I’m now convinced that the game of Golf is a Very Difficult game. For over 10-years, Tiger Woods had made us believe it was as simple as getting up in the morning and tying a pair of sneakers. But, for those of you that play this great game, we know different. Now, it appears that Tiger is facing that fact too.
Although Tiger has won five times in 2013, he has been Major-less since 2008. He has invited the doubters, nay-sayers and media deniers along with the greatest of Monday morning quarterbacks into the fray of questioning the State of his Game. Yes, he’s won five times but Tiger himself has said he measures success by the number of Majors he wins.
Tiger Woods is chasing Jack Nicklaus’ career majors mark of 18 which some had believed would never be challenged but then, a young kid who had won 3-consecutive Amateur Championships prior to turning Golf Professional, sprung onto the scene. Winning his first major championship at the famed Masters Championship in 1997, a New sheriff was in town and ready to take the reins from the beloved Nicklaus. Fast forward to 2008, Tiger is sitting on 14-majors. And this sit is five years long. Just to put things in perspective, Nicklaus too had run into a 5-year slump of winning a major from 1980 – 1986.
There are similarities in these two great golf champions as well from a perspective standpoint. Coming into this week’s final Major Championship of the year, the PGA Championship, Tiger and Nicklaus had the exact number of majors won (14) to major appearances, 63. Jack won his 15th at this timeframe. Tiger didn’t. What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. Tiger is still on a good pace to surpass the great Jack Nicklaus but the window of opportunity is slowly closing.
Even though it’s been five years since Tiger has hoisted a Major championship trophy, he has a number of things on his side. One, he is only 37-years old. Nicklaus had won his 15th at the age of 38 so a bit of encouragement from a parallel standpoint. Also, Tiger is in tremendous shape. He is known for his workout regimen and has a body fat around 1%. He has been through a number of injuries that has slowed him down over the years including knee surgery that placed him on the golf shelf for a season. His personal indiscretion in his marriage also delayed his opportunities not to mention his much talked about swing changes, swing coaches (3), and firing of his long time caddy, Steve Williams. Through it all, he still wins golf tournaments.
Tiger’s main adversary appears to be Tiger. Touching on the swing changes from the previous paragraph, Tiger has gone through four of them. Since his college days at Stanford University which was his original golf swing, his first coach as a professional was Butch Harmon. Butch set him on his pathway to a string of Major wins with a swing that current Masters champ Adam Scott is still using today. That was swing #2. His third swing came from Hank Haney where many questioned why Tiger would leave Butch when he was on such a Major role. Although Tiger won a few more majors with Hank, the golfing world felt that Haney ‘ruined’ Tiger’s swing and game. This was the first time Tiger had gone into any type of win slump. Finally, Tiger has moved on from Haney to now, his new coach, Sean Foley. And with Foley, another swing change, #4.
Golf is a game of repetition, feel, vision, creativity, guts, perseverance, nerves, mental toughness and again, repetition. That is what I believe is hurting Tiger. I recall a commercial with a great golfer in his own right, Vijay Singh. In that commercial where Vijay was on the tee addressing his ball, it was a slow motion shot of him taking his swing. While going through the backswing, he had All of these swing thoughts going through his head. It was like a Pop Up Video with about 20 different things popping into his mind at once. That’s what I think is going on with Tiger. Just watching him go through his routine at approach when he rehearses his swing, he approaches the ball and sometimes does the complete opposite or Double Crosses himself which causes a horrendous shot per Tiger Woods Standards.
Having all of these swing coaches and swing changes places a lot of conflict in the mind and body. Imagine doing something as simple as tying your shoes the same way for years only to have someone else show you a different way to tie them. Then 5-years later, someone comes along and teaches you another way and finally, the latest person comes along and says, “No, he’s a New Way”. Eventually, your mind gets in the way of something that had been so simple in the past. You begin to revert back to the past as opposed to living in the present.
Golf is an amazing game. Watching the pros on TV, I have a brand new appreciation for them and the game they’ve made fun for me, a hacker at best. It’s not easy. Not even for Tiger Woods. Yes, he makes it look easy at times, but it’s not. For four consecutive days, these guys beat this little white ball around the course in hopes of winning the big trophy and a whole lot of cash to boot. A lot can happen in four days which is what makes this game equally challenging. This is another reason I think Tiger will break Jack’s record; Mental Toughness.
I’m a believer in this guy. He’s won 14-majors and about to break the ALL-Time wins title held by Sam Snead for years. Snead has 82-career wins and Tiger is sitting on 79. He is the money leader to date this season, the FedEx leader that awards the winner of the FedEx playoff championship a $10 million annuity at the end of the season and he’s the #1 golfer in the World. Not too shabby to me. After winning five times this year, he’ll get that record next year if he remains healthy. Although that achievement is Huge in its own right, Tiger still has his sights on becoming the ALL-Time Majors leader. And so do we Tiger, so do we.
