Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
One week he can't putt. The next week he can't drive. The week after that he can't hit an iron shot with any sort of distance control.
We know why he's struggling: He's in the middle of changing his swing at the same time as he's returning from major back surgery at age 39. But those reasons aren't expressing themselves in any consistent way on the course. Golfers of every skill level dread the two-way miss — where you can't stop hooking it or slicing it, and thus can't isolate the problem that's plaguing your game. Well, Tiger has something like a generalized version of that for his entire golf game. So much is wrong that it's hard to see him fixing it all anytime soon.
In February his short game was so bad people thought he had the chipping yips:
At the Greenbrier in July his putting was so bad he had the best distance to the hole statistics of his career but still finished 32nd:
In the first round of the British Open he hit nearly every fairway, but somehow only hit half the greens in regulation.
He was ranked 12th in fairways hit, but 135th in greens in regulation:
While it's not tough to hit fairways at the wide-open St. Andrews, he was putting himself in solid position, but just had no control of his irons:
ESPN
At the US Open in June, only three guys in the entire field hit fewer fairways than Tiger, and one of them had to withdraw:
Woods was driving it all over the place, forcing him into second shots like these:
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