By Pete Pappas

GolfWRX Staff Writer

The topsy-turvy season for Tiger Woods will resume with the first PGA Tour event of May, the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., and will continue the following week with an appearance at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Verda Beach, Fla.

Woods announced his intentions last Wednesday to return to play in these consecutive events saying, “I have some work to do, but I’m going to take some time off and not look at the clubs for a while and then get back after it.”

But is taking three weeks off a good decision for Tiger? And is using “The Green Mile” at Quail Hollow as the course to return a smart decision given the degree of difficulty (ranked as the toughest three-hole finish on Tour two of the past three years).

The answers depend entirely on how he uses these weeks off. And considering how volatile Tiger apeared at The Masters over the weekend, “not taking a look at the clubs for awhile” is the absolute best thing he can do.

Tiger’s season has been an unmistakable rollercoaster through 16 weeks of Tour play in 2012. He’s been up (he won for the first time in 30 months at Bay Hill), down (he withdraw from the final round at Doral due to injury), and even upside-down (finishes with his worst 72-hole score at The Masters and worst overall finish in any major).

Throughout his career, Woods’ performances have bewildered. And they still do. Unfortunately for Tiger (at least in his own mind) they do now for all the wrong reasons.

Bobby Jones once said, “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course – the space between your ears.” And it’s on this course Tiger is struggling the most.

Speaking about his performance at The Masters, Woods said, “I didn’t hit the ball very good this week, and what’s frustrating is I know what to do, and I just don’t do it.”

“I know what to do, and I just don’t do it”?

And denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

Tiger still believes he can do the same extraordinary things he did in 1999 (when he won eight times including one major), in 2005 (six wins and two majors), and in 2009 (when he won another six events).

The contentious truth is Woods is no longer capable of achieving these legendary feats — at least not with the same regularity.

Tiger used to drive it farther than everyone else, reach more greens than everyone else, and sink more putts than everyone else.  And it was this deadly combination that made him PGA Tour Player of the Year a record 10 times in 13 seasons.

But Tiger doesn’t make putts like he used to (1^st in birdie conversion in 2005, 13^th in 2012; 1^st in birdie average in 2005, 18^th in 2012; 10^th in total putting in 2005, 25^th in 2012).

He doesn’t hit greens like he used to (6th in greens-in-regulation in 2005, 31^st in 2012).

And he doesn’t bomb it off the tee like he used to (22 yards shorter in 2012 than in 2005).

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again.

He doesn’t win like he used to, because he can’t win like he used to.

Still Woods continues to hold himself to that impossibly high standard.  And every consequent failure becomes more frustrating, more confusing, and causes more (unnecessary) complication.

So Tiger makes excuses.  “Unfortunately, I had a bad ball-striking week at the wrong time,”  he said.  “ Warmed up bad too, and it continued on the golf course.”

And he justifies failures.  “Same old motor problems,” Woods said (again) after The Masters.  “Now I’m struggling with it all the way around with all the clubs.”

The ironic thing is Tiger is actually having a pretty good year so far in spite of himself.  The season is barely one third over, and he already has the one win at Bay Hill, two top-10 finishes, 4 top-25 finishes, and no missed cuts.

One win is a decent season on the PGA Tour these days.  Two wins and steady play can earn you Player of the Year (Luke Donald 2011).  Three wins would be a virtual coup, guaranteeing POTY honors.

But when the game’s (once upon a time) most dominating athlete is still accustomed to winning five times, six times, nine times in a single season, accepting these “ordinary” results becomes a monstrous struggle.

And Tiger’s struggle took center stage at Augusta National last Saturday (on Redbud, hole No. 16) highlighted by a club-kicking tantrum after his tee shot landed in a bunker (Woods proceeded to boot his 9-iron some 15 yards towards spectators gathered around the tee).

“[His] antics this week were an embarrassment to the game, to the membership at Augusta,” said former Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger.  “I was really disappointed to see [Tiger] carry on that way.”

Woods’ demonstrated a contempt for decorum of which there is no excuse.  But his antics also revealed an insolent, distraught, and vulnerable Tiger struggling mightily to deal with the adversity that comes from not being able to play like his old self.

Tiger continues to insist it’s a process.  “It’s just a matter of getting out there and doing it,” he said leaving Augusta.  “Just putting in the reps and the time.”

But if Woods continues to do the same things expecting different results (by definition a form of insanity), then he’ll find himself in the “you know what” up to “you know where.”

The process Tiger needs to concentrate on isn’t a matter of swing mechanics.

It’s a matter of identity.

Tiger’s dad raised him to be a robot.  And (while there are both admirable positives and unfortunate negatives to that) it worked for Tiger.  It worked really well.

The Tiger-machine never broke down, slaughtering the competition, annihilating the Tour.  Woods was on automatic; an assassin with a million dollar (endorsement) smile.

His greatness was never questioned. Ever.

When it did finally break down however, there are some who knew at that very moment, the Tiger-era was over, and repercussions for him as a man, not just a golfer, would be grave.

Today Woods is still facing the turbulent consequences of scandal (he remains one of the most disliked athletes in America) and often injured middle-aged body.  He’s trying to become someone he’s never had to be before, and really doesn’t know how to become; just Tiger.

It’s human nature to believe we’re better than we actually are; that we can do more than we’re actually capable of doing. And for PGA Tour players that psyche is even more profound.

Their convictions are challenged and mettle tested nearly every week in a fiercely competitive (though outwardly cordial) environment.  The slightest drop in confidence can have catastrophic results.

Lose their competitive edge and they’re at an overwhelming disadvantage before they even step foot on the course.  But there’s a fine line between the physiology of confidence and physiology of self-destruction.

Winning used to come easy and often for Tiger.  Put in the work.  Show up.  Win championships.  But that’s no longer the case.  The landscape has changed.  Anyone on Tour can win any given week.

There will be weeks when you lose, Tiger, and there’s no explanation or analysis needed.  Sometimes there are no solutions.  Sometimes there aren’t things to fix.

Sometimes it suffices to say, “I lost, someone else was better.”

Novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, celebrated as one of the greatest authors in the history of world literature, often explored human psychology in the context of troubled times.

Take heed Tiger.

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”

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