Have We Seen the Last of Tiger?

Here we are in the second week of the FedEx Cup playoffs and there are a few surprises that seem to pop up each week. That Schauffele is among the leaders is not one of them.

• Hideki winning last week is not a total surprise.
• Keegan Bradley at the top of the leader board at 6 under after day one is unusual 
• The average age of the BMW participants is 34 with Adam Scott the oldest at 44 and two shots back and Ludvig Aberg is the youngest at 24 and us 6 back after the first day.

What is not seen in these playoff is any appearance from Tiger Woods.

Many of the golf announcers have stated over the last few months that this could be possible that Tiger could become relevant again and could possibly even compete and potentially win another major. But my contention is that this will not happen regardless of how much Tiger would like these projections to be accurate.

Sure, Jack won his last major at 46 but everything lined up just right on his last day to facilitate his comeback. But Tiger is currently 48. Tiger has had several major surgeries on his back and knees, He is just not as flexible as he was just a few years ago and rotational flexibility is crucial in the professional game of golf.

Go back to films from 10 years ago and again from 20 years ago and compare his swing then to his swing this year. For most of us, there will not seem to be a big difference but for him the changes are tremendous. His body, with all of the hardware included, will not do the things he needs to do to compete at the top level of the PGA.

And look at his competition these days. The average age of players he has to beat is 14 years younger than him and there are a number of new competitors who are more that a decade younger than that. Anyone of them is capable or throwing up a 6 or 8 under round at any time which presents a formidable challenge each week. We have not seen any round like that from Tiger for some time. It takes four arduous days of effort to win a PGA tournament and while the young can mostly just strive through it, Tiger has to prepare and repair daily to survive and as we have seen several times this season, he has not been able to do that.

In my opinion, Tiger Woods is the GOAT of golf. But we will have to live with memories of what was because it is probably not possible for us to see it again.

I am not sure if Tiger will play in the Champions Tour in a couple of years. While the competition will not be younger, it will still be formidable, and,while Tiger bear all of the guys on that tour before, Tiger will still have the limitations brought about by all of his surgeries.

I do hope Tiger will find some venues to continue with golf as he is a tremendous asset to the game. What that could be I have no idea.