Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Hope for Tiger? Jack Was In a Similar Spot at Age 39?

Comments by the Golden Bear on national TV on Sunday at the Memorial Tournament have given Tiger fans (and people who rely on golf for income) "reason for optimism". It appears Jack was in a similar predicament at the very same age as we find the once great "hope of golf", the one and only Eldrick "Tiger" Woods. Yup, Jack went into a slump in 1979, one he described as "a sorry state for playing golf". He couldn't chip, he was putting around bunkers. He had gotten way too vertical and as a result, was hitting soft popups with his irons. OK, definitely some similarities with Tiger's current situation there. Jack was so frustrated that he didn't touch a club for months but then, through intensive practice and return to basics, he was able to make a stunning comeback, winning 2 majors the next year (1980). So, if Jack was able to do this at the age of 39, surely the greatest golf talent of all time should be able to as well - right?

Well, not so fast there. Let's compare the two slumps. We'll just go with majors since that's what they both concentrated on primarily. If we take the last 16 majors, 2015 back through 2011, Tiger has 4 top 10 finishes. Among those 16 tourneys, he has 4 DNPs. Other finishes were - 40th, 21st, 11th, 32nd, 40th, 69th and 17th and 2 Missed Cuts (and now he has another MC at the 2015 US Open). OK, that sounds like a major slump. In Jack's "slump" year, he finished in the Top 10 three times and the top 5 two times! In his 16 majors, during the period 1976-1979, he had 13 Top Tens and 9 Top Fives. He had one major championship win, the '78 British Open. That's not much of a slump by any standards. I guess Jack laments his 65th place finish in the '79 PGA but just a few weeks prior to that dismal performance, he finished 2nd at the British Open. If I had to grade the 16 comparable major performances, I would give Jack an A-; as for Tiger, he'd get a D+. Actually, Tiger probably should get an "F", and I base that on his own established standards of performance in major tournaments.

So, Jack did indeed have a dip in performance at the end of '79. But, it lasted for perhaps 2 months before he cut bait and decided to go back to the drawing board. How far in the past was the muscle memory that had carried him to the best career in golf history? Not that far. There weren't contrary swing thoughts going on during his execution nor was he hampered by conflicting techniques from multiple teachers who taught different styles; Jack retained the same teacher for his entire career. In short, he only had to wipe out a short period of bad swing thoughts, all of which were a result of his own swing faults and not an issue created by employing a variety of teachers. A final note: although he did have some physical problems at times, none of them could be classified as serious injuries.

As for Tiger.... where do I start? Well, we all know that he's had a variety of injuries which any reasonable person would classify as serious. He's had at least 4 major swing changes in the last 15 years, with the frequency of that tactic accelerating in recent years. It's now almost 2 full years since he won just a regular season tourney. Regarding the majors, it's been a full 7 years since he was victorious at one of them. Those are significant periods in which one has not experienced victory. There's little doubt that both his muscle memory and his competitive train of thought are a mess. In addition, he's been embarrassed numerous times, both on and off the course, and that has to take a toll on a person. (the thought of scandal in Nicklaus' life is laughable; he had one of the most stable off-the-course environments in professional athletics)

Jack's suggestions, based on the parallels between his slump and Tiger's, are well intentioned but the bottom line is that Tiger faces far bigger hurdles than Jack had to overcome in 1979. Greg Norman recently talked about the adverse effect surgeries have on the body and how this impairs its attempts to perform difficult physical tasks (the golf swing would surely qualify as that). I myself have experience with trying to make a swing change and it's a very difficult thing if your muscle memory is telling you to do something else. And that's only one change; I can't imagine what being on your 4th swing change would be like. Add to these things the turbulence in his "outside the ropes" life and you have a huge challenge to overcome. It's like climbing Everest with a pick axe and a snow suit; and right now Tiger seems to be stuck in a snowstorm at the bottom, looking futilely for a way to the top.

 

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