Tiger is never coming back

I wouldn't bet against a 36-year-old golfer with 14 majors.

If Mr. Bacon is basing this on Tiger's weekend play at Olympic - two rounds - then he is making far too sweeping of a conclusion on far too small of a sample set. So, in other words, the two wins he's had so far this year means nothing? The fact he had the lead at the Open at one point on Friday means nothing? This is totally based on 75-73 on the weekend, the he's never going to win another major?

That's like looking at a thunderstorm & saying it will never be sunny again.

The question is whether Tiger will ever be the same tremendously dominant player he was 4-5 years ago and I think the answer is no. He's older for one and the competition is better. But if anyone thinks that he won't win a few more majors or possibly beat Jack's record than they are underestimating Woods' talent and most of all will to be the best. Right now he's not far from being the best player in the world and when he's on, he's quite a bit better than anyone else.

Okay, so his sample set is expanded to his performances this year, ignoring the two wins but instead focusing on how he did after them.

Going into this year Tiger hadn't won an official tour event since 2009. This year he's won two (so far). So this guy assumes he won't win another major? Doesn't add up.

Honestly I think Tiger is hitting the ball great for the most part, but I can't see him dominating the way he used to.  He will continue to be one of the top players, may win another major or 2, but the days of him outclassing everyone else are over.

If you look at his stats, there has been a rather large dropoff in some key categories.  In terms of driving distance, he's lost about 15 yards since his prime.  Now much of that might be due to using a lot of shorter clubs off the tee in order to increase his fairway percentage (and his accuracy has improved quite a bit). But length is clearly no longer an advantage for Tiger against the field.

But a bigger dropoff has been in his birdie or better percentage on Par 4s and especially Par 5s.  In 2006 he led the tour in both categories (21.79% on Par 4s, 57.14% on Par 5s).  So far in 2012, he is ranked 97th on Par 4s (14.45%) and 32nd on Par 5s (46.09%).  Tiger used to eat the longer holes for lunch.  Nowadays he is decidedly average.  I think a large part of this is his shorter length off the tee.  He is a great iron player but he is leaving himself very long approach shots and that makes getting birdies/eagles tough.

Tiger has always been an erratic driver of the ball but I think his new cautious approach off the tee is hurting him.  He dominated by outplaying everyone else on the long Par4s and Par 5s.  You can't do that hitting 3-irons off the tee.

The same thing was said in the early 90's prior to Tiger.  It was beleived that Jack could never have won all thoses majors with the deep fields made up of such talented guys like Fred Couples and Davis Love III.  Then Tiger came along and it was said he had no competition.  Now were back to deep fields again--so deep that no one may ever dominate again--I don't buy it.

I didn`t read the whole article, but basically agree.

Tiger`s best year was in 2000 which was part of a 10 year stretch from 1999 to 2008 where he dominated.  I don`t think Tiger will have another year like 2000 (into 2001 where he won 4 majors in a row) or 10 year stretch like that, but he is certainly in the mix for world #1 going forward and might win a few more majors.

I think Tiger might be putting more pressure on himself at the majors and while you can`t rule it out, it would be very impressive if he was able to tie or exceed Nicklaus`s 18.  IMO, it is more likely for Tiger to have an extended stretch (at least 52 weeks) at #1 but I doubt that he will have double the OWGR points "average" of the #2 player like he did in some past years.

It's absolutely beyond me how people can think that Tiger will get no better than he is now, especially after seeing the likes of Furyk, Toms, and Els play so well last week. He has come from #52 to #4 in the world rankings in the last nine months. He has gone from terrible off the tee to #1 in total driving. And he's just barely past the stage where he is rehearsing swing thoughts before every shot. Does it not seem likely that he still has a way to go in getting completely comfortable with his new swing? Does it not seem likely that as his driving is now pretty close to where he wants it, he can afford to spend more time tightening up his short game? He was 2 for 11 in sand saves last week. If he had been 10 for 11, he would have won. I realize that every player leaves shots out there, but not every player has proven, time and again, that he has the physical and mental tools to win consistently. I thought that Rory might give him some trouble, but now that Rory's game looks as fragile as everyone else's, I don't see anybody who can keep Tiger from dominating again. He may not make everything he looks at again, but he doesn't need to. All he needs to do is to pick up a couple of shots a round in his short game, and anybody can see that they are there. I figure he'll have his short game tightened up by the end of the summer, and from then on he'll be good enough to go back to his average clip of five wins a year, and one major a year. And if he gets his putting stroke all the way back, I don't see anybody to stop him from going back to 8 or 9 wins a year, and a couple or three majors per year.

There is one guy who can stop him.  His name is Tiger.

Anyone else tired of these threads by now? There will always be someone saying that Tiger won't be back, even if he wins 5 more majors and beat Jack.

Well, the guy in the article said that Tiger had to win three or four times in a row before he'd be back. Only four players in the history of the game have won four times in a row, and nobody but Tiger has even won four PGA events in a year since 2005, but that's how dumb some people are when it comes to their objective evaluations of Tiger's game.

I just don't like his Sean Foley swing, and I don't think it agrees with him. It looks forced, and I don't think he will get back to domination using it.

He's looking more and more comfortable with the swing. I think it's just fine what he and Foley are doing.

Look at how well he played at Arnies and Jacks tournaments, he won didn't he?

And he played really good on Thursday and Friday at the US Open.

Tiger has at least 10 more years to catch Jack, and I think he gets to 19 majors.

This is silly. Tiger could become the second or third most dominant golfer in history for three years, starting tomorrow, and you'd still technically be correct in saying that he wasn't "back" since he had previously been the most or second most dominant. The guy is getting older and has had some major surgeries to recover from, so I don't think it's particularly insightful to predict that he won't ever be back at his 2000-era performance. But this is like trying to predict the weather for next March---there are hundreds of weathermen, and none of them are any better at it than asking a random guy on the street.