Tiger Woods is Now Just One of The Guys

Tiger Woods started golfing as a professional in 1996. By 1997, he won The Masters for his first major golf championship and began a run of winning golfing excellence that produced some of the greatest golf ever played. Between 1997 and 2008, Woods won 14 majors , the second greatest total ever achieved, just behind Jack Nicklaus and his 18.

To give you an idea of the golf royalty Tiger Woods has surpassed, you only need to look at the names of the golfing greats right behind him on the list of majors’ winners. Walter Hagen – 11, Ben Hogan – 9, Gary Player – 9, Tom Watson – 8, Gene Sarazen – 7, Arnold Palmer – 7, Sam Snead – 7, Bobby Jones – 7 (not counting amateur titles). In other words, Tiger Woods has already had a career that has surpassed Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones, not to mention everyone else except Jack Nicklaus.

Tiger Woods was so good during that time span that he was the unquestioned number one player in golf. He won boatloads of golf tournaments, 14 majors, and countless other amazing achievements that have created millions of Tiger Woods golf fans that have stimulated an unprecedented boom in the world of golf. He was so good that he often intimidated all of his competitors during the key moments of big tournaments and won a lot of those majors because of his mere dominating presence. He was a like a superhuman being playing next to mere mortals.

Tiger is 38 now and even though he is as athletically fit as anyone on the pro golf circuit, he is no longer performing at the levels he did during his amazing heyday. Three things, injuries, a personal life implosion that caused the breakup of his marriage, and the death of his golfing mentor father Earl Woods, have caused Woods to lose his mojo.

For now, Tiger Woods is no longer the superhuman golfer who struck fear in all of his mere mortal peers. He’s not a bad golfer, of course . He’s still world class good. But he is now just one of the guys. Every time everyone tees it up in a major now, Tiger Woods will be ONE of the favorites, not THE favorite. All kinds of players are now “just as good as Tiger.”

Woods thinks he’s as good as he used to be, but he’s not. The Tiger Woods of today could not even compete with the Tiger Woods of last decade. Furthermore, the really good players of today are all kind of hitting their primes at the same time and they can put up just as good of numbers now as Tiger can, even when he’s playing pretty well. Rory McIlroy of today is closer to the Tiger Woods of last decade than Tiger is now.

Tiger used to win with his B game, even when a few of the other golfers were playing their A game that week. Now, HIS A game might not be good enough to win any more majors, with the current crop of elite golfers pretty much having A games as good as Woods, and there no longer is any fear of a superhuman golfer in the field anymore.

Tiger has to face up to the fact that other golfers have gotten better and he’s gotten worse. He will get better than he is now, but he will probably never be as good as he was during his 1997 – 2008 era of dominance. Every time he tees it up for a major, he will need to have his A game that week, or someone else will have their A game and win that major. If he has his A game and some other Adam Scott or Justin Rose is having their A game AND Rory McIlroy is having a bad week, maybe then, Tiger can win another major.

So he CAN win another major or two. But he will have to battle all of the good golfers, make a lot of putts, show up with his A game, not make too many mistakes,… You know, win a major like the rest of the guys do. Cause that’s what he is now… one of the guys.