It appears as though Tiger Woods is still a long way from being the golfer he used to be. After being slotted as the #1 seed in the Sam Snead bracket of the 2011 Accenture Match Play in Tucson, Woods fell victim to the 16th-seededThomas Bjorn, who won in 19 holes on Wednesday.
Match play is a difficult game, but Woods is supposed to be the preeminent golfer of his generation. Flaming out on the extra hole? That's not his style.
SB Nation's golf blog, Waggle Room, wrote more about Tiger and some scathing comments from his former coach, Hank Haney:
"For all the talk of Tiger's poor driving the last 6 years," Haney tweeted, "I have never seen him drive it out of play with a match or tournament on the line."
Haney’s observation came after Woods, who had pushed the match to extra innings with a clutch eight-foot putt on 18, clubbed his first overtime tee shot into downtown Tucson. Game, set, match, when Woods could only hack his golf ball a few feet out of the prickly desert brush.
A decidedly prickly golfer stopped briefly to tell Golf Channel/NBC’s Roger Maltbie he was unhappy with his performance, the state of his game, and, who knows, maybe coach Sean Foley.
Will Tiger ever recover his roar? It sure won't be this weekend. There's a lot of golf left, and Phil Mickelson is still alive in the competition.