Go home. Cool his heels for a while. Reflect back on his career and where it all went off the rails. Take a long, brutally honest look at the past year and a half, particularly the past five tournaments, and figure out if it’s possible to fix it at all. Come to terms with the fact that he’s reached the “the older I get, the better I used to be” stage of his career. Talk to some real friends. Check his financial status and make sure he has enough for the long haul. Figure out what he really wants out of life and how much continuing to play on the PGA Tour factors into it.
That should be the least of his worries, but I wonder how much alimony and child support he has to pay?
Some years back they were talking about him becoming (one of?) the first billionaire athlete. I think his first Nike contract 20 yrs back was for $100 mill. Guy has got to be hauling in 10s of millions per year. I don’t care if half of his income is going to Elin and the kids - he’s clearly in a strata where he would have to try awfully hard to piss it all away, no matter how many mansions, Gulfstreams, and yachts he buys. Unless he did the investment equivalent of going to Vegas and putting his entire net worth on red…
Tiger’s dog is having ACL reconstruction on both hind legs.
I don’t know what motivates Tiger. So, I’ll just ask this: does Tiger still love golf? Does he still love playing, competing, travelling, performing on the biggest stages in front of thousands of fans? Would he STILL love the life of a golfer on the PGA tour if he were only, say, the 35th or 60th or 80th ranked player in the world?
OR… is he one of those guys who needs to win, who needs to be #1, who needs to be the best, and who can’t settle for anything less?
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with either outlook. To use a few examples I’ve cited before, Chris Evert retired from tennis when she was still ranked in the top ten. She said at the time that she believed she was still capable of winning a major, but now she was ALSO capable of losing in the first round to an unranked player, and that just wasn’t acceptable to her. By contrast, her old boyfriend Jimmy Connors kept playing tennis into his late thirties, long after the point where he had any realistic chance of winning a major (or even a minor) tournament. If he got knocked off in the quarterfinals, he didn’t mind. He loved the game and the crowds, and he wanted to keep playing until they dragged him off the court.
If we stick to golf… SOME old golfers keep showing up and playing at the tournaments every year, even though there’s almost no chance they’ll make the cut (or even shoot their ages). Arnold Palmer always did that. So did Gene Sarazen. They loved the game and their fans, and kept playing even though they had no shot at winning. Jack Nicklaus hasn’t done that. Jack was ALL about winning, and has no interest in shooting a 95 on opening day at the Masters, just so the fans can give him token applause. Once Jack knew he couldn’t win any more, he quit for good.
Is Tiger more like Chris and Jack? Or more like Arnold and Jimmy?
If he loves the game and the touring pro’s lifestyle, he should keep playing as long as it’s fun and as long as his body is up to the challenge. If not, he should go home and play with his kids.
Based on what he has said in the past, he is more like Jack and Chrissy.
Woods said this back in February
But based on his last couple tournaments, he is more like Jimmy and Arnold.
He is now ranked outside the Top 200 in the World Rankings, falling about 10-12 spots per week. He is scheduled to play next week on the PGATour in the Greenbrier Classic, a tournament he has played once before and missed the cut in 2012 the week after he won a tournament.
I wonder how much longer it will be before he loses his automatic exemptions and has to rely on a sponsor’s charity?
Pretty much never. As a 20 Tournament winner, he has a lifetime exemption to PGA Tour events. He has a lifetime exemption for the Masters and PGA as a winner. He can play in the Open Championship until he’s 60. He won the US Open in 2008, which gives him a 10 year exemption. That’s the only Tournament he’s in any danger of missing. He just needs to get back in the Top 60 Worldwide, which is about one win.
Here’s the thing about Connors: although he wasn’t winning championships, he was still getting some nice runs. I remember that U.S. Open where he made the semifinal, and he got more press than the guy who won the damn thing. So it’s not like he was some washed-up mope pathetically clinging to his long-lost glory days. (IIRC Bjorn Borg had that particular distinction, but let’s not get sidetracked here.)
Woods is not in this spot. Realistically, the last time he was in it was 2013, seemingly yet another renaissance which nobody at the time (least of all me) realized was more like a swan song. His recent rounds have been absolutely putrid by professional standards, let alone the benchmarks he set in happier times. He’s now fully paying the price for all those spectacular saves he made in the past, and now he’s banging up his wrists as well. Sure, he can keep this ride going for as long as he wants, but what’s the point anymore? Missed cuts and way-down-there results mean no ranking points, almost no FedEx Cup points, absolutely no chance of making the Ryder Cup or any other team event. He won’t ever win another money title or player of the year award…at what point does living become just existing?
The best thing would be to start the transition to something else. He’d make a fine golf instructor, and recent months have humiliated him enough that it could actually be appealing to him. And let’s be honest, this is pretty much the only chance of him actually bringing young black players into the sport. Y’know, what his legacy was really supposed to be.
I dunno that he is as washed up as some folk are saying. IMO, in golf the line between top 5 and missed cut is awfully fine. Get a hot putter over 4 days, and anyone can be a contender in any given week. If Tiger played anywhere near a full schedule, I’d bet considerable cash that he’d win at least 1 tourney a year
But that is not who Tiger has been. He was a contender EVERY week. And he wasn’t interested in top 5s in the majors, he wanted nothing but wins. In addition to his incredible play, he flat out intimidated his competitors, causing them to fade when he was in the hunt. I would imagine it would be difficult for him to adjust to think of himself as an also-ran, waiting for lightning to strike on any given week.
