Quote:
Originally Posted by
RichF 
However, looking at things positively:
1 - This is the first full, healthy season of play he has had since November 2009
2 - It has taken him about two full seasons for his previous major swing overhauls to gel, such that he could simply play and not have to think about the changes
3 - The flaws in his current game have always been the last aspects of his game to finally come under control as a result of the changes
A lot have advocated Tiger returning to Butch Harmon to work out a swing that both protects his health and seeks to bring back his power and his exquisite shot making ability. Because that is what is missing with Foley's swing: he is no longer a shot maker in my opinion and that's what's stopping him from hitting #15.
Precisely. The full 2 years won't come until sometime next year. He's done most of the preliminary shaping of the "blade" that is his swing, this winter he'll work on honing things to a sharp edge. At the moment, he still "thinks" too much about how to hit a lot of shots, and that is exposed most in the pressure cooker that is inherent in weekend rounds at majors. It's also why he plays as conservatively as he does, his margin for error is still considerably larger than it used to be (and probably will be in 6-12 months).
The shot making was also one of the last things to come around during the prior swing changes, so I believe we'll see that aspect a lot more next year. The ability to shoot at (or at least nearer) the pins and knowing he can play the finesse shots needed on approaches and around the green will take a lot of pressure of his putting (as well as lead to shorter putts).
A couple thoughts about his conservative play - he's actually played this way a lot in the past, but the intimidation factor he had going for him made other players do stupid things to beat themselves, so he didn't need to be more aggressive. Also, for a number of years there were only a handful of players with the ability and mentality to stay aggressive 4 straight days and out-score him. Now, ALL the players embrace the "go for it" attitude, figuring "who knows, maybe this is my week to put together 4 really low rounds (and if not, oh well, let's try again next week). He's probably going to need to adjust his game plan to counter this change. Of course, if he cuts .5-1.0 strokes per round by fine-tuning his distance control and short game, all the talk about him being too conservative will be nothing more than a distant memory.
Going back to the original question, to say he's "done" because he didn't win a major this year is really jumping the gun. If he doesn't win one by the time the 2014 U.S. Open has come and gone, then yes, he may be "done" with regard to his standards (and our expectations). On the other hand, by Father's Day 2014 the people who've climbed on the "Tiger's done" bandwagon may look awfully foolish.
