few times a week, and from my experiences trying to play I can tell you that golf is 99% mental! If your head isn’t in it you might as well not even swing the club. We all know what happened with Tiger late in 2009; it seemed to be more documented than any presidential race. So Tiger takes a few months to assess the damage, and then gets on his merry way back to golf. Hold on; just a few months?? After his entire personal life fell apart!?! I’ve heard how mentally tough Tiger Woods is, but we’re talking about his wife and kids, and all his nasty personal secrets spread for the world to see! Imagine that happening to you. Now imagine with that in the back of your mind trying to do ANYTHING with any amount of focus. Sounds tough huh? Ok so in a cruel twist maybe he never cared about his family and it’s all been about the fame, money, and wins. Well guess what, even though he’s probably a little more famous now than he was before, the wins and money aren’t falling into his lap like they used to. Since the whole debacle there have been lawsuits claiming millions; and after Tiger decided to drop his pants sponsors like Gillette, Accenture, TAG Heuer, Gatorade, and AT&T decided to drop him. But here’s the big one; since late 2009 no wins in a PGA event. In the 2007-09 seasons Woods played in 39 events, with an incredible 32 top 10 finishes! In 2010 and 2011 he has played in 18 events, with only four top 10 finishes. After doing the math, that comes out to……bad! Tiger Woods is 4 majors behind Jack Nicklaus, obviously not a huge number. Nicklaus won his 18^th major at the age of 46, 11 years older than Tiger currently is. But that was a healthy 46, Tiger is a bruised and battered 35. He missed a good part of the 2008 season and has also missed a decent amount of playing time this year with a variety of injuries. The injuries have taken their toll on his play; this year he is ranked 99^th on the PGA tour in drive distance average, his average rank before now was 16^th. Tiger is struggling, and it’s obvious to the world. He has gone through winless stints in his career before, even coming back from a huge obstacle when his father Earl died. But even then it only took him 2 months to win another major, the 2006 Open Championship. I know he’s great, and if anyone could break Jack’s record it would be him; but Tiger you gotta get your shiz together! Don’t get me wrong, I love a good comeback story, and I honestly hope I’m wrong on this! (In fact with my luck, after writing this he’ll probably win the Bridgestone Invitational this weekend.) I want to see Tiger overcome his own demons and stand on top of the golf world again. But I just don’t see it happening. Tiger’s mental edge is gone. Maybe it tumbled down the hill along with Jill, which leaves Jack and his 18 Majors alone at the top.