IBF On Tiger: "It's not the yips. It's not a spasm. It's a fear."

GolfChannel.com's Nick Menta summarizes Ian Baker Finch's SEN radio appearance talking about Tiger Woods.

As a former Open Champion who was for a time one of the world's best and who later struggled with his driver, Baker-Finch sums up the struggles accurately.

"I would hit 50 perfect drives on the range, and snap-hook it off the first tee," he said. "[Woods] does exactly the same thing. At the first tee at Augusta every year he’s so nervous he hits it 100 yards off line, and he’s just hit 50 perfect drives on the range. You can’t tell me that that’s a bad back, or a swing flaw. It’s totally mental. It’s a fear.

"And it's not the yips. It's not a spasm. It's a fear."

AP's Doug Ferguson sums up what is so disturbing about Woods' decline:

Most disturbing is how easily it has become to withdraw. In his brief interview among a circus atmosphere in the parking lot, no one asked if Woods risked further injury by completing the last six holes (and presumably two putts). Could he not have gutted out the first round and tried to activate his glutes Friday morning? Notah Begay said over the weekend on Golf Channel that a text from Woods indicated it was not a "major concern."

One major concern is motivation and, yes, desire.

That would be unlike the Woods of yesteryear — no one would ever dare question his desire — but it's reality.

And this from Golf World's Jaime Diaz on the events of last week leaving Tiger closer to "retirement than resurgence."

Thus did a 14-time major winner, still the most powerful man in golf, attempt to use his influence to deflect attention from what he doesn’t want others, and probably himself, to believe: that his game is on a cliff’s edge, teetering more toward retirement than resurgence.

Woods’ stubborn ability to stay unceasingly on message and concede nothing has long made him a difficult subject to present with any depth, and never more so than now. When he deems the topic positive, he gives little information. When he deems it negative, he gives none. It’s understandable for a relentlessly scrutinized athlete who wants to minimize the noise, but in the process, he basically dares journalists to call him a liar. Very few have gone there.

Garry Smits caught up with Mark O'Meara, making his first Hall of Fame visit, and naturally the Tiger topic arose.

“If I would tell him anything, I would say, ‘here’s your ball, hit it over there,’” O’Meara said on Monday during a visit to the World Golf Hall of Fame, which he will enter with David Graham and Laura Davies at St. Andrews, Scotland on July 13. “Get over there and try to hit some shots in the middle of the clubface, get back to some really simple, easy fundamentals. Don’t try to over-analyze everything.”