Time may be running out for Woods in bid for sporting immortality

When Tiger Woods hinted in his pre-Masters press conference that his best may still be to come, it smacked of a man losing a fingerhold on reality.

The best of Tiger Woods has not been seen for a decade.

He arrived at Augusta 10 years ago holding three major titles and his consumate two-shot victory that week completed what became known as the ‘Tiger Slam’ and was as close as anyone has ever come to the grand slam of all four majors in a calendar year.

Woods was untouchable in 2001; in 2011 he is losing touch.

Down as low as No 7 in the world, his victory drought extends 17 months – the longest of his career – and while he may at last be getting his private life back on track after such a dramatic unravelling of his off-the-course flaws, he seems a long way from doing so on it.

Now 35, he is going through the second big swing change of his life in his pursuit of greatness.

While he may again be talking the talk of the Woods of old, he is certainly not walking the walk.

Ian Poulter chastened him earlier this week by saying he was guilty of a ‘couple of inconsistent shots’, but that is not the biggest problem engulfing Woods right now.

It is his putting, which was once so infallible, that is now proving his Achilles heel. Putting needs to be razor sharp on the slick greens of Augusta, a dependable asset for anyone with designs on the green jacket. Sort his putting out overnight, and the man ranked 107th on the greens on this year’s PGA Tour will be a force as he chases a fifth Masters title.

His putting travails may, though, be masked by his iron-clad willpower. On his return from an enforced five-month hiatus last year, when he had hardly picked up a club as he tried to save his off-the-course reputation, he still finished tied fourth at Augusta.

That was through sheer determination and heart. Those are attributes that while ever Jack Nicklaus’s haul of 18 major titles is within touching distance will drive him on.

But with more questions than answers about the man who used to be the game’s undeniable force, Woods tees off today with people looking elsewhere for the winner of the year’s first major.

For 2011 will be a decisive year in Woods’s bid for the major haul that will seal his sporting immortality. At his age, he can ill-afford many more barren years. And will he want to continue competing if his sabbatical from the summit continues?

The players who have passed him on the rankings are a mix of those who have spent their entire careers in his shadow and have learned how to get the better of him, and those that do not care who he is.

Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood fall into the former camp. They have tussled with the Tiger for much of their careers and in Mickelson’s case, have at last bested him on the rankings at least.

People’s favourite ‘Lefty’ had looked a fading star himself since winning at Augusta 12 months ago, but in Houston last week showed a flicker of his best.

Woods presents no mental barrier to Westwood, whose only weakness lay in whether he has the ability to step up on the back nine of a major and close the deal.

Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer fall into the latter category. The Ulsterman and the German are the new breed of European golfers – major winners.

McDowell may have blossomed a little later than Kaymer, but his breakthrough at the US Open at Pebble Beach last year has elevated his game and his belief.

Kaymer is just relentless. He is winning tournaments around the world at a frightening pace and plays with the steely-eyed determination of a younger Woods in his pomp.

Luke Donald and Paul Casey are the other two ahead of Woods, making it three Englishmen in the world’s top six. Both have stared down Woods and beaten him, but not when it matters most, at a major. For that is when greatness is on the line, when Woods so often prevails.

Behind America’s traditional heavyweight duo is a similar crop of exciting young Americans; Nick Watney, Hunter Mahan, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Anthony Kim. But it is the Europeans who are creating the stir. Four Ryder Cups have been won of the last five contested, while a win at the Masters would complete a European Tour clean sweep of the majors – Louis Oosthuizen won The Open – and leave America without any of the majors or the Ryder Cup for the first time.

But if a power shift is to truly occur in 2011, and indeed this week at Augusta, one of the new breed needs to deliver the telling blows on Sunday night.

Seve Ballesteros ushered in a new era in 1980 when the Europeans of Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle and Jose Maria Olazabal turned the majesty of Augusta into the European Tour’s play thing. Woods changed the face of the game in 1997, and belatedly Mickelson got involved in 2004.

The question now is do the Europeans have what it takes to alter golf’s tectonic plates? Since Olazabal’s second win in 1999, no European has walked into Butler Cabin triumphant. Not since Faldo reined in a crumbling Greg Norman 15 years ago has an Englishman won a major, let alone the Masters.

The queue to dethrone Woods, though, is growing by the major as golf prepares for a new dawn.