Tiger Woods started this golf season with a roar, announcing that he would play in the Masters despite the fact that that his wife was going to charge him $100 million for the chance to do it. Like the comebacks of Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali, we expected Tiger to get out there and set the world on fire. But we never got anything similar to what we envisioned.

Tiger Woods may as well turn his name into Pussy Cat Paper. This season, he's looked a little older, a little sloppier, a little weaker and a little less focused than the athlete millions have come to love so much. The roar has turned into a whiny, ear-piercing meow and his opponents no longer fear him the way they did in the past. In other words, Superman has become Clark Kent with a sex addiction.

This weekend's British Open had incredibly low television ratings, in large part because Tiger played like a flat tire on the final day. PGA executives are likely just as frustrated with Tiger's performance as I am, since Woods had become their highly marketable cash cow. Now, the PGA Tour doesn't use Tiger in its promotions, and is finding that their use of Tiger over the years has amounted to a dependence on the devil.

Tiger doesn't owe us anything. We probably don't have the right to demand the greatness we've come to expect. The truth is that we should be incredibly happy about the fact that Woods is still the #1 golfer in the world. He's a damn good athlete, even if he looks mediocre in the process. Additionally, the PGA Championship is still on the calendar, so Tiger may surprise some of us with his performance.

One thing about the final major of the year, though, is that Tiger Woods is no longer the runaway favorite. There are a lot of guys who smell blood in the water, and they have very little concern about the man who wears his red shirt on Sundays. The Tiger is a wounded animal, and the other players are going in for the kill.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.