Golf

Woeful Tiger hits course as bachelor again

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-08-26 10:47

Tiger Woods will compete at the Barclays this week, his first competition in six years as a single man.[Photo/Agencies]

LOS ANGELES - Tiger Woods will compete at the Barclays this week, an event which will not only help determine his stature in the PGA Tour playoffs but also his first competition in six years as a single man.

Now that he has resolved his troubled marriage by signing the divorce papers with ex-wife Elin Nordegren, Woods' focus is on breaking the downward spiral that has left his golf game in ruins.

Since his return to competitive golf four months ago at The Masters following a blistering sex scandal, Woods has not come close to winning a tournament.

Not only does he have his sights set on making headway in the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs, he is also trying to earn his way on to the American Ryder Cup team.

Even if he makes the US Ryder Cup team there are some who think it could become a distraction, especially since the wives and girlfriends of the team seem to have taken on a bigger role in the social aspect of the event.

"Turning up at Celtic Manor could be one of the hardest things Tiger ever does," European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomery wrote in a newspaper column several months ago.

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"He will worry about how the wives of the other players will react to him. Some of them will be friends with

it hard to welcome Tiger back into the group."

Woods' disastrous showing at the Bridgestone Invitational earlier this month is still fresh in his mind. In what turned out to be the worst performance of his career, Woods finished second last in a tie for 78th. Woods, who had won the event seven times previously, shot 18-over par and finished an embarrassing 30 shots behind eventual winner Hunter Mahan.

This week's tournament in New Jersey will be his 10th this season. He hasn't come close to winning the previous nine events this year, with his best finishes being a tie for fourth at the US Open and the Masters.

He missed the cut at the Quail Hollow Championships and, although he showed flashes of his old self at the PGA Championship's this month, Woods failed to put four strong rounds together and could only muster a tie for 28th.

That's far cry from what people are used to seeing from Woods. He has won 14 major championships, including a half dozen during the nearly six years of marriage to the former Swedish model.

His last victory was in Australia in November, two weeks before he smashed his car into a tree and a fire hydrant outside his luxury Florida home, sparking a series of scandalous revelations that he cheated on his wife with a multitude of different women including a porn star, a cocktail waitress and a Las Vegas club manager.

Woods tried unsuccessfully to save his marriage, and court documents released on Tuesday showed that golf and divorce proceedings have gone hand in hand.