Woods still coming to grips with his new world

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Often in history, there are moments in time that serve as a divider to what the world was like before and after a specific event. For Woods, that event came Nov. 27, 2009, when he ran over a fire hydrant in the middle of the night outside his Orlando-area home.

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Before those early morning hours, Woods was on top of the world, literally and figuratively. Even if things were different privately, publicly he was Michael Jordan in golf spikes, dazzling us with his play and charming us with his billion-watt smile.

The last six months, of course, have been different.

"It doesn't go away, even when I'm at home," Woods said. "Paparazzi still follow us. Helicopters hover around."

Woods has always transcended the game. Now he's just trying to find his, which has been lost in the turmoil of his new existence. How else do you explain his worst score in the United States as a professional, a 79 in the second round of the Quail Hollow Championship, to miss the cut for just the sixth time in his career?

The only time Woods has recorded a worse number was in the third round of the 2002 British Open at Murifield, where he shot an 81 with the rain blowing sideways. The last time Woods missed a cut in a non-major was all the way back in 2005 at Disney.

"It is what it is," said Woods, who hit just two fairways Friday and now knows what it's like to be on the other end of the type of bludgeoning he's administered to so many others through the years with playing partner Angel Cabrera having bested him by 16 shots over two days.

"Well, I get the weekend off," Woods continued. "So I get to watch and see how it's done."

Woods has never been one for quitting. You don't set the record for consecutive cuts made, 142, being a quitter. Nor do you win 14 major championships. For more than a decade, Woods has turned water into wine when a lot of other guys would have simply hit it in the water.

Friday, however, Woods did just that when his pitch shot on the 14th hole ran through the green, down the hill and into the drink. It was maybe the worst shot Woods has ever hit and a perfect microcosm of his day. It was also one of the few times we've ever seen him give up as Woods matched the worst nine-hole score of his career with a 43 on the back.

"I didn't have much," said Woods, who beat just 10 other guys in the field at Quail Hollow. "At that point in time it was pretty much out of reach, and I was just trying to stay out of Angel's way."

Woods has overcome obstacles before -- knee surgery, swing changes, the passing of his father -- but this may be the toughest one yet. And he has no one to blame but himself, which is something he'd be the first to admit to and has.

When Woods returned from season-ending knee surgery in February 2009, he did so only after months of rehabilitation on his body and his game. Physical demands are tangible. Mental ones are abstract and therefore much tougher to judge, as are apparently the results of at least 45 days in therapy. Slowly, it all seems to have seeped into Woods' game.

"I get asked every day. Every day I do media, I get asked it, so it doesn't go away," Woods said. "Does it test you? Yes, of course it does. Is that any excuse? No, because I'm out there and I have the same opportunity as everybody else."

In February, when Woods made his first statement to the media following the events of the previous November, he talked about that very thing, how he used to think he was different than everybody else.

For once, as the car Woods left in ironically backed over a traffic cone on its way out of the Quail Hollow parking lot, he wasn't. Seventy-seven other guys got the weekend off, too.