Although Phil Mickelson won his third green Masters jacket Sunday in dramatic and emotional fashion, the story for the tournament was Tiger Woods--before Thursday's first round, during play and after the sun set on Augusta National for another year.
Woods' rustiness of not having played competitive golf for six months started to show during Saturday's third round and was quite evident on Sunday as he couldn't control his swing or temper. Jack Nicklaus once said that if you're going to have a bad round in a major, have it on Thursday, not Sunday.
The question now is where does Woods go from here? Obviously he'll play again, quite likely at the Players Championship, Nicklaus' Memorial in Ohio and, of course, the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
But again he showed signs at Augusta of something very un-Woods-like--losing his mental toughness, something that appeared last year in his loss to Y.E. Yang at the PGA championship. If Woods had hung in at the Masters like Lee Westwood did, he might have turned the tournament his way.
Are his skills eroding? Are his surgically-repaired knee and ankle the culprits? Are the troubles in his personal life too overwhelming for him to continue playing golf? All three could be good reasons for him to take a break and clear his head.
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