Frustrated Emperor

Drooping shoulders and stiffened face with his head dropped….

This familiar scene reemerged at this time with no change. The tiger`s roar, which has held sway over the world, disappeared again.

Naturally, Tiger Woods (USA) has been regarded as the first candidate for the champion of the 83rd PGA Championship, the last major tournament in this year. But Woods tied the 100th place in the first round, making three putts for three times just like the weekend golfers. And shamefully, he passed the cut-off by the skin of his teeth in the second round. Since Woods shared the 32nd place with 1-under-par through three rounds, 13 shots behind the leader David Toms (US), the title seems fly away from him.

Throughout the tournament history, John Mahaffey had once reversed the game from the 7 shot behind in 1978, but there has been no player who reversed the difference over 7 shots. Thus Woods`s dream for the third consecutive title was virtually broken.

Woods failed to defend the title, sharing the 12th place in the US Open in June, and blew out the chance to win the second consecutive title in the British Open last month tying in the 25th place. As he failed to show his superiority in this tournament, he fell into the slump in the major tournaments.

Unless Woods could pour out his latent power in the fourth round, he should face the worst summer finishing out of top 10 for the fifth consecutive tournament.

The analysts forecasted that the golf course was very long so that it would favor the power-hitter such as Woods. But lacking the accuracy, Woods` long driver shot would fall into the rough or the hazard so often. As the short game as well as the putting became shaky, he could not lower the score.

Woods recorded the average putt of 28.96 per round in this season, but he made 33 putts in the first round. He made just one double bogey through three major championships, but he lost the concentration in the first round recording two double bogeys.

Woods grabbed the even-par in the par-3 holes, two-over-par in the par-4 holes, and three-under-par in the par-5 holes in three rounds. In general, Woods has been very superior in the par-5 holes. But there are just two par-5 holes in this tournament, which were unfavorable to Woods. Finishing the first round, Woods told that ``as the swing became shaky, I could not shot right``, but he said that ``I`m doing my best and it is getting better`` after the third round. However, it seems too late to catch up the leader group.

Unlike astonishing last year when he had won three major titles, in this season Woods won only a major in the Masters and has shown the worst performance far away from the leader group in the three major tournaments which were held between June and August.

The analysts said that Woods`s slump has derived from s the lack of practice due to the out-of-golf activities such as the sponsorship contract and business, s the trouble with his ex-girl friend Joanna, and s the injury in Achilles tendon.

Kim Jong-Seok kjs0123@donga.com