College basketball is ending and major league baseball is beginning with the usual bad weather, cancellations, etc. sure to happen. It is amazing to me that professional team owners continue to risk the high priced talent on their rosters by playing in inclement weather. Oh well, what do I know? Baseball is a hot weather sport.

Professional golf is well underway but we know it is really in gear because it is time for the Masters Golf Tournament at the Augusta National Golf Course. The Azaleas are blooming.

Tiger Woods will be teeing it up with the intention of winning another green jacket. There will be much conjecture about the quality of his game prior to the first round and it will continue if he shoots a good score. That attention will fade into the sunset if he doesnt.

Of course, you say. The leaders in any tournament get the attention. The problem with this for Tiger, in my humble estimation, is that he is struggling to be himself. That self that is known to seemingly being able to perform with impunity regardless of the enormous attention that was heaped on him.

Tiger Woods has drawn huge amounts of attention since he was three years old. His identity is formed around an ability to perform at the highest level inside the blanket that I would call adoration. Sure, there were other kinds of attention from time to time but it takes a lot of adoration to become one of the best known persons on the planet.

Then Tiger stepped on the œbear trap. The attention still was great but it had soured. Criticism rained down on the adored one. Worse, a certain ambivalence set in. It isnt even news now when he is out of contention.

I am just a guy in the bleachers observing what is going on and trusting two things; my right eye and my left eye. I have been a keen observer of human behavior as I have been coaching people successfully for over 50 years. The mirror Tiger sees himself in is fogged over. He can make all the swing changes he wants. Until he can clearly see himself again, I think greatness will elude him. The good news is that this can be done.

The old Tiger Woods is gone forever. The question I would ask him is, œwho are you committed to be in the future? And, it isnt going to happen by fixing the past. (By the way, I would give a lot for the opportunity to ask him that question, in person). He can be whatever and whomever he chooses. His body has not forgotten how to hit a golf ball. His body just doesnt know the man swinging the club.

I hope I am dead wrong in my observation. Nothing would please me more than to turn on the TV Sunday afternoon and see œWoods at the top of the leader board. Especially if there are a couple of challengers with two holes to go. Tiger, if you are listening, call me and we can make something great happen.

Just a reminder, my latest book œThe Art of Losing, Coaching Athletics and Thriving in a Made-for-TV World is available on lulu.com. More about that later.