Quite Possibly The Worst Tiger Column I've Ever Read

If you want to read a laugh-out-loud Tiger column, do not miss George Vecsey's declaration of Woods' downfall as the worst "anyone has ever seen." Two top-5s in majors this year--a career for some--and one really bad tournament, and the guy might as well just pack it in. 

From yes, the paper of record...

After Woods played the worst tournament of his career last weekend, I began to wonder: has any great athlete, at the top of any sport, ever had his or her game blown to smithereens so fast — not just from age, not just from injury, but pretty obviously from some deeper miasma of psyche and soma.

“He can’t read the greens!” exclaimed an old friend on the phone the other night, the near nonagenarian Bill Mazer, a great New York sports broadcaster and a particular expert on technique and kinesiology. (The Amazing Mr. Mazer works out almost every day.) I don’t claim to understand golf,

Really?

but what I think Bill was telling me was, this guy’s game is really messed up.

Nothing gets by Bill!

Tiger Woods has put himself in a slump the likes of which nobody has seen. He always had his father and skilled advisers, and his own confidence. Now he is alone.

Tell that to Sean Foley!

But has anybody ever imploded the way Woods has? I put the question to some valued older colleagues.

Mazer suggested Mike Tyson, 23, a bully who had never been challenged, suddenly getting knocked outby Buster Douglas in 1990 and never recovering his mojo.

And who else did you go to for insights into this implosion?

Bud Collins, a journalist for all seasons before he became the gaudy tennis guru of our age,

And frequent observer of golf tournaments, right?

noted how Michael Vick could not regain his stride after doing time for dogfighting.

Jail has a funny way of doing that to people.

Also on a moral plane, Collins suggested Roscoe Tanner, one of the hardest hitters in tennis, who wrecked his life with shady financial dealings.

Tiger doesn't have that problem at least. So he's got that going for him.

Frank Litsky, the longtime New York Times sportswriter, recalled covering Joe Louis’s fight with Rocky Marciano in 1951, and how Louis’s physique and mental state were “pathetic.” But Louis was 38 by then, ancient for a boxer, and drained by too many punches, too much life.

Several colleagues recalled watching Willie Mays stumble around with the Mets in the 1973 postseason, but Mays was 42, being used almost as a mascot by the Mets’ ownership. Not his fault.

Yep, I can see by those standards Tiger is all washed up. Stick a fork in him. He's done alright!

And I think based on the quality of this column, someone else is in a writing slump the likes of which no one has ever seen.