Tiger Woods Falls from Contention at Farmers Insurance Open

One of Tiger Woods' streaks came to an end when he shot a 2-over-par 74 at Torrey Pines on January 29, 2011. His fall from contention in the Farmers Insurance Open marked the first time since 2002 that Woods has been over par on this particular course, a span that included his dramatic playoff victory over Rocco Mediate at the 2008 U.S. Open. While Tiger says that he is hopeful he can deliver on his new swing consistently enough by the time of this year's Masters in April to resume his streak of major wins, his streak of looking human continues unabated since his personal problems became very public around Thanksgiving 2009. It's been long enough now that we can start to get nervous about whether Tiger will ever be the same dominant force that lit up the leaderboards and rewrote golf history for over a decade.

It's very strange to see Tiger Woods fighting with all of the same issues that have plagued his competition over his career. He struggled all of last year to get his swing right and then finally parted ways with coach Hank Haney, only to hook up with new swing guru Sean Foley later in the season. The changes that Foley helped him make seem not to have settled into his body yet, leaving Woods fighting to make smooth drives and teetering on the par precipice on hole after hole. We assume that because he's Tiger Woods he can do anything he wants on a golf course, and that adjustments come easy to him, but we're now seeing that's not necessarily the case. Whether lingering mental roadblocks, an aging physique or just rust are the culprits, it's clear that Tiger is not all the way back.

As we move forward into this second season of Mortal Tiger, it will be fascinating to see if he can once again vault himself to the top of the game, or if he can even remain a viable contender to win any tournament that he enters. Whereas it was once a foregone conclusion that Woods would one day overtake Jack Nicklaus for the all-time majors count, five more is starting to look like a bunch. It used to be that if you were a betting man, you'd have to take Tiger over the field almost every time. These days, Tiger is just a part of the crowd, and golf is suffering because of it.