"The gloves are well and truly off when it comes to Tiger Woods’ current travails."

That's the perspective Brian Keogh delivers and which I was unable to put into words on the earlier post about Rory's SI piece jabbing at Tiger, who is on the receiving end of criticism from the golf community like never before.

In this sense, McIlroy has been like the child from the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Emperor’s New Clothes . Where others fear to voice what is obvious, McIlroy does not mince his words or hide the fact the man who was once a role model has now been laid bare as a tarnished anti-hero with a balky golf swing.

Frank Deford likens Tiger and interest in watching him play to the Broadway disaster that is Spider-Man.

You know what he reminds me of? The Broadway musical Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark. It sells out to the curious, even though the critics hate it and it's always a tease, always a work in progress. And there's a dark side that draws us in. Maybe Spidey will find itself. But maybe it'll only be always not quite there.

We watch Tiger Woods with the same almost morbid fascination, afraid to look away because if we do, we'll miss it if he miraculously returns to greatness, as if age doesn't matter with majesty, and what changed his life was all just a bump in the road.