Tiger's rocky road

Woods faces the facts of another title gone

It has taken three hugely disappointing Majors to prove that Tiger Woods is mortal after all.

By his own high standards, conceding two of his treasured titles was a bad blip.

Giving up the third, the USPGA, is enough to consider the events of the last four months as something of a demise in the American's enormously successful career.

It is not as though he has been pipped at the post either.

He almost missed the cut at the US Open at Southern Hills, Tulsa, and went close to going out after the second round of the USPGA as well.

No hat-trick for Woods at the USPGA

As with The Open at Royal Lytham, Woods' deficit going into the final round proved too big to make up. He ended up relinquishing all three titles by a formidable margin.

It is all a far cry from 8 April when, with victory in the 65th US Masters at Augusta, he became the first golfer to hold all four Major titles simultaneously.

At the tender age of 25, Woods' record-breaking achievement appeared to have sent him out of reach of his peers. Some experts expressed their concerns over his domination, claiming it would damage the game as a whole.

But now, having failed to win a title since the start of June, perhaps these concerns have less standing.

Bidding for a third successive USPGA title, Woods reproduced the shaky start at the Athletic Club in Atlanta that had so badly affected his US Open ambitions.

At the US Open he shot a four-over-par first-round 74, following it with a second-round 71. He entered the final round nine shots behind and finished the tournament three-over-par, seven shots adrift of winner Retief Goosen.

At the USPGA, Woods shot a three-over par first round 73 and had all sorts of trouble with his driver and putter.

Erratic

It took a reversion to one of his trademark 50-foot putts on the tough 15th to secure a crucial birdie that effectively saved him a place in the cut.

Yet on level par, he was nine shots off the pace and an erratic third day saw him fall 13 shots behind leader David Toms.

Woods cannot stop the rot

Where there had been anticipation of one of Woods' characteristic late challenges in Tulsa, his failure to perform meant there was an unfamiliar air of pessimism over his chances of a fight-back in Atlanta.

Consequently, two bogeys in his last two third-round holes and a disastrous start to the fourth day put paid to his challenge and he finished up on one under for the tournament.

It meant for the first time in his career, the world number failed to finish in the top 10 for five consecutive tournaments.

Yet Woods was not overly concerned and took a philosophical approach to his USPGA display.

"It's part of playing sports," Woods said. "You can't play well all the time. You can't have everything go your way all the time.

"I'm just as focused. But it didn't happen.

"I don't play that often. When I do, I give it everything I've got. When I play the best I can, as I have this week, no regrets," he added.

It is worth remembering that he still holds the Masters crown and remains the world number one, tops the US PGA scoring average, leads the US Ryder Cup points list and heads the US PGA tour money list.