Please, Tiger, Make Us Believe Again

Jim Thorpe. Muhammad Ali. Larry Bird. You can name them all, spanning from the days of leather helmets through modern times featuring the marriage of hip hop with sports, and it's like this: Never has a great player in the midst of struggle deserved the benefit of the doubt more than Tiger Woods. That said, let's get to the point.

Is Tiger finished?

I mean, as a great player.

Hey, I'm just asking, because everybody else is. Folks only are doing so from the shadows, because they fear getting embarrassed by another miraculous something from Woods during the next few weeks or months along his way to becoming not only the most prolific golfer not of our time but of all time.

For now, Woods is fluctuating between ordinary and good. So you wonder if he'll reach great again on a consistent basis. After all, he has that surgically repaired knee issue. He says it is no issue, but you wonder. You also wonder about history, because even great players have felt the inferno in their bellies become a flame after a while. And don't forget that Earl Woods, Tigers' late father, told TV Guide in 2001 that his son wouldn't marry until he was significantly past his 30th birthday. Said Earl in that interview, "He has a lot to accomplish in the game of golf. And, let's face it: A wife can sometimes be a deterrent to a good game of golf. The level he is at, the finite little problems (involved with marriage) would destroy him."

Tiger did marry, by the way, and he did so five years ago -- at 28. Not only that, those possible "finite little problems" for Woods recently expanded since his wife gave birth in February to their second child.

This is Eldrick Tont Woods, though, and he really is entitled to the benefit of the doubt for so many reasons. He's 33, a teenager by golf standards, and he remains a chiseled master of fitness. He has those 14 major championships to sit just five shy of shattering Jack Nicklaus' record. Plus, even now, with Tiger lacking his vintage roar more often than not, he has finished 15 consecutive PGA events in the Top 10. He also discovered a way on that last hole at Bay Hill in March to transform the improbable into the spectacular with a winning putt from 12 feet.



It's just that you have all of those other things involving Woods these days, and they aren't pretty. For instance: Vintage Tiger doesn't spend the clutch part of tournaments hitting trees (the Masters) or splashing water (The Players Championship). Vintage Tiger doesn't have drives that often are allergic to fairways. Vintage Tiger doesn't leave putts consistently shorter, longer or wider than planned. Mostly, vintage Tiger doesn't threaten to replace the famous red shirt that he wears on the final day of tournaments with an infamous white one -- you know, as in surrender.

There was last Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, for instance, when Woods did a rarity while playing with the final group: He never was in contention.

Worse, he shot a 73.

Worse, it was how he got to that 73. When he wasn't missing eight of 14 fairways, he was struggling hitting greens (44 of 72). He's had significant issues during most of his outings, stretching from Quail Hollow to Doral Resort and Golf Spa to every point in between during his four months since he returned from an eight-month layoff after he had his left knee surgically reconstructed.

Such an operation doesn't inspire confidence. Not for those wanting a great player to remain great in the aftermath. Remember, too, that golfers depend on their knees as much as anybody. Those knees affect their ability to have an effective swing, and guess what Woods' biggest problem is now? Yep. Said Woods, to reporters after his slew of ineffective swings at The Players Championship, "I just kept hitting those spinners up to the right, and it was frustrating, because if I aim down the right side, I'd spin it to the right. If I aim down the left side, I spin it to the right."

According to Woods, his swing just needs a few tweaks here and there from Hank Haney, his swing coach. According to Woods, "The knee feels fine."

We want to believe Tiger. We really do.

The problem is, greatness requires actions instead of words, and in Woods' case, we're still waiting -- and hoping.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.