Is Tiger Done With Competitive Golf?

Ever since he withdrew from the Safeway Open a couple weeks ago, there has been much speculation that Tiger Woods' career as a competitive golfer may be over. He added to that speculation with a recent interview where he suggested he is going to focus more on his businesses. Prior to withdrawing from the Safeway Open, Tiger indicated that he was feeling fit, and not feeling any issues from the three back surgeries he's undergone over the last couple years. However, when he withdrew, he indicated that his game was "vulnerable." Analysts such as Brandel Chamblee and Hank Haney suggested this meant Tiger was still struggling with his short game issues. In 2015, prior to hanging it up for the year due to back issues, Tiger was clearly struggling with his short game. In fact, he ranked last on the PGA Tour in scrambling and in sand saves...not what we were used to seeing. Some of his shots around the green that season were downright dreadful early in the season. This suggested he may actually have a case of the "chipping yips," a more rare form of the yips than the putting yips. While the putting yips can be solved by changing the grip from some sort of conventional grip to the grip now employed by Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson (a form of the "saw" grip), the chipping yips are a more difficult issue. Is it possible to overcome? Sure, especially for the greatest player in the game. However, I suspect that Tiger is simply ready to move on with his life. I never envisioned Tiger being a fixture on the Champions Tour, although he is still ten years removed from that. While we'd surely love to see Tiger playing at the top of his game against today's young guns, I'm not sure he has the desire to put in the work anymore. It looks like Tiger may be moving more in the direction that Greg Norman took his career. Norman battled his own injury issues, and ultimately made few appearances on the Champions Tour. He is also a wildly successful businessman, and I can see Tiger accepting a new challenge of building a business empire. He's certainly smart enough, so it will be interesting to see what happens! In the meantime, let's up one of these young guns can step up and dominate for a few years running.