Tiger could soon be overthrown

Get well soon Tiger Woods - but do not think that your sport needs you as much as it did a week ago. It doesn't.

For years, Woods was the only story in town. But, just as Roger Federer has discovered with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, new forces arrive and the superstar world of golf now has Rory McIlroy.
As Federer showed at the French Open and hopes to show at Wimbledon, he is still capable of hitting the heights as his 30th birthday approaches.
But, in his mid-30s - normally the prime years for a golfer - there are all sorts of question marks over Woods.
Without a major win for more than three years, without a tournament win for over 19 months, down to 17th in the world and falling fast, a divorced father of two with a battered image following a sex scandal and currently out with injuries not only to his Achilles tendon, but also a left knee which has already been operated on four times.
He did not play the US Open that McIlroy won this weekend by eight shots and he is far from a certain starter in next month's Open at Sandwich.
Woods did send his congratulations to the 22-year-old Northern Irishman, saying: "What a performance from start to finish. Enjoy the win. Well done."
But no word yet on whether he will be back in action at next week's event in Pennsylvania. He has until Friday to enter that.
Even if he does return there, the first fascination will be to see if he is still as bad as he was last time out - 42 for nine holes before quitting the Players Championship - rather than how great he might be again.
Jack Nicklaus won the last of his 18 majors in 1986 when he was 46, but that was his only one after the 1980 US PGA at the age of 40.
The window of opportunity for Woods, stuck on 14, is starting to close if Nicklaus is anything to go by and the next generation has arrived. All four current major champions - Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer, Charl Schwartzel and McIlroy - are in their twenties.
Kaymer has reached the world number one spot already, Schwartzel is already in the top 10, so is 23-year-old Australian Jason Day - runner-up in both the majors so far this season - and after leaping from eighth to fourth the top of the tree is in sight for McIlroy.
With all due respect to Kaymer, Schwartzel, Oosthuizen and Day it is McIlroy who has taken the game by storm and who is loved wherever he goes.
Woods can no longer claim that, if indeed it was ever the case. People respect his achievements, but there is so much more baggage now.
It would only stir interest, though, if he can regain enough fitness to be not just competitive again, but a major title challenger again.
Imagine what it would be like in Kent in three weeks' time, for instance, if he and McIlroy were coming down the stretch locked in battle.
Or anywhere around the world, come to think of it.
Sergio Garcia's emergence in 1999 raised the same possibility with Woods, but he failed to sustain their rivalry.
Everybody expects McIlroy to fulfil his end of the bargain now that he has joined the major club - Garcia is still trying for membership - but can Woods?
If not then it will be a shame. But golf looked just fine without him in Washington these past few days.