Nothing quick to Tiger's turnaround

— -- GAINESVILLE, Va. -- The final rounds of The Open playing on without him, Tiger Woods emerged from a Caribbean vacation with his kids to catch the four-hole playoff won by Zach Johnson at St. Andrews, taking in the highlights later of Jordan Spieth's Grand Slam bid coming up a shot short.

Nobody expected Woods to be in that arena with the tournament on the line, but surely the 14-time major champion whose game remains in an abyss had to yearn to be there -- not to be watching, but competing.

That was the place where he developed his fondness for links golf, where he completed his first career Grand Slam, where he won two Claret Jugs and helped seal his legacy.

And instead, he was watching the final round after snorkeling and spearfishing in the Bahamas.

Few could have thought that nearly two years ago to the day, when Woods was winning the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. That victory included a second-round 61 and set him up as a favorite to win his 15th major at the PGA Championship the following week.

It was at Oak Hill where Woods first showed signs of a back issue, one that would plague him off and on for the rest of 2013, resulting in back surgery the following year that led to swing changes and another lost season in 2015.

Barring some sort of miracle -- at least based on his form of late -- Woods is down to his last two PGA Tour events of the season, including this week's Quicken Loans National at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. The tournament benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, but how much it will benefit its namesake is unclear.

If Woods had trouble navigating his personal playground at the home of golf, how is he supposed to fare at a place that (A) he has not seen in 10 years and (B) will have considerably more rough and narrower fairways?

The problem with that kind of view is that it again fails to look long-range.

Woods seemingly attempted to do that Tuesday during a pretournament news conference, acknowledging his comeback has not gone as planned.

"I didn't think it would take this long because I thought I would have my short game earlier, which I didn't at the very beginning of the year,'' Woods said. "You can cover up a lot of different things when you're chipping and putting well.

"A lot of missteps throughout the years when I've changed coaches and techniques, my short game was all pretty good. I didn't have it at the beginning of the year and so that process of scoring has taken a lot longer because of that.''

Woods also said that returning from back surgery last year and changing his golf swing is "a perfect storm and I've had to fight through both of those at the same time.''

Those are some significant admissions by Woods, who is typically loathe to go that route. Even though he talked again about "sticking with the process,'' he is never going to fully buy into the idea that today's golf is more about the future than it is about now.

Perhaps it is one of the traits that has made him so good over the years. Woods will never admit defeat, never suggest to the world that he is in the midst of a long quest to regain his swing and his game.

At one point, Woods talked about winning this week so he could qualify for next week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the only way he can make it to Firestone, where he has won eight times. He didn't say it with much conviction, but the fact that he did so at all only serves as fuel for the detractors.

Woods might not be able to lower expectations, but everyone else should. He's ranked 266th in the world and playing like it. At St. Andrews, he beat just seven players -- and three of them were age 50 and older: Tom Watson, Nick Faldo and Mark Calcavecchia. There were nine amateurs in The Open field, and eight of them fared better than the guy who won his two Claret Jugs there by a combined 13 shots.

At various times, Woods sounds like someone who realizes deep down that he isn't going to snap his fingers and start beating upstarts he's never heard of, let alone play to the unfathomable standards he set.

Just about any other player in his position would be working on his various issues in anonymity. They would come back to little fanfare and struggle in peace, with small galleries and virtually no television coverage. Only when they shoot a good score or contend in a tournament would their names be in lights.

Woods is never going to be afforded that solitude, and 79 PGA Tour victories makes that more than understandable. There will always be interest, regardless of the state of his game. If Jack Nicklaus showed up to play a tournament right now, do you think people wouldn't be there to watch?

The difference, of course, is Woods is 39 and still at a point in his career when a player can have immense success. Johnson, for example, is the same age and came home last week with the Claret Jug.

Woods isn't going to retire, as has been ludicrously suggested by some. And it's impossible to say he is "done,'' as others are quick to believe. But there is no denying the doubts that surround him.

"Yeah, it's frustrating to not be able to win golf tournaments,'' Woods said. "I'm not really there in contention very often and so that part is frustrating.''

But then Woods talked about how close it feels and that "it's not as big of a gap as people think,'' and you wonder if he is fooling himself or if there is something to it.

As someone who has seen him hit numerous practice shots and been there for all manner of practice rounds this year, it is easy to get lulled into thinking that Woods is not that far off. But the results say otherwise, and the scorecard is a cruel judge.

And so the quest continues this week at the Quicken Loans National, and again two weeks from now at the PGA Championship. Unless he qualifies for the FedEx Cup playoffs, Woods faces another eight weeks off before he is due to play the Frys.com Open -- the season-opening event for the 2015-16 season in October.

Woods said Tuesday he wouldn't add the opposite-field event next week in Reno if he fails to qualify for the Bridgestone. He's talked about needing more reps, yet he is unlikely to add tournaments in Europe if he misses out on the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Perhaps that is best. It seems that Woods has spent the better part of the past year rushing to get ready for something when such a course of action was unrealistic. It is difficult for him to play in a tournament without doing so to win, as much as he simply needs to patiently work his way back into form.

When Woods finished up at St. Andrews 10 days ago, he referenced the final hole as being "the greatest walk in golf,'' and seemed to truly soak in the atmosphere.

Who knows what goes through the mind at that point? But leaving in that manner -- and having to witness on TV what unfolded two days later -- had to be yet another harsh reminder of his plight.