Why Tiger Woods disappointed his backers for the US Masters

The big story surrounding Tiger Woods at the 2013 Masters was his two-shot penalty in the second round – but did that mask a more pressing issue for the world No 1?

Many golf fans thought Woods was lucky to be playing at Augusta over the weekend rather than being disqualified after admitting he had dropped his ball in the wrong place having found water on the 15th hole.

Ultimately the 14-time Major champion finished four shots behind winner Adam Scott and Angel Cabrera, whom the Australian beat in a play-off, so on the bare stats the penalty only cost him a share of third place with Jason Day.

However, once more Tiger had every chance of winning a fifth Masters title and first since 2005 yet came up short, so the question has to be asked: why?

It’s perhaps a little early to claim that one of the sport’s greatest ever players, if not the greatest, is starting to feel the pressure in the heat of battle now he is getting older to a much bigger extent than he did in his younger days.

After all, he has won six PGA Tour titles during 2012 and 2013 and that would not be the case if his ‘bottle’ was starting to go.

But none of them has been a Major, and this year’s US Open in June will mark five years since Woods last tasted victory in one of the events that form golf’s grand slam.

Now he is back on song and at the top of the world rankings again, all golf pundits are speculating on when, or if, Tiger will break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 19 Major wins.

It’s a landmark he is asked about at every press conference in the week leading up to the start of a Major and he understandably trots out the same answer: “I’ve plenty of time – Jack won the Masters at 46.” That gives him the best part of a decade.

And yet the longer he goes without winning a Major, the more it must play on Tiger’s mind.

It became a huge issue for Colin Montgomerie, who ultimately never sampled Major success, and now Lee Westwood is enduring the same mental anguish. These guys are only human so it must affect them – and Woods is human too, even though he often gave the impression of being a golfing robot in his pomp.

Perhaps the way to end his Major drought will be to produce one of the demonstrations he came up with so regularly during the early 2000s, such as his 15-shot victory in the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach. After all, he has never won a Major from behind at the start of the last round and that may be no coincidence.

Golfers say the older they get, the more nervous they become when victory is in sight. You often hear the quote “these young guys are fearless”, but that is never said about the older generation.

Experience helps, of course, but a faster heart-rate is simply human nature – even for Tiger Woods.

Guest post from Jon Wilde from Bettingpro.com