I think we'd all just be guessing, so I won't venture a guess for the moment. But I tell you what, he is awful on par 5's now, and that used to be his guaranteed 10 birdies per tournament. He led the tour in par 5 birdie or better percentage for basically the entire decade of the 2000's, never being under 52%, and in 2012 and 2013, he was under 50% for the first time ever, and in 2014, he's at 17%. 17! And he just made bogey and par this morning on the first par 5s he faced.
As for why he's so terrible now on par 5's, it probably all plays into it. He isn't putting well right now. He half a stroke per round below tour average in strokes gained putting. So he's losing 2 strokes per tournament on the green relative to average.
He's not driving it well. Only 51% accuracy.
His approaches aren't great. Only hitting 57% of the greens.
Add all that up, and you can't birdie a par 5 anymore when that used to be the anchor of your entire game.
For the first time, I'm worried for Tiger. I've never wavered on my belief that he'd still easily pass Jack, but now, even though it's just a few tournaments in 2014, I'm starting to think maybe he is "done," for lack of a better term. He'll still have his weeks here and there, but the fact that he is regressing in what is now his third (?) full season with Foley makes me think he has lost whatever he used to have.
[This message has been edited by watty (edited 3/7/2014 8:42a).]
