http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/golf- ... 6193519506
He was ahead of his time, young Eldrick Woods.
When Tiger took the world by storm 15 years ago, he was essentially a golfing blueprint brought to life.
Unrivalled power, almost superhuman recovery skills and then the best putting stroke in a generation made him all but unbeatable.
That was then.
He might still win the Australian Open today, although he slipped back into the pack yesterday with a 75, but Woods is no longer the bully in the field.
Nor will he win three major championships in a year again, nor even approach the 10 tournaments he won worldwide in 2000.
After his fourth swing rebuild and an injury list to rival any footballer, Woods is not quite yesterday's man, but any reference to his peerless athleticism is definitely out of date.
The game, and its vast array of athletes that, ironically, he inspired, have moved past him.
In short, his game is now good, no longer great.
He's not the longest driver. When he sprays balls off tees it's without the same capacity to recover, and his once white-hot putter now only simmers.
At Augusta National this year, on the US Masters course he has dominated like few others, he challenged powerfully to finish tied for fourth after a barnstorming opening nine holes in his final round.
But bookending that were two overlooked facts.
First, that he was effectively only one off the lead when he turned on to the back nine, yet in very un-Tiger-like fashion, wilted meekly on the back nine.
That he suffered a debilitating knee injury during the round may explain that away, but it does little to hide a second, more glaring factor.
Four days earlier, Woods - the man who revolutionised golf, its promotion, its physicality and even the courses it is played on - effectively passed the baton to the next generation.
It was subtle, maybe even unintentional, but it was a revelation for someone who has made an art form of winning by aura.
As has been the case in Sydney this week at the Australian Open, Woods fielded reporters' questions at Augusta about the progression of his rebuilt swing and whether he could regain the physical ascendancy he once flouted over the field.
He admitted he could no longer hit driver and wedge to most holes the way he had in his physical prime.
He then joked that he occasionally still used his wedge, but only to knock wayward drives back into the fairway.
But then came the moment - one you rarely hear from champions, especially those stubbornly clinging to their lofty perch. Woods admitted he was no longer the bully of the field. He said the game was now the choice of several outstanding physical specimens who had the options of other athletic pursuits yet picked golf.
And all of this came with the acknowledgment that his swing changes were partly - as has been the party line - in pursuit of perfection, but more because of the physical reality that he can no longer swing with the same force as his younger rivals.
"I was playing with Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland the first two days at Bay Hill (the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March)," Woods said. "I thought Dustin was long, (but) he's got nothing on Gary.
"When Gary steps on it (swings hard), it's like, 'Whoa, are you kidding me?' His ball is flat. When you think it should be coming down, it just continues to fly.
"He hit a shot and it was a 335-yard (305m) carry over a bunker on the right and he hit the face off it. He's all bent out of shape that he couldn't carry it and said, 'I lost the ability to carry 340 now'.
"Sorry, I had never seen that shot," he said with a broad smile.
"But that's the new game. These guys who played other sports, they are both really good basketball players and both have been able to dunk and play hoops, but they decided to play golf instead.
"It's neat to see these guys transform our sport, the power, the transition. They are doing things no one has ever done on tour before.
"I'm certainly not one of the longest out there now. (But) I'm not one of the shortest yet."
Another broad smile.
"I can still move it out there ... when I'm swinging well I have another gear in there where I can add another 15 or 20 (yards). But these longer guys, they already hit it out there 15 or 20 more - and then they have another gear after that.
"The sport has changed."
And there's the rub.
Body shapes like Jarrod Lyle's, once common in world golf, are almost ancient history because the mighty "V" shape Tiger popularised, if not introduced, is the norm for these fitness freaks who hit the ball to parts of courses their designers never envisaged.
Now, the very player Tiger inadvertently created is making him just another man in the field.
Admittedly, his best is still very good. As he has shown this week in Sydney with his revised swing starting to feel second nature.
But, where he was once that metaphorical schoolyard bully, there are now several blokes at the elite level who can push him around.
Time has made him mortal.