Mark Cannizzaro

Mark Cannizzaro

Golf

The only thing you can count on from Woods is inconsistency

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The refrain remains the same these days for Tiger Woods.

That used to be a good thing — a sure thing — with Woods chasing down titles at every tournament he played and winning at a higher percentage than anyone in the history of the game. He was the chalk pick to win at every event he entered and was rarely not at least in the mix late on Sundays.

Now, however, the familiar refrain for Woods is one of a player grasping at straws, one of a player who is reluctant to accept his new reality. Woods, in bad times and in good, now sounds a lot more like the masses of weekend amateurs who are in constant search of their elusive game, never knowing what’s coming with the next swing.

Just as we have at this week’s Honda Classic at PGA National, where after two scrappy rounds Woods had an up day on Saturday with a better-late-than-never 65, it seems like we hear the same laments from him at every tournament — how he’s hitting the ball well but cannot make enough putts, how he’s not getting the low scores out of his rounds that he should … and so on.

The sounds coming from Woods — who still trails third-round leader, and golf’s new star, Rory McIlroy by seven strokes — have become like that of a record album (remember those?) with a big scratch on it, causing a repetitive beat.

Woods is one of the most confounding figures in sports, because he still is the best player in the world — as his current No. 1 ranking suggests — and he is coming off a five-win 2013 season, far better than any of his competitors.

Yet whenever Woods slumps, as he has early this year, his struggles are magnified because we expect so much from him.

Woods came to this week’s Honda Classic, where he entered Saturday’s third round miles from contention, 11 shots out of the lead after having made the cut on the number, coming off his worst two-tournament stretch to start season in his career — a tie for 80th at the Farmer’s Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and a tie for 41st in Dubai.

Most telling of where Woods’ game will be entering next month’s Masters will be how he fares at his next two events — next week at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, where he has won seven times in his career, and two weeks later at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, where he has won eight times.

If Woods fails to find success at those two tournaments, coupled with his stunning missed third-round cut at Torrey Pines, where he also has eight career wins, red flags will be flying for him as he goes to Augusta. He will have stumbled at three courses on which he has accumulated 23 of his 79 career wins.

This would place Woods at perhaps his lowest-ever expectation point entering Augusta except maybe the year he emerged from his post-scandal hiatus.

It hardly is breaking news to say Woods never will be as good as he was en route to winning 14 major championships in his first 11 years as a pro. With the talent pool in the game deeper than it ever has been, it is highly unlikely anyone in the game will dominate the way Woods did.

The question is whether Woods, who when he captured his 14th (and last) major with his 2008 U.S. Open victory looked like a lock to overtake Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18, ever will win a 15th. He is 38 years old, is focusing more on his family than he ever has and is going on six years without a major championship victory.

After his Saturday round, Woods said of his periodic struggles: “I’ve had a long enough career where I’ve gone through periods [of slumping], where is seems like no matter what you do nothing really goes your way … and the next thing you know a couple months and half the season has gone by. You look at my career [and] it’s gone in waves like that.’’