So far, Woods is a loser in more ways than one -- good for him AND here is why we say that.

Well, there he is, Mr. Clean. At one time, the best golfer in the world, maybe the best in history -- time will tell on that point. This past April, he put a self imposed "stop order" on his play, hoping that the stand-down time would avail him the opportunity to get his [golf] house back in order. He has lost millions of dollars in advertising revenues (Niki being his biggest desertion ). Public opinion has gone against him in a big way. And then there is that thing with his wife --- she packed up and left him during that last tournament. Divorce proceedings appear to be well under way. Next weekend, he plans on making another come-back attempt.

What is most amazing in all this is Woods efforts at convincing folks that his golf game is NOT suffering because of the disintegration of his family. He has stated over and over again, that all he needs to do is correct a few things and his game will be as good as ever.

While our headline sounds a little on the angry/mean side, it is actually intended as a segue into this thought: the fact that Woods is having so much trouble getting back into "the swing of things," is evidence that he is quite normal, even to the point of having a conscience of sorts. With his world flying apart faster than matter after the big bang, it would have been a terrible story if the tragedy he is living had no affect on the way he played his game. Understand that on the top rung of professional sports, whether football or golf, the demand to perform is so great, the standard of excellence so high, that all issues in an athlete's life must be, at least, agreeable with the individual player.

The fact that Woods is obviously affected by the loss of his wife and children means, to this writer, that there is hope for the guy.You can see the affect this is having with his game. His stroke average (per 18 holes), for example, has been just under 68, the lowest in the world 8 of the past 13 years. In recent months, that average has ballooned to a ridiculous 71.o7.

Confession: I loved writing that last line, especially with the word "ridiculous" embedded in the text --- as if "71" was a pathetic score for 18 holes. Get it ?? Me? I golfed on the weekends during the summer while at seminary. God and I could only manage a score of 103 on three occasions.

Here's the deal. We mentioned how competitive the top rung of professional sports is. In this case, an average score of 67.79 rates you at #1. Drop that average to 71.07 and, suddenly, you rank a very ordinary 83rd on the professional circuit !! And that is where Woods is as we write.

Two things about Tiger: 1) he apparently has no clue as to the importance of his emotional/spiritual side and 2), if he can't break his addiction and get things settled with his family, he will never be what he was. In fact, we believe those days are gone. We believe that like Ali, Woods is so good, naturally, that he will learn to be competitive, once again. But the young Woods has been broken and it will take time for him to learn how to golf with the weight of disappointment in his soul --- jds.