Tiger no longer burning bright

The eyes stare glassily out of the police mug shot, cheeks unshaven and his thinning hair tousled and unkempt.

This, you have to convince yourself, is not the face of a golfing legend and the globe’s first billionaire sportsman.

Yet there he was; Eldrick “Tiger” Woods, booked for driving under the influence in the state of Florida, a shadow of the man who shot to prominence by winning the first of his 14 Major titles with a record-breaking 12-shot victory in his second year as a professional at the 1997 US Masters.

In his pomp, he was the world’s pre-eminent player ranked number one in the world for 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004, and another 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010.

It all fell apart with his divorce that year from Elin Nordegren following the uncovering of his extramarital affairs – and worsened as his body began to show the strain he had put on it since turning pro in 1996 with back surgery in 2014 and 2015.

Since then the decline has been marked by withdrawals and missed cuts and his current ranking has plummeted to 876.

Tiger’s fall is indeed a modern sporting tragedy.

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