Golf: Sad ending for Tiger Woods

Woods finished 16 over after two rounds, one of the stragglers in the field. Photo / AP

The Artist Formerly Known As The World's Greatest Golfer strode mirthlessly towards the 10th green. "Battle, Tiger," shouted a sage in the gallery. Battle, Tiger? The man does little else these days.

His two rounds to miss the cut at the US Open have been nothing but a battle. A war of attrition, really. One fought at massive cost, with huge casualties and little gain.

Woods finished 16 over after two rounds, one of the stragglers in the field, down among the club professionals, a few old men and, bizarrely, Rickie Fowler. His second round score of 76 included eight bogeys and, although he found more fairways than Friday, his putting was way off.

"You get exposed on a course like this," Woods said. "You have to be so precise with everything. You really have to have your game dialled in - I didn't have that."

Wood teed off from the back nine yesterday, arriving at the 10th green, encouraged if not greatly cheered, to discover he needing crampons to reach his ball. Woods veered off to the left and began climbing a steep bank. He stopped mid-ascent, feet searching precariously for balance. He tentatively moved his hands to mimic the swing he would need to play from such an elevated landing place in heavy hillside rough. Then he fell over. The gallery gasped.

Golf is finding fresh ways to humiliate a man who once took the game to new heights.

One almost expects his trousers to fall down revealing a set of Donald Duck underpants having clubbed a tee shot straight right. It is as if he is starring in his own, sadistic, version of The Truman Show, with a director cruelly manipulating his life for the amusement of a viewing audience. Part reality TV, part Candid Camera. Unseen helpers scurry ahead and squirrel his ball away to a new, comic location. 'What say we hide it up this bank? Or plug it in this bunker?'

The sadness, really, is that this is all Tiger's doing. He has become separated from the basics of his game and, increasingly, is fighting a losing battle. He will hate the emotion he elicits in professional adversaries now. Where once there was fear and admiration, now there is pity.

His 10-over-par opening round bordered on the unwatchable by the time he topped a fairway wood into a bunker, like a high handicapper, on the 18th. It is hard to imagine he has ever hit a worse shot as a professional.

Woods tries to make light of his struggles in interviews, but he must hate this happening as much as we hate watching another catastrophe unfold. The professional analysts, in particular, find it hard. They all wanted to beat him at his peak, but not like this. It would be like fighting the punch drunk Ali.

"I see a guy who is totally lost," said Greg Norman. "He does not have a go-to shot. Every time he shoots a round like he did on [Friday], the hole just gets deeper and deeper. Every athlete who goes through a slump needs a branch to cling to, and there isn't one at the moment.

"The most amazing thing to me is how quickly this has happened. When a great player has a bad spell, it is usually a minor adjustment to get back into place. Tiger needs major adjustments. Will he win another major? I don't see it. Be the best player in the world again? No."

Even TV seemed to have given up on Woods yesterday, the former world No 1 all but disappearing from the nation's screens as the focus turned to golden boy Jordan Spieth.

A short highlight reel of his US Open triumphs at Pebble Beach, Bethpage Black or Torrey Pines would then cut back to Tiger live, hatchet-faced or simply forlorn, looking like an old man at 39. Tiger is still fighting with every sinew of the great competitor. Fighting, fighting, fighting on a treadmill to oblivion.