Has Tiger Jeopardized His Career & Can He Get It Back?

The 2015 Memorial was circled on many calendars as a chance for Tiger Woods to demonstrate that his game was coming around. Why not? He loves the course, is seemingly more comfortable there than anywhere and has had time to ingrain whatever "patterns" he's aspiring to find. Woods instead showed up in Ohio revealing Wednesday that he'd added "a couple of new things" to his rebuilding effort.

Posting the first over-300 score and 85 in his professional career exposed his analytical approach more than ever. Even if he never wins another golf tournament, Woods will always be remembered at his peak for consistency, unwavering devotion to the round at hand and an amazing absence of mailed-in or disastrous starts. Yet one of the all-time best now seems forever doomed by the inconsistency that comes from too many swing thoughts.

Not injuries. Not scandal. Not even weight room excess now that he has slimmed down. But instead, as Brandel Chamblee pointed out on Golf Central last weekend (h/t Emily Kay), by an obsessive need to analyze and rebuild his swing.

"His complete and utter belief in the ideas of others, turning over that great game of his, that’s mysterious to me," he said. "His desire to build a great game and destroy it, and build a great game and destroy it ... destroyed the method that led to his dominance."

Turns out, the perceived positive of playing at Muirfield Village may have been a negative: he knows where all of the trouble is.

As Jack Nicklaus pointed out Sunday in his informal media gathering, the difference in Tiger's driver swing versus his irons suggests mechanics are not the issue. What is? Over-thinking and probably a dose of fear of trouble. Tiger's "release pattern" issues arise because he can miss both ways more than ever, and steers away from trouble that a zoned-in player barely notices. His affliction is hardly a new one in golf history, just the most visible in the game's history.

Few are bullish on Woods' chances at Chambers Bay (even the bettors are starting to succumb as Alex Myers notes here), but the next two majors may not be the catastrophe some would expect.

Having had the privilege of watching every second of Tiger's warm-ups and Sunday Open Championship runs at Lytham (2012) and Muirfield (2013) for Golf World coverage, Woods warmed up in a precise manner both years. Nearly the same number of shots, the vibrant energy going through his bag and then managing his way around both courses pretty well except for the inability to call on his power at the right times. The lack of trust in his driver ultimately distanced him from Els and Scott at Lytham, and from Mickelson and Stenson at Muirfield.

Fast forward to The Memorial in 2015 and Woods is still going through a focused warm-up routine but with his swing consultant on there at all times. This is not a reflection on Chris Como, but instead a statement about the desperation anyone who has struggled to find a swing knows all too well. While Mr. Nicklaus would never say this, you can hear the amazement in his tone as Tiger continues to dig in with the analytical rebuild-mode even as it's obvious his main issue is a pronounced dip at impact with the driver (and even on the takeaway sometimes last week).

At Chambers Bay and St. Andrews for the next two majors, Woods will have to play crafty wind shots and may even be forced to stinger-his way around if he's lucky. The lack of confidence in the driver will hurt him more at Chambers, but what does it say that when he hits recoveries or shots forcing his artistic sensibilities, he's still one of the best in the world and far superior at such shots to someone like Rory McIlroy.

Tiger consultant Notah Begay, who is obviously in a tough spot in these discussions because he's clearly had some impact with getting Tiger off the bench press, responded to Chamblee's suggestion of unintentional sabotage this way:

"We sort of need to defer to a person who’s done the things that he’s done in his career and see how this thing materializes over the next two to three months," Begay said. "I don’t know how this thing’s going to turn out, but all I’m saying is, let’s give a little bit of time for this to materialize."

The problem with that thinking is clear: the worse it gets with days like The Memorial 85, the more Woods looks to science and analysis to solve his problems instead of to his immense creativity. Maybe the natural instincts are all gone, but I suspect not.

Why is all of this worth contemplating?

Because golf is the one sport more than any other where anyone who has played long enough can relate to some of the thoughts and reactions an elite player has when trying to solve problems. Worse, it's so easy to see from the outside looking in what plagues him. But there really is no way around the "release pattern" issues for Woods other than to take a few years off to clear his head. Or, he can be forced to hit shots that set the base swing aside and require him to revert to the patterns that made him a once-in-a-lifetime talent.

Yes, he has jeopardized his career and because of his singular talent, he can even get his game back.