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To put his round in perspective, only four of the 68 players who teed off on the final day shot worse. On a day Pebble Beach was there for the taking, Woods got taken.
And then the excuses began.
"I didn't hit it as bad as the score indicated, but I putted awful," he said. "I just could not see my lines. I couldn't get comfortable."
For those keeping score at home, he hasn't won a real tournament (I don't count the 18-man invitational he hosts and won in December, though Woods does) in 27 months; hasn't won on the PGA Tour in 29 months. It's been nearly four years since he won his last major at Torrey Pines, and he's now 36 with a history of knee issues.
That doesn't mean he's not going to win again. He surely will, because he's still immensely talented. But those wins will come sporadically instead of in bunches, the way they used to.
The majors will be more problematic. Woods might still win a Masters or two, if only because he knows where to play every shot, every putt, at Augusta National. He might pick up a stray British Open or maybe a PGA Championship, assuming that he can get himself to believe once again that he becomes invincible when he puts on his Sunday red.
The majors are how Woods keeps score, and right now Jack Nicklaus is still ahead 18-14. It was almost a foregone conclusion after the U.S. Open in 2008 that he would catch Nicklaus, but my guess now is he never will.
His personal issues and constant swing tinkering threw him a curve ball that will be tough to recover from. But it's more his putting now, with his nerves betraying him on short putts that were always gimmes in his prime. That happens to golfers as they age, and it's happening to even the great Tiger Woods.
The golf season is well underway, with Los Angeles next week the last tournament on the West Coast swing. The Masters awaits less than two months from now, and it's entirely conceivable his winless streak will be even longer by then.
Tiger Woods in red on Sunday used to mean something.
Now he's become just another player, wearing another color.
[Associated Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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