Will Tiger Woods Win Again?

Yes, Tiger Woods will win again! However, expect him to face some adversity when breaking through. Tiger has probably not experienced this length of winless golf in his entire life. In fact, he probably started winning golf tournaments at a very young age, and had won SOMETHING every year.

He is now gone two years without winning. Because of that, it will be more difficult to get used to being at the front again. Yesterday's third round in the Australian Open is a case in point. It is a very different feeling stepping up on the tee on moving day in a 72 hole tournament with the lead. Most who get in that position tend to relinquish it.

Golf is a process. Tiger has been reworking his swing. Initially, he could hardly take the new swing from the driving range to the golf course. Then he found it difficult to take it from a round with his buddies to tournament play. Now he must learn to take it from Thursday and Friday to Saturday, and then to Sunday. Then he must learn how to do all of that in a major.

Tiger's greatness over the years suggested that this process would be much easier for him than anyone else. We now know he is human. Jack Nicklaus went through these periods as well. He has mentioned that he had lost confidence some time between his 1978 victory at St. Andrews and his win at the 1980 U.S. Open. The difference is that Jack did not try to overhaul his swing. He just needed to make a tweak to the old one. However, it becomes much more difficult to make any kind of changes as we get older, for the simple reason that life becomes more complicated as we get older. There are more demands on our time, and less time to focus on golf. And, of course, the body does not allow us to make changes very easily as we get older.

We must remember that Tiger has young children, and they will place significant demands on his time. It will be impossible for him to be as sharp as he was for long periods of time. We will see flashes of brilliance, and a few more big wins, but nothing like the domination we once saw, when golf was his only focus. Life just doesn't work that way, and there are too many young and hungry players willing to get in his way.

Nevertheless, Tiger will win again, it's just a matter of time.

Scott Cole