The Zone Interactive Golf Magazine (UK) The Zone Issue 25 | Page 9

GOLF NEWS

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nother season goes by without Tiger Woods adding to his tally of 14 majors. It is now five years and counting since he last landed one of golf ’s most coveted prizes. And the question everybody was an answer to is simply: why? Woods has now played in 20 majors since last winning one (injury kept him out of the 2008 Open and PGA championship and the 2011 US Open and Open) - in those tournaments he has recorded nine top-six finishes. Apart from the 2009 US PGA championship, which he lost despite leading going into the final round, he has never looked like winning any of the others. At the 2009 Open he missed only his second cut in a major as a pro, and also failed to make the final two days at the 2011 PGA championship. He has climbed back to the top of the world rankings and has a huge lead over Phil Mickelson, his nearest challenger. Woods may be 37 years old now, but he has already won five times this season and is rapidly closing in on Sam Snead’s record number of tour wins - Snead claimed 82 titles, Woods has already won 79. But the record he wants more than other is the one held by Jack Nicklaus. The Golden Bear had a happy knack of being able to peak in time for each major. Woods used to be able to do the same, although his allround brilliance meant that he was in peak form at most tournaments in which he played.

Then came his broken leg — a stress fracture that was agggravated during the 2008 US Open, when he beat Rocco Mediate in a playoff that required 19 holes to separate the pair. Then there was the furore that surrounded the revelations that Woods, had been put on a pedastal by so many golf followers, was in fact a serial adulterer who had trouble keeping his trousers on. So what has happened? First of all, his swing fell apart under previous coach Hank Haney. Woods has always missed fairways, but now he was missing them by miles. So he took the decision to go and see Sean Foley, who is the man of the moment in the world of golf coaches. For a second time, he began to rebuild his swing. The early signs were far from promising and he played the worst golf of his professional career. When Woods stood on a tee with the driver in his hands there was only one certainty - if he hit a fairway it wouldn’t be the one he was aiming for. And if he had an iron in his hands, he would airmail the green by 20 or 30 yards. And after every round, it was always the same: “I struck the ball really well and feel like I am very close.” And, all of a sudden, he was. He really was. He started winning tournaments again. The problem was that the tournaments he was winning were not majors. Like it or not, Woods has become a flat-track

THEZONE / ISSUE 25

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