I’m not sure he has what it takes to be a great instructor. Look around all sports, and the best coaches and teachers weren’t necessarily the best competitors. And what worked for Tiger might not work for someone who lacked his physical/mental makeup.
Everyone who says Tiger should do whatever the hell he wants, you are absolutely right. But if I were Tiger, I’d look for new challenges, and ways to make myself as happy and fulfilled as possible. Some areas I’d imagine being fruitful are business - whether as an investor, golf course architect, business owner… Also, I could imagine getting a ton of satisfaction out of using my wealth, fame, and influence to address charitable causes. I imagine he already has some sort of charitable foundation, but he might shift more of his efforts in that direction. He is also supremely positioned to be an ambassador for the sport, burnishing his personal image in the process.
But being the jerk that I am, I’m perfectly happy for him to continue flailing about, missing cuts. 
I’m not a Tiger fan, but if he wants to play I’m not going to complain. He’s a top 3 all time golfer, arguably the GOAT. Maybe if he continues it gives some people a chance to see him for the first time. I have no idea if he’s completely healthy or how seriously he’s taking golf this year. But if the answer to either of those is not 100%, then we know he’s capable of winning.
The Lifetime Exemption does have at least one performance loophole. A player must have a stroke average within three strokes of the field average of the tournaments he plays in.
So a player like Woods (or Mickelson or Singh or Love) cannot indefinitely post 78s and keep their lifetime exemption.
FWIW, this forum is the citation but I have read/heard in other sources
It is also posted in this google forum from a few years ago, referencing Andy Pazder who was (is?) the Tour’s Senior VP of Tournament Administration
I don’t think he is washed up either and I think he will break the Majors record.
Just my $.02.
Slight nit but I don’t believe he ever came from behind on a Sunday to win a Major. As such, maybe it should be when he was in the lead then all others faded.
Fair enough, but it will be hard-he’ll turn 40 this December, and nobody has won more than 3 majors after that birthdate. And now he will have to contend with another elite player or two, in Spieth and/or McIlroy, and try to beat them when they are also playing lights out (or catch them on off-weekends).
Realistically, this would have to happen in the next 5 years: Tiger’s physical condition does not make him a good candidate for significant success past his 45th birthday.
He can play in 22 major championships during that time, and must win 5 of them (22.7%). This is well ahead of his historical rate of success in major tournaments (17.9%) since his debut in 1997. It’s behind what he achieved (29.2%) during the years that span his 14 wins (1997 - 2008) - but not dramatically behind.
To put this in perspective: in the past 70 years just 4 golfers (by my count) have managed to win as many as 5 majors in 22 tries: Nicklaus, Woods, Watson and Hogan. Does Tiger at 39 look likely to do that?
IMO, this would be something of a long shot if he were still ranked in the top 10 and winning occasional tournaments. Given where he actually is, I’d say the chance of this happening is now less than 1 in 100.
I think this is a very good assessment of the task ahead. I too think it highly unlikely and the current crop of young players are far better than those on offer during Tiger’s heyday.
It is true of Tiger (and probably true of such as Nadal) that their style of play is the both a key reason they’ve won so many major titles and a key reason why they won’t beat the overall record.
Arnold Palmer did it as well in the early 1960’s. 5 majors in 11 starts (from 1960 Masters to 1962 British Open) and 6 majors in 17 starts (1960 Masters to 1964 Masters).
And Rory has 4 wins in 17 starts, so he has 5 more opportunities to get his 5th.
Oh, I never said Connors was terrible or that he was embarrassing himself. But toward the end, he had reached a stage where he COULDN’T win the US Open, he KNEW he couldn’t win the US Open, and would need a hell of an effort and a lot of luck to make the quarterfinals.
For Chris Evert, losing in the quarterfinals to a player she’d have trounced in her prime would be unbearable. She preferred retirement to being a PRETTY good pro. Connors, on the other hand, was still having fun and was still making good money, and had nothing he’d rather do than keep playing.
I understand BOTH attitudes. That’s why I won’t tell Tiger Woods what to do. I do NOT think he’s totally washed up. I believe he can make a pretty strong physical recovery. I believe he CAN still win a few more tournaments, maybe even a major or two. But he’s NEVER going to be the dominant player he once was. He can continue being a very solid pro golfer if he wants to, if the game is still fun for him.
IS the game fun for him? Has it ever been? I just don’t know.
Thanks for the correction - I’m embarrassed to have omitted Arnie (whom I’ve met and consider a true gentleman).
And you’d probably have trouble finding people who’d bet large sums against Jordan Spieth winning 3 of 20.
But this is indeed a rare accomplishment, never achieved by anyone close to Tiger’s age.
I don’t know about large sums, but Spieth has to do a little more to prove he has staying power and isn’t a Johnny Miller, or David Duvall. Sure, he looks awfully good now, but he’s awfully young. Several guys have put together a couple of good years and then receded to journeyman status. Think how much promise guys like Dufner and Bradley looked like they had just a couple years ago.
Not taking anything away from the guy - just saying it will take a little longer for him to prove that he is GREAT, rather than just really really good!