"For him to come back after all of this, it's going to be a hell of a mountain to climb."

I've been out the last two days, so catching up on reading and was shocked by the frankness of statements from Curtis and Azinger in Doug Ferguson's column on the prospects of Tiger ever returning to peak form.

"I thought it was a slam dunk before Thanksgiving a year-and-a-half ago," two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange said. "I started having serious doubts after his withdrawal last week. He's losing valuable time right now with injuries, swing coaches, reinventing himself. You don't have that much time in a career to break those kind of records.

"For him to come back after all of this, it's going to be a hell of a mountain to climb."

And Zinger, who Tweeted similar thoughts last week:

"The big unknown is the severity of the problem," Azinger said. "The mental aspect still must be addressed - having the ability to find someone he can talk and talk with. He's angry at himself, angry at the world, angry at people tearing him down. But physically, for the first time, I'm starting to wonder."