By DEVON SMITH
Tiger Woods is losing his grip on his audience.
People had high hopes for the former golfing great at the beginning of the Masters Tournament on April 5, after a decisive victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational just two weeks earlier.
Woods also had hopes of his own; as he was just one win away from tying Jack Nicklaus for the second-most PGA Tour titles of all-time.
His hopes dwindled when he struggled through the first round of the tournament. It was in the second round, however, that he really fell apart. After a series of bogeys and penalty strokes, Woods found himself on the 16th tee, making yet another bad shot.
He proceeded to toss his driver to the ground and kick it across the grass in anger.
The next two rounds didn’t go much better for a disgruntled Woods, who finished 40th overall in the tournament.
I saw this tournament as a chance for Woods to redeem himself, a chance to have his name cast in a positive light again and possibly regain some fans.
Woods still has a summer full of tournaments to prove himself, but my question now is: will anybody care?
The one-time golf prodigy and face of the sport has sunken into a sad state. Granted, his personal life has been rocky.
The man brought a whole world of problems down on himself approximately two years ago when he got caught with his Nike shorts around his ankles.
It undoubtedly affected his game afterwards, a fact which brought him little sympathy.
But even now, Woods seems to be a different person on the course.
In the past couple of years, he has dropped out of tournaments several times over questionable injuries and has had more outbursts and fits than ever.
His professionalism has deteriorated along with his performance.
I’m sure he feels a lot of pressure, but you don’t see other golfers routinely quitting in the middle of tournaments or kicking their clubs around.
For somebody worth $500 million, he does a lot of complaining. I can’t speak for everyone when I say this, but my interest in Woods will continue to wane unless he has a serious change in attitude.
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