Will Tiger Ever Roar Again?

Tiger Woods is one of the most successful sportsmen of all time.
But revelations about his private life earlier in the year have tarnished his god-like reputation and have cast a huge shadow over his long term future in golf.
Having failed to win any of the six tournaments he had played following his return to a sport he dominated for so long, Tiger’s position as world number one is seriously under threat.
Woods has held the position on top of golf’s world rankings for the past 265 weeks, but should Phil Mickelson win the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond this week or indeed finish second he will replace the 14-time major winner as golf’s man to beat.
This would represent another huge fall from grace for Woods who has failed to reach the extraordinarily high standards he set before taking a break from the game to sort out issues in his private life.
Indeed the professional career of Tiger Woods is one which only the legendary Jack Nicklaus can rival.
Woods won his first major at The Masters at Augusta at the age of 20, but he did not simply win.
He destroyed the rest of the field by a record margin of 12 strokes.
Since that win in 1996, Woods single-handedly began to change the image of golf as he went on to win a total 93 tournaments worldwide, including 14 majors.
He is the most naturally gifted golfer ever to play the game, earning over $92 million on the PGA Tour.
Next week at the British Open at St. Andrews Woods will again be looking for his 15th major title as he tries to creep closer to Nicklaus’s record of 18 major wins.
In fairness to Woods he has shown signs of getting back to his very best with two 4th place finishes at the The US Open and The Masters, but has since been hampered by a neck injury.
Speaking at last week’s AT&T National Championship, in which he finished tied for 46th, Woods admitted his neck is still causing his discomfort but claimed that he is fit to compete at St Andrews.
Going into The Open Championship next week Woods will no doubt be the favourite to win on a course on which he has tasted success before.
But the prospect of seeing whether Woods will live up to his billing or if he will again show himself to be a man struggling with his own mental demons, as well as his golf game, is something I cannot wait for.
Bring on next week.

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