Tiger Woods’ obsession is holding him back

Has Tiger Woods’ obsession with beating Jack Nicklaus’ record haul of 18 Majors been his undoing?

Former US PGA champion Paul Azinger certainly thinks so. And the man who was runner-up at the 1987 Open at Muirfield reckons Woods has done himself more harm than good as he pursued the magic number 19.

Said Azinger: “Tiger is always going to be compared to Jack, and there’s a big difference in where these two players were when they reached 38.

“One of the big differences, that’s very rarely articulated, is the fact that Tiger in his dominant days for whatever reason had this quest to get better. I don’t remember Jack ever being like that.

“Jack might have made some minor tweaks here and there, but Tiger has made astronomical changes in his desire to get better.

“As a result, Tiger has actually got a little bit worse. I think we can all pretty much see that. Jack never had the severity of injuries the career-threatening injuries that Tiger has had.

“Now the big question is what should we now expect from him? We don’t really know, either. How fit is he? How much is he still dabbling with changing what is just unique to the individual?”

Woods appears to still be searching for his best as he goes into today’s final round at Hoylake a massive 19 shots behind leader Rory McIlroy.

Whether he continues to pursue perfecting his swing even more remains to be seen, and Azinger concedes it is par for the course.

“Most golfers have made the same mistakes in some weird way about changing their golf swing, about changing fingerprints for fundamentals, and I think Tiger has done that to his detriment,” says the man who’s at Hoylake analysing events for ESPN.

“Jack never made those mistakes. He understood that if he could stay the same, he would still dominate. Tiger didn’t need to get better. He just didn’t need to get worse!

“He needed to stay the same and he could still dominate. But in his quest to get better, it’s kind of backfired on him.”

Given Woods’ trials and tribulations of the last few years on and off the course, it would take a brave man to argue that point.

Azinger has seen it all, but remains in admiration of ‘The Phenom’.

“I don’t know of anybody who’s changed their swing more than Tiger Woods and still played great,” he continued.

“Most people just go away. They disappear trying to do what he’s done. He may look back and have regrets. I know that he’s only worked with one guy that’s played golf at a really high level, and that’s Butch Harmon.

“For him to just turn it all over to two guys that have never played at a high level is a bit of a mystery, considering how great Tiger was when he did it.

“I’m not trying to be harsh, I’m just trying to be blunt. I hope he’s recovered from injury, and can show the form regularly that we expect from him.”