Are We Reliving Tiger Woods' 2003 Season?

Tiger Woods picked up his fourth win on the PGA Tour this season by taking what may be the final Buick Open at Warwick Hills on Sunday.  Woods has won at Bay Hill, Memorial, and his own AT&T National.  Those wins all came against good fields, though perhaps a tinge weaker than in past years.  Blame the globalization of golf.

All of those wins came in his final start before a major championship.  As yet this season, Woods is yet to win a major.  He will get his chance to cap off the season with a major in two weeks as the PGA Championship will be contested at Hazeltine.  Of course, a review of his season will remain incomplete until we see if Woods can exorcise the ghost of RIch Beem.  Still, this 2009 season looks a lot like the season that Woods turn in for 2003.

2003 stands as the only full season in Woods' career in which he won more than once and did not win a major championship.  That year, he won three of his first four starts: the usual wins at Torrey Pines and Bay Hill, and also the match play championship.  Later on, he won the Western Open (now BMW Championship) and another WGC event in Georgia.

His record in the majors, though, left a lot to be desired.  He posted his third worst finish at the Masters (T15), a 20th at the US Open at Olympia Fields, tied fourth in Ben Curtis' Open, and tied for 39th at the PGA Championship at punishing Oak Hill.

So far in '09, Woods has played much better in the majors in which he made the cut - sixth at both the Masters and US Open.  But his missed cut at Turnberry may well smear that other great work.

Certainly, a four win season is a career year for almost every PGA Tour player.  And it is still a great season for the world's best player.  Yet if Woods does not earn his fifteenth major at Hazeltine in two weeks' time, do not be surprised to see comparisons drawn to 2003 - the year that ushered in Hank Haney as Woods' swing coach.