{"id":1249602,"date":"2024-02-20T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/?p=1249602"},"modified":"2024-03-07T16:31:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T16:31:04","slug":"wishing-woods-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wishing-woods-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Wishing Woods Well"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pacific Palisades, CA<\/em>. No athlete wants to be described in the past tense. None has an affinity to hear about how great they once were<\/em>.<\/p>\n The passion they possessed - the will to overcome obstacles that others could never surpass \u2013 is what separates the truly great from those aspiring to be as much.<\/p>\n The return to the PGA TOUR at Riviera last week by Tiger Woods was a clear indicator the 15-time major winner is no longer competitive in any real sense of that word.<\/p>\n In his last nine official tour starts, he has played the weekend only four times. Hard to imagine that when the 2024 Masters is played it will mark five years since he slipped on his fifth green jacket.<\/p>\n Since 2014 he has played in 22 majors and only finished in the top ten three times. In that span of events, he has missed the cut nine times.<\/p>\n To put matters in perspective \u2013 when Woods was in his prime competitive days he only missed three cuts between 1997 and 2013.<\/p>\n The gushing of fans and the fawning of absent-minded media demonstrated a complete amnesia to the reality that Woods no longer has the kind of golf capable in competing over a 72-hole format where cuts are part of the format.<\/p>\n When Tiger mentioned several months ago he would be returning to play he added the caveat his limited schedule would likely only mean one event per month in combination with the four majors.<\/p>\n The cumulative nature of the surgeries he has had have clearly altered the majesty of his once rapid hip turn and deliverance of the club into a golf ball at the highest of speeds.<\/p>\n