‘The 2018 Tiger Woods is too soft and hasn’t got the game’

This 2018 Tiger Woods is markedly different to the 2000 Tiger Woods. 

Not exactly a sweeping statement. But some people do need reminding.

Woods started Masters week in normal fashion by knocking it round with close friend Fred Couples. What was entirely not normal was the appearance of Phil Mickelson in the fourball, plus young Belgian Thomas Pieters.

Woods said the time he and Mickelson have spent together on Ryder Cups and President’s Cup teams in recent years has seen them grow closer.

Hell, they even partnered up to comfortably beat Couples and Pieters.

“Our friendship has gotten stronger over the years,” Tiger said earlier in the week, much to the dismay have many observers.

“We have competed a lot of times coming down the stretch in events. We have gone through it a long time, and the better part of 20 years our friendship has certainly gotten a lot better.”

Is this a softening of the 14-time major winner? Perhaps. Is this not a massive turnaround from the guy who snubbed autograph hunters and practised on his own at 5am?

This latest comeback, though, reaffirms the belief that Woods is further from a genuine return than some analysts would have you believe.

The injuries, the setbacks – multiple setbacks – and the back fusion surgery will continue to have long-lasting effects on Woods long after he has fully recovered.

Couples did a bit of Team Woods PR on Tuesday by talking up the ‘sound’ of the ball when Woods hits it, saying he’s “really flushing it”.

This kind of hype isn’t doing Woods any favours.

He’s 42 years of age, and he’s chasing young guys in their prime. Unfortunately for Woods, they know it.

He’s softened, and he’s not got enough game to compete.

He has a mountain to climb at these events, and this week proved how susceptible he is to small errors on the big stage.

For all the hype regarding his 2018 form, he still hasn’t truly been in contention. For all the hype – some of it self-imposed, I’d add – he still can’t hit a driver when he really needs to.

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said this week that he’d get a true feeling of where Woods really is when he steps onto the second tee at Augusta. “If he’s able to hit that long, high draw with the driver – that you need to do on No.2 – then he’s got a chance,” said Chamblee.

Chamblee said that drive was pivotal to picking up shots on the field. Yesterday, when Woods needed to get out the blocks and “post a number”, as he said, he hooked his tee-shot and asked his ball to hit the trees to save him from chopping out.

The shot just wasn’t there and, in reality, not much has been there all week for Woods.

Considering the positions he was in on Thursday, his one-over 73 was an outrageous score. His 75 yesterday was more an honest reflection of how he played. Not great, but enough to scrape into the weekend.

He talked last night about shooting “something in the 60s” and hope for help elsewhere. But the reality is Woods will likely be a non-story come Sunday night.

He hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since 2013 and it’s almost ten years since his last major win.

He’s still the greatest to have ever played the game, and that’s what makes the 2018 Tiger Woods a sad sight to watch.