Tiger Woods Slumping? Ha!

Heard any good jokes lately?

Yeah, the one about Tiger Woods suddenly having learned how to lose and being just another good golfer only with better clothes.

Golf's trendy, new contention is that hell finally froze over and PGA Tour competitors no longer are showing an uncontrollable urge to up-chuck on their shoes when joining Mr. Woods on a final-round leaderboard.

The Incredibly Shrinking Presence let the PGA Championship get away last month, finishing second to Y.E. Yang and ending a streak of 14 consecutive major championship wins when owning at least a share of the 54-hole lead. On Sunday in the opening week of FedEx Cup play at The Barclays, he finished in a four-way tie for second, one shot back of fearsome Heath Slocum.

That adds up to two seconds in Woods' last two outings -- both coming when he was in position to win.

"The way it goes sometimes,'' Woods said.

"Where there was once Tiger, there now is doubt," suggested others.

When you are the world's best golfer there rarely is benefit of the doubt. Although years ago Woods officially ruled that "finishing second sucks," it's not like he has never done it before. Along with 81 victories worldwide he also has 32 seconds. Seventy of those worldwide wins have come on the PGA Tour, where there have been 26 runner-up finishes.

But now -- this news just in! -- he is struggling to close. The Vulcan mind grip that once would have allowed Woods to have turned the likes of Yang and Slocum into globs of melted goo has been lost.

And Tim Tebow just asked Britney Spears to the homecoming dance.

Woods did not win last week because -- it happens -- he putted like fireworks were going off in his back swing. Arguably the best putter golf has ever known missed a seven-footer on the 72nd hole that at the very least would have forced a playoff. Before that he had missed for birdie from tap-in range.

Over the week he was off target on countless six-or seven-footers, an inch off to the right, an inch off to the left.
And then he stalked off Sunday in a snit, grumbling about the greens and that proved it: Woods is not what he used to be.

Excuse the subject if he disagrees.

"To miss as many putts as I did this week, to still have a chance on the last green, it shows you how good I am hitting it," Woods said. "That's a great sign.''

Just the same, golf loves trends and Woods hasn't won in, well, two tournaments. Actually, he has three wins in six outing, but, well, they were all before he started giving away final-round leads and missing final-hole putts.

So Tiger tees off at the Deutsche Bank Championship facing sports' age-old question. What have you done lately?

Let's take a stab at that one.

After returning from reconstructive knee surgery that ended last season after the U.S. Open, Woods has five victories, leads the FedEx Cup point race and is on the short list for another PGA Tour Player of the Year award.

This week's event is being played at TPC Boston. Next week the FedEx Cup series goes to Chicago's Cog Hill for the BMW Championship and finally to Atlanta's East Lake for the Tour Championship. Woods has won at all three courses.

Want to hear something funny?

He can still turn this season into a laugher.