All season long the mainstream golf media has bombarded us with repetitive reports when Tiger plays well, and optimistic missives of how he will bounce back from less than stellar performances. Each time, all that is proven is that Tiger is no longer the Tiger of old.   He has entered the autumn of his career. Sooner or later it happens to everyone.

At the beginning of this year, I observed that Tiger would be incapable of returning to his former form because his mind was “toast.”  My reasoning is simple. Tiger has three very real aspects that have exacted a significant toll on his mental acuity. 

(A)  He has had to deal with extensive rehab for injuries, some experienced on the golf course, and others during his training. He was forced to be away from golf for inordinately lengthy periods.  For the guy who was said to have such an incredible practice regimen and discipline, this eroded his sync wherein he did not need to use his mental acuity to guarantee physical performance.

(B)  He has had to endure a very different type of rehab, that of dealing with the reconciliation of his “double life of debauchery.” His marriage ended and his financial empire significantly diminished by a loss of endorsements. He would eventually see his former wife have his mansion bulldozed in the ultimate exacting of “pay back.” I believe that his having to deal with these self-inflicted woes significantly compromised his already-suspect decision making capabilities. 

(C)  Very simply put, Tiger never found what Ponce de Leon came to Florida to find. It happens to the best of us, but with age comes a diminution of mental acuity. Golf, as we all know, absolutely requires the mind to cause the body to execute. Tiger could no longer “will” shots, and he began to show the inevitable ravages of age.

These three aspects are why I believe that Tiger’s mind is “toast,” but moreover, please allow me to explain why I pick what seems to be just another colloquialism. 

You see, the only way one creates toast is to take a lovely, supple piece of your favourite bread and slowly apply heat to it. If you add the heat for a very short bit of time, you get one type. If you apply the heat for too long, you get a very different result.  Regardless of the duration, however, the product is what we call toast. Once bread is toasted, it can never be returned to it’s original form as that lovely, supple piece of bread.

Therein lies my metaphor. Tiger, more accurately his mind, has been thru a very significant firing, and as such, it is “toast.”   Try as he will, he can no longer “will” his body to yield the same control as he once could. This accounts for why Tiger can no longer put four (4) intimidating rounds of golf together, and why, when he won, some called it “sleep walking.”

Tiger is, by all accounts, in the autumn of what was a wonderful career. It is time for everyone to realize that, count ourselves lucky to have had the opportunity to see it, and look to the new breed of golfers for the performances Tiger formerly supplied.