Seve Ballesteros was the best player in the world in the early and mid 80's,
but when he chunked that ball into the water at Augusta in 1986, he later
admitted this was the shot that killed him. He admitted that his self
confidence had taken such a huge hit, that he had always *known* he was
going to win, that he was never quite the same golfer again, despite winning
many times therereafter, including the Open in 1988 and much Ryder Cup
success.
My question for you to opine upon is,
"Was Tiger's bogey in the final round at Augusta when he misclubbed off the
tee (and the slip of the tongue that seemed to imply a little tension
between him and Steve Williams) *potentially* a similar situation - i.e
planted a seed of doubt in his confidence about his swing holding up under
pressure, that he could make things happen at will etc".
Now, it's stupid to write Tiger off now, and if he werent Tiger we would be
saying he had a pretty good season so far, but he is Tiger, so it is
inevitable he will be talked about as slumping and naive to think otherwise.
It's also stupid to say that for sure 100% Tiger will be back to his best.
You just don't know in this game, although you wouldn't bet against Tiger
turning it all back around sometime soon. But do you think that we just
might have seen a seismic change in both his confidence, and his rivals
confidence, which coupled with a split with Butch and some swing problems
might lead to a Seve like dwindling in *** with this one isolated tee
shot at Augusta? Tiger could win 5 times every year for 10 years and no more
majors, he'll be one of the best ever, but I doubt he would be happy with
that, we all know he's after 19 majors and at one time it looked like it
would almost be a formality barring injury. I can't see him not winning
more, but I wouldn't argue with anyone who said they thought he would
perhaps pick up another 3 or 4 and that's it (which would still be
incredible). I hope he does get back to his very best and racks up a few
majors every season, but I really hope that we didn't see the beginning of
the end for this amazing golfer (and by "end" please take that in the
context of the Seve example I pointed out)
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