TIGER WOODS HAS managed to overcome deficits before. It may not be remembered by most, but the first paragon in his pantheon of career accomplishments is his first U.S. Amateur title in 1994.
Six down through 13 holes of a 36-hole match-play final, Woods stormed back, finally drawing level on the 34th hole of the match and then taking a very aggressive line on the tee at the par-three 17th taking his fate in his hands, challenging the pin and flirting with the water at the famed island green at TPC Sawgrass. His successful shot ended up springing Woods into USGA history and golf lore.
It's important to remember some of these past accomplishments with 2010 now firmly in Woods' rear-view mirror and with 2011 getting started on the right foot with a bogey-free three-under par 69 (please, save the obvious and played out jokes) in the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Make no mistake, this is an important year for the world number three -- as weird as that is to write -- and his third straight where there are seemingly more questions than answers about the state of his game, his health or his mindset.
Sure, saying 2010 was a rough year for Woods would be a colossal understatement. He didn't win once anywhere in the world.
For the sake of context, the last time that happened, Rory McIlroy -- he of the Ryder Cup call-out last fall -- wasn't even born yet.
So it was a big deal, but it wasn't the apocalyptic destruction of his game many thought it to be or at least presented it as.
With a resume such as his, winning the Greenbrier Classic or the Wyndham Championship -- with all due respect to those tournaments -- just isn't going to cut it.
He is now and forever will be measured on the merits of his performance in, at best 16 and at worst eight, rounds of golf in the four major championships.
And all things considered, his play wasn't so bad there.
A pair of ties for fourth place, a tie for 23rd and a tie for 28th.
I know, the upper crust of this game play for keeps; they play to win.
But if you were to offer those results right now to every exempt member of the PGA Tour, how many would take them?
Eighty per cent? Ninety? Maybe more?
We applaud Jack Nicklaus, not just for his 18 major championships, but also for his 19 runner-up finishes in majors. At least, we do when we're able to view those accomplishments through the prism of time.
In the 24-hour news cycle world, where breaking news can spread through Twitter or Facebook before it can even be posted to a website, our ability to compartmentalize a strong performance from a victory is lacking.
For years, there were scribes and TV talking heads saying Tiger needed a Jack to his Arnie or a Watson to his Jack. That is, he needed a rival to keep pushing him towards the extraordinary heights of which he was capable of reaching.
But now, at a time when he wasn't won a major championship in 31 months, nor a tournament in 14 and a half months we fail to acknowledge his resilience.
There have been those that foretold of his decline at nearly every stage of his career, but it has yet to come to fruition.
Will he be as dominant as he once was? No, probably not. But his stretch from September, 1999 until April, 2001 is one of the most magnificent and dominant in all of sports.
In those 19 months he won all four majors; he won The Players Championship.
He won at Augusta, St. Andrews, Bay Hill, Pebble Beach and Muirfield Village.
He won the Ryder Cup; he won the President's Cup.
If you want to be a stickler, he lost in the final of the World Match Play Championship and finished T5 at Doral, but other than that, he won every single significant tournament.
The point is, we've seen such spectacular things from Tiger Woods in his golf career that we've almost come to expect them all the time.
But it is those rare occasions when we're ready to write him off or lower our expectations, that his brilliance seems to radiate without peer.
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