Fear is the overriding factor for Tiger Woods’ alarming slump in form

Forget injury, fear is the overriding factor behind Tiger Woods' alarming slump in form, writes Steve Elling.

Tiger Woods loads his car after withdrawing from the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open on February 5, 2015. Gregory Bull / AP

The site was identical, the outcome anything but. Tiger Woods won his last major championship at Torrey Pines in 2008, playing with two hairline fractures in his left leg and a shredded knee that required reconstructive surgery. Living on painkillers, Woods toughed out the week to win the US Open title.

Even in earthquake-prone Southern California, the change in narrative last week at Torrey was akin to a mudslide. Woods withdrew from the Farmers Insurance Open after 11 holes, citing a sore back and malfunctioning muscles in his posterior. The off-colour jokes on Twitter began immediately.

The question of Woods’s spine – as in, whether he still has any – has fast become a popular topic. CBS Sports broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch, a former British Open champion who battled a case of the yips, a term now ascribed to Woods’s wretched short game, said the 14-time major winner is fighting his toughest opponent yet – a waning confidence in himself.

“I would hit 50 perfect drives on the range and snap-hook it off the first tee,” Baker-Finch said. “He does exactly the same thing. At the first tee at Augusta every year, he’s so nervous, he hits it 100 yards off-line, and he’s just hit 50 perfect drives on the range. You can’t tell me that that’s a bad back or a swing flaw. It’s totally mental.

“It’s a fear. And it’s not the yips. It’s not a spasm. It’s a fear.”

Woods later told a friend last week’s injury was not serious, which, compared to his previous heroics at Torrey, underscored the question about how much he still cares, if at all.

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