Cure for Tiger's ills is just going out and playing

Cure for Tiger's ills is just going out and playing

Tiger Woods, who seems forever to be jumping hurdles at this stage of his career rather than just playing golf. He's always hurting, despite being known as a workout nut with a body built to last. Always working on his swing, too, as if it ever really needed a major overhaul. Silly to predict great results for Woods on the TPC Stadium Phil Mickelson VS Bubba Watson Course later this week. It's been a month since he last played on the PGA Tour, and even then there was an air of mystery in his results. Left knee and Achilles' tendon injuries were given as the reason he withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina, and that damage reportedly resulted from a shot hit awkwardly off a bed of pine straw near the end of Woods' third round at the Masters.

OK, but how do you explain Tiger's fourth round at Augusta National, a brilliant 67 that showed few signs of weakness? If there had been a green-jacket ceremony for Tiger that evening, he surely didn't look like a guy who would have limped to it.

The Players Championship doesn't play favorites quite so much. There's nowhere to put a bad drive, and no hope of scrambling to save par for those who miss the island green at No. 17. For all the amazing things he has accomplished, Tiger has taken home the Players trophy just once, and that was a decade ago. He withdrew from last year's tournament with a neck injury six holes into the final round and was something like 10 shots off Tim Clark's winning pace at the time. Altogether, there's been just one top-10 finish for Tiger in this event over the last 10 years. Fair to say, then, that it would be a surprise if he took a run at winning it now.

When, if ever, do we get to the point where it would rank as a surprise to see Tiger rack up the five additional major titles it will take him to pass Nicklaus' all-time record of 18? For me, that tipping point will come at the conclusion of the 2011 season, unless Tiger does one of two things in the meantime. The first is obvious enough. Win a major this summer and everything's back on track. The best chance might be Royal St. George's, where Tiger finished tied for fourth in the 2003 British Open, two shots behind Ben Curtis.

The second is much simpler but it counts for a lot. Get through the rest of the season without another injury . Do that and all the obsessive swing tweaking may finally give way to all the old aggressive moves. That would be the sign of a Tiger no longer wounded, no longer in need of a physical coach or a mental crutch.