Tiger Woods takes indefinite leave of absence

After struggling mightily in his first two events of the year, Tiger Woods has already announced surrender.

New swing. New attitude. New Tiger Woods. Right? No.

It’s once again been the same “old” Tiger, struggling with injuries, missing cuts and withdrawing from tournaments.

More from Golf

Woods, has now announced surrender. He will take an indefinite leave of absence to work on his game, ultimately aiming to finally get tournament ready.

He released as statement today through is official website:

"“The last two weeks have been very disappointing to me, especially Torrey, because I never want to withdraw. Unfortunately, lately injuries have made that happen too often.This latest injury is not related to my previous surgery. I am having daily physical therapy and I am feeling better every day.Right now, I need a lot of work on my game, and to still spend time with the people that are important to me. My play, and scores, are not acceptable for tournament golf. Like I’ve said, I enter a tournament to compete at the highest level, and when I think I’m ready, I’ll be back. Next week I will practice at Medalist and at home getting ready for the rest of the year. I am committed to getting back to the pinnacle of my game. I’d like to play The Honda Classic — it’s a tournament in my hometown and it’s important to me — but I won’t be there unless my game is tournament-ready. That’s not fair to anyone. I do, however, expect to be playing again very soon.I want to thank the fans in Phoenix and San Diego. They were amazing. I greatly appreciate everyone’s support.”"

There’s no secret what Tiger’s mere presence does for the game of golf. He pumps wanted energy into the sport that obviously lacks when he’s not around.

PGA Tour officials were hoping that everything “new” about Tiger this past winter was for real.

After only two events, the talk surrounding his new swing, approach and mindset was just that: talk.

While injuries have been explanation for his issues, something more serious remains within Tiger’s game. For a guy who was game any time, any place, all of a sudden cannot chip the ball. It seems the mental block that’s plagued him since his troubles in 2009 will never go away.

I mean, you couldn’t have drawn up a worse start for 2015 for Woods. Shooting a career low 82 in the second round of the Phoenix Open was simply stunning.

Fans gathered around to witness the comeback, but what they saw was the continuing fallout.

Then, Woods was forced to withdraw from the Farmers Insurance Open last week after only 12 holes due to a back injury. Forced is obviously the key word as withdrawing due to poor play is more likely the answer.

Unfortunately for Tiger, withdrawing from tournaments has become his calling card.

Only participating in seven tournaments last year, he was forced out of two of them while missing the cut on two other occasions.

It’s amazing. Just seven-years ago we would have said Woods had the strongest competitive mental capabilities of any athlete on the planet. Now, at 39, he is crumbling in his own head.

One of the major problems for Tiger now is the fact that these youngsters – Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Adam Scott and Ricky Fowler to name a few – aren’t scared of him. Back in the early 2000’s, his competition was frightened beyond belief, including Phil Mickelson.

When those guys saw him charging down the back-nine with a monstrous crowd of his loyal followers, they wilted under the legacy that was Tiger.

The man who was as safe a bet as anyone to pass Jack Nicklaus’ all-time mark of 18 majors is now a decided underdog to pick up five more.

For Tiger’s sake, I hope he keeps any hype about coming back strong to himself. Don’t let info leak about coming back strong, just do it.

More from FanSided

Home/Golf