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Will Tiger woods ever return?

Watching tiger woods hack and thrash his way around the golf courses, is no doubt a harrowing sight for any keen golfer that has a true passion for the game and many are starting to doubt that tiger’s game can ever return to what it once was.

Crash, bang, wallop. Tiger woods recent performance at the Phoenix open was the worst in his professional career, after carding a horrendous 82, that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the weekly stableford. His swing looked stiff, his back was tight and his chipping was diabolical; for a man known for his chipping inferiority over the other players, he couldn’t find his touch and was blading and duffing his way around the fringes, suggesting to everyone that he has a serious problem. The talk is bout yips and not committing to the chips, however i believe his greatest problem is his lack of play in the last year – as every golfer knows chipping is an extremely difficult skill and is built by practicing it over and over again, so when you’re out for a year it would be extremely difficult to regain what you once had, therefore i believe woods needs to throw himself into playing and rack up as many rounds as he can before the masters to ensure that his chipping is tolerable.

Has tiger become soft? Remember the days where tiger would roam the fairways terrorising all opponents in sight… When he would enter the range and immediately draw all of the attention on to himself… When he would have that scary, focused look of determination that would see him through the hardest competition. This is the tiger that would win majors. Now is seems that he has lost all of these qualities that made him so successful, he is impacted more by the media and socialises a lot more with his fellow competitors; they are no longer scared of him. Since his affair scandal in 2008 he has never been the same player for me, therefore I can hypothesise that this had a major mental impact on him that left him scarred for life. Tiger was always seen as the perfect for idol for young golfers for a very long time, he was successful and had a

burning passion for the game; however after the scandal came out, for some people he was seen in a completely different light and wasn’t the tiger that everybody used to know and love, he became a joke…

Finally, with all of the new talent coming through such as McIlroy, Fowler and Spieth and many more, it is becoming increasingly harder for Tiger to keep up with their high standards; Tiger is not becoming any younger and will reach his 40th birthday in December of this year so if he is going to win a major, he is going to have to do it soon as beating these young guys will become increasingly harder. However i have no doubt in my mind that he can win again, I mean it is tiger woods, the man, the machine. When he turns up he can beat any opposition in the world, so golf fans don’t rule Tiger out yet, there’s still some fight in the old boy. If he can win a US open with practically severing his leg, then he can win one with a bad back.