Orlimar1
True. And Tiger does seem somewhat obsessed, if not outright distracted, with his swing/ball speed, as evidenced by his interview earlier in the week last week when he mentioned he was pleased with the speed of his swing coming along, back to more of a "normal level" (whatever that is).... as if that alone is going to channel his old form and make everything like it used to be.
There are a lot of guys on tour (Furyk, Zach Johnson, etc.) who've figured out how to be highly competitive with average at-best length off the tee, even in their older years (Johnson is 40, Furyk is 46). Of course, they've never relied on power to be successful, but rather excellent iron play and putting.
The only chance Tiger has with making it back to a competitive level is coming to terms with the realization that he can't physically achieve the same level of swing speed he used to, not without compromising first and foremost his back problem, and obviously his accuracy. It won't be an easy transition for him for ego reasons... not to mention that he's always swung 100+ percent off the tee, which will take a lot of disciplined repetitions to engrain a slower timing sequence into the ball.
Above and beyond all of the swing changes he's made over the years, slowing down his swing speed and aggression level at impact will be most difficult, because suddenly he's dealing with a different swing rhythm and timing sequence that he hasn't been familiar with over all the years he's played. It won't be an easy transition, but it doesn't make it any less important to achieve if he truly desires to prevent injury and find a softer swing that he can control to a much larger degree, even if it requires adding another club or possibly two to achieve the desired distance.
Otherwise he's looking at a quick return followed by another quick hiatus, and perhaps the final hiatus.
He just doesn't seem to have the discipline to change that, again as evidenced by his obsession with this swing/ball speed numbers. And if that doesn't change, what little success he might return to will be short-lived. If two major surgeries on his back aren't enough to change his swing philosophy, then nothing will.
