Has there been a greater and more dramatic decline than Tiger Woods's?

I'm not into golf, but Woods's decline is something incredible.

Ranked 1st in the world in 2010 - and I don't know for how many successive years it was - and now ranked 195th (and still going down). In a sport where Woods's age is no handicap. He has just finished the first round of the US Open 15 shots behind the leader and of the 156-man field, only two golfers finished worse.

And he does seem to keep on trying. He's training, he's playing, he seems motivated. But he is a completely, totally different player. How is it possible to collapse from the best in the world to this?

And has there been a greater decline in any individual sports, ever, than that of Tiger Woods's?

There's probably been greater but more dramatic? No I don't think so.

Age may not be a significant factor in a tennis player's decline, but like in all other sports, confidence and mental stability is. Not only did he lose his wife, but his immaculate reputation took a hard beating after the scandal was revealed to the public. Such things leave mental scars, and even if he does regain his form, he'll never regain his peerless public image.

@Thimmy *golf

Actually quite the golf fanatic. That's only when McIlroy is on song mind
But didn't get to see much of Tiger's successful years. Only going on what I heard, and I think it's mostly been injuries and his personal life problems which has had an affect on his mentality I believe. Similar in a way to Kobe's story. His although is much more dramatic like Mole pointed out.

No way does he have the same drive, motivation and passion for the game like he has had, let's say 10-15 years ago.

I don't think that happened with Kobe mind, he just had back to back significant injuries, got old and his team got shit.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:I don't think that happened with Kobe mind, he just had back to back significant injuries, got old and his team got shit.

GTFO, we have Sacre and Swaggy P

Sacre's dancing on the bench is the real MVP tbh.

El Gunner wrote:@Thimmy *golf

Actually quite the golf fanatic. That's only when McIlroy is on song mind
But didn't get to see much of Tiger's successful years. Only going on what I heard, and I think it's mostly been injuries and his personal life problems which has had an affect on his mentality I believe. Similar in a way to Kobe's story. His although is much more dramatic like Mole pointed out.

No way does he have the same drive, motivation and passion for the game like he has had, let's say 10-15 years ago.

Golf is what I meant, of course. I played tennis with some students earlier today. I really should get some more sleep

I've never played golf, but I just don't get how you can lose your technique so bad and seemingly with no way to regain it. Once you learn how to ride a bicycle and all that.

I also haven't played it before. But I actually think it's quite a thing to master to consistently do good just by looking at the fact that no one has dominated the game since Tiger. Okay, Rory shows signs but he is still too inconsistent and his overall putting sucks in comparison to other players in his own generation which hasn't been as successful as he has.

Sure it might be easy to go out and swing a club and hit a white ball. But I believe there's a ridiculous amount of skill and technique needed to win and keep on winning in professional golf tournaments. Skill and technique which us on the outside might not see as easily.

Two things... I don't know if he's admitted to it but it's pretty obvious he's dealing with yips.

Even besides that, mentally, he's not in the right place and hasn't been for a while. He needs a sports psychologist.

Art Morte wrote:I've never played golf, but I just don't get how you can lose your technique so bad and seemingly with no way to regain it. Once you learn how to ride a bicycle and all that.

I believe most sports are prodominantly about the mental game, however I've heard it's magnified in golf. While Woods might have lost some technique, I think it really comes down to his mindset and everything going on in his life.

I don't watch golf (I played his video games) but from what I gather and everything I've heard He was literally Jesus in golf player form. And now he can't do anything

He's like 40 now, but he hasn't won a major since 2008. So early thirties, that's like youngster age in golf. And at that time, he was already like 95% of the way to being easily the greatest golfer off all time , but has done nothing since. Anyone in the mid 2000s would have gone crazy just wondering how far tiger would have run up the score by the time he was in his 40s.

I think a comparison would be like if Michael Jordan won all 6 of his championships in his first 7 or so years in the league. Then for some reason after some scandal came out in the media he lost his touch and couldn't even so much as hit a free throw. If that's a fair comparison I'm going to say that no, there's never been such a decline. Especially considering the sport he plays where age doesn't take its toll a fraction as much as other sports do.

As said, mental fortitude is very important in all sports, but it's even more important in golf. A lot of golf is keeping your nerve and not crumbling under pressure--and this is easy to see even if you just watch golf once (I try to catch parts of majors every time they roll around, but that's it). Mentally, Tiger hasn't been there for years now and that's something that can be hard to recover, especially since each failure merely compounds the amount of pressure he's under to perform and his own thoughts about his ability.

Either way, I don't think there has been a greater or more dramatic decline. That being said, it doesn't bother me, I've never really liked the guy.

I'm not buying the mental fortitude argument when Tiger is keeping on trying year after year now. If he wasn't mentally up for it, he would have quit by now. The mental side of things might explain something like 33% of it, but not the majority of his decline.

He might keep on trying year after year, but that doesn't mean when push comes to shove and he has to make the right shots in a major, he has the mental ability to do it.

I'm struggling to come up with other reasons for the decline, really. For me, a lot of it seems to be mental.

I'm sure the guy will probably come out with a book to make a lot of money shortly after he retires, and we can find out then.

A mental weakness explains a short-term decline, but not a long-term decline like Tiger's, imo.

You may miss more free-throws in basketball or penalties in football if you're mentally in a weak moment, but when we're talking hundreds and even thousands of golf strokes, a mental weakness doesn't satisfy me as the reason for continuously performing badly.

Art Morte wrote:A mental weakness explains a short-term decline, but not a long-term decline like Tiger's, imo.

You may miss more free-throws in basketball or penalties in football if you're mentally in a weak moment, but when we're talking hundreds and even thousands of golf strokes, a mental weakness doesn't satisfy me as the reason for continuously performing badly.

I don't know if you can categorize it as a "weak moment", though. His model citizen/sportsman/American image has been permanently tarnished, the scandal has most definitely made an impact on his entire family and how he's perceived by people in his social circle, not to mention his confidence and ability to focus. He was the definition of a sportsman with a squeeky clean image, and now sponsors don't even want to endorse him anymore. I'm sure he really wants to get back to his best, but a lot of people will never view him the same way again and there's nothing he can do to change that.

There are many examples of football players who have experienced a drop in performance as a result of stress or lack of confidence, and those are only two out of several psychological distractions that can impact an athlete's performance. Surely, what Tiger has gone through is more of a cause for concern than the temporary lack of belief in one's own ability to score a penalty? Even if he's not playing as well as he used to, I bet he still loves the sport.

http://www.foxsports.com/golf/story/tiger-woods-masters-what-its-like-to-have-the-yips-robert-damron-explains-040515

I remember Chuck Knoblauch, 2B for the Yankees(baseball), had this. One day he couldn't make a simple throw that he normally made all the time. The throws weren't even close, going over the head of the guy he intended to throw to. He started hitting spectators, he hit some ESPN anchors mom in the head.

Maybe he doesn't have yips, but it seems like it

DJ got the yips on last Sunday