Analysis of the failings of Tiger Woods was inevitable after a career low point of 82 shots at the Phoenix Open last weekend. One strand was missing from that debate; issues relating to the 14-time

Major winner’s fitness. Woods, after all, had insisted quite vehemently that his body was in fine shape. Or, to quote the man himself, “feeling great”.

This proved an oversight by those looking at Woods's predicament. On Thursday at Torrey Pines, a limping, grimacing, distressed Woods called it a day just 12 holes into his first round. Onlookers observed how the 39-year-old looked even more anguished than on previous occasions when matters of fitness had overcome him.

Those situations are stacking up. He has withdrawn three times in his last eight starts on the PGA Tour. There have been six early exits in his professional career; all since the start of 2010. None, though, have been as tough to witness as the latest shortcut to the car park.

Woods's playing partners in the Farmers Open took such mercy upon him that they picked up his ball or tee on occasion. When playing the 2nd hole, his 11th, Woods represented little more than a mid-handicap amateur as he overshot the green and duffed a chip. Remarkably, Woods had been level par up to that point.

"He toughed it out a lot more than anyone else, than any other playing competitor," said Billy Horschel, who along with Rickie Fowler partnered Woods in San Diego. "They would have dropped off earlier.

“But he’s a fighter. He wants to get the reps in. He wants to play well and he kept trying to play through it, hoping it would loosen up, and I think it was getting there and then we had to wait again when we made the turn. It was just real tough to see him walk and even make swings.”

Fowler concurred. “It’s tough to see,” he admitted. “I dealt with some back issues and a lot of guys have dealt with injuries out here. It’s hard to play when anything’s hurting. Golf may not be an impact or contact sport, but the body takes a beating.”

Old man

On other occasions, such as last year’s

WGC-Cadillac Championship

and the US

PGA Championship

at Valhalla, Woods completed his work while obviously injured. Even those who would question the extent of Woods’s troubles – he has been accused of melodrama in the past – have been forced to admit there is a legitimate question over if and how the golfer’s body can allow him to compete towards, let alone beyond, the age of 40. It was an old man who left Torrey Pines.

It is difficult to avoid the realisation that we may be witnessing the sad and sharp decline of a sportsman. Which in itself is not a rarity. What marks Woods out as different is the attention, perhaps obsession, paid to keeping himself in shape, aligned to the impact he had on golf. This is an individual who transcended the sport, who can lay legitimate claim to have been the finest player who ever lived.

Woods is not slipping from prominence because he has let himself go since winning five times in 2013. Rather, out of all the ailments which have afflicted him in recent times, that with his back is proving the most tortuous to overcome despite surgery on a nerve. There is an easy explanation for that; Woods’s swing has never been soft or subtle, a swing he has been making since the second he could hold a golf club.

As Nick Faldo acknowledged, there remains an aggression in Woods's play which he appears unwilling to curb. His back, quite naturally, will bear the brunt of that. "He has got to find a way to swing a golf club – especially the driver – where the spine is not putting so much tension and torque on to it," Faldo added. "That is his absolute must."

Masters

This scenario presents Woods with short and longer-term challenges. There must be a serious question mark over whether he can compete at the Masters, just nine weeks from now. And compete is the key term; if Woods believes he has no chance of going toe-to-toe with the best players, the thought of public embarrassment is one he will detest. It is that exposure of his failings, technical and physical, on such a high-profile scale within the last week that may bother him the most.

As Woods drove away from Torrey Pines, nobody knew when they would see him again. That we may have seen the last of Tiger at golf’s top table is more and more tricky to dispute. Guardian Service