Golf: Woods starts from scratch

When the world No1 golfer, Tiger Woods, returns next weekend to Pebble Beach - the scene of his and, yes, his sport's greatest triumph - it will be impossible not to notice the contrast.

Then Woods was the flawless icon, a young man with no self-doubt who found it merely routine to break a 138-year record and trounce a US Open field by 15 strokes.

Now Woods is the fallen idol, a ridiculed adulterer seemingly ravaged by self-doubt, who found it acceptable merely to get in four rounds in his warm-up tournament and finish tied 19th.

If ever it would be acceptable to ask a billionaire "Where did it all go wrong?" surely this would be it.

Of course, the world, the wife and his mistresses all know where the wheels came off Woods' unstoppable drive to greatness. The night of November 27 continues to overshadow Woods' each and every move.

His reputation is wrecked, his aura crushed and some say his sore neck adds an injury to all the insult which has come since that revelation-bursting car crash outside his home.

The only question remaining to many is how far Woods still has to plummet.

Perhaps Pebble Beach will show if this dead Tiger can bounce. This was the scene for what Sports Illustrated termed "the greatest performance in golfing history", when a 24-year-old strode through the ocean fog to restate what was and wasn't possible in the game's toughest major.

He broke so many records that week it is difficult to know which to highlight first. The dismantling of the 13-shot mark set by Old Tom Morris in 1862? The fact he was the only player to break par and not only that, but 12-under to his nearest "pursuers" on three-over? Take your pick.

"I just got off to a good start the first day, a 65 or something," said Woods. "And that's the thing with the US Open. You just have to get off to a good start. It's so hard to make up ground. I was able to do that. It just went off from there."

Woods explained how a late-night stint on the practice green with Butch Harmon, was to unlock the secret to Pebble's infamous putting surfaces. "I didn't miss from inside eight feet the whole week," he said. "You don't have weeks like that. On bent [grass] you do, but not on poa annua."

"The best you've ever played?" he was asked. "The '97 Masters was actually pretty good, I think," he replied. "The 2000 British Open wasn't bad either."

He neglected to reminisce about the emotion. But then, there wasn't much. Well, there was his reaction on the 18th tee on Saturday morning when he sent a drive soaring into the Pacific and followed it up with a curse which soared live across America at a time when cartoons were airing.

"You goddam f****** p****!" he bellowed. But other than that it was just the cold unrelenting stare of Woods and his rivals' humble look of inescapable doom.

"We're not playing in the same ball-park right now," said the joint runner-up, Ernie Els. "Even if I played out of my mind I would have lost by six or seven."

The South African led the chorus of the disconsolate as he envisaged a future of majors in which only second-best would be the general ambition.

It didn't work out like that. Woods did win the next major - the Open at St Andrews - by eight shots and was later to complete his Tiger Slam. But as far as spread-eagling the field, the nearest he has come since 2000 was the five shots at the 2005 Open and the 2006 USPGA.

The reality is that the pack had made inroads before his secret life ever caught up with him. It makes that major of a decade ago seem so much more mythical.

Then, there existed no doubts in his magnificence, Woods would be forgiven his swearing, even his decision to practise when most other pros were at a memorial service for Payne Stewart. Now he will be excused nothing: the slightest flash of temper, the merest show of disrespect.

Life has changed so much for the phenomenon to whom "the rules did not apply".

Woods turns up out of form, out of favour and at 7-1 out of consideration by most bookies. He kids himself when he says a show of dominance could return. But then, he's lost a halo by kidding people.

- INDEPENDENT