Capelle On Golf

We should have seen this coming. On the 14th hole on Sunday at Augusta Woods quick putted both his second and third putts - at the freaking Masters, signs of weakness in his mental game.

Following his mistake plagued first round at Quail Hollow he said, “To hell with it,” a give up statement if ever there was one. And then, as a million scribes have pointed out, Woods also gave up on the back nine at Quail Hollow in the second round once making the cut was no longer a possibility. The result: an inward nine of 43, a 79, and his second missed cut in his last 10 starts on the PGA Tour,

Now we’ve seen Woods bounce back from bad play a zillion times to make cuts, go low, stay in the hunt, and win. Every time his indomitable spirit was responsible as much as his golf game. Now, it appears, he has lost it, along with his game, for the first time in his career. Three separate incidents spread over his last three competitive rounds indicate that his resolve has weakened.

It would be hard not to imagine his thinking not being out of whack considering all that he has gone through over the last five months. And so, though he is Tiger Woods, even he has his limits - they are just, like his tolerance for physical pain, a lot higher than his peers.

Y.E. Yang exposed a weakness in his mental game at the 2009 PGA. And then Phil Mickelson beat him twice at the end of 2009 - at the TOUR Championship, and while paired together at the WGC in China. In both instances, it is fair to assume that Woods’ desire to not lose to Mickelson had an adverse affect on his play.

So, while the focus has been on Woods’ game and the rust he must shake off, little attention has been paid to his state of mind. Simply, Woods’ mental game is in a slump, a deep one that could take him the rest of the season to emerge from, if indeed he ever does. Making matters worse, his swing is in its worst state since he turned pro. He’s got a two way miss going, and a driver that can hit the ball off the planet.

His irons have always been the big strength of his game, but he’s missing greens like never before and he even hit an iron far into a lake on Thursday. As for the lynch pin of his success, the putter, it is sputtering like never before.

His numbers from Quail Hollow are scary bad: Woods hit only 20 of 36 (56%) of the mammoth greens and just 6 of 28 fairways (21%)! Considering that he often uses clubs other than his driver off the tee, his percentage with the big stick was probably lower than the stats indicate. His ratio of holes under par versus over par ratio was 7/13, the exact opposite of what he would normally do for 36 holes. And he used 34 putts on Friday, which might be his highest total ever except for at St. Andrews with its huge double greens.

With vitals like this, Woods is a candidate for major surgery. At the very least, he needs a second opinion because his Haney Model swing, the subject of widespread criticism, is a big mess.

So, we have Woods in the first twin slump of his career. Both his mind and his game need work. I suppose, since he is Tiger Woods, anything is possible, and he could snap out of these twin maladies by the PLAYERS Championship next week. The more likely scenario, however, is that it is going to take time for him to sort this out. With a divorce looming and Elin willing to assume full custody, Woods will have plenty of that going forward. It will be interesting to see how he uses it.