LOUISVILLE — There's a weariness to Tiger Woods these days, a bone-deep exhaustion when he comes off the course that makes you wonder, briefly, why he still puts himself through this when proof of his all-time greatness was established two decades ago.
The answer, of course, is that he does this for the same reason that you and I breathe. He needs the juice of competition, the rush of a challenge. For so many years, he controlled the course, but now the terms of the deal have flipped. He has to accept what the course — and his body — will give him.