It is two years since Rory McIlroy was caught in the cross-fire after suggesting that Tiger Woods was on "the last few holes" of his career. Innocuous statements are impossible when golf's star turn is involved, so the Irishman was roundly lambasted for impudence. Now, after the latest aborted comeback and another season of hokey-cokey, the arguments are in full flow again.

Woods is only 40, but he is battle-scarred after three back operations and has not played for more than a year. His 11th-hour withdrawal from this week's Safeway Open in California was swathed in customary melodrama. Then he pitched up at his own invitational tournament on Tuesday to take a few ceremonial swings. Not dead yet, the obituarists noted, but the obsession with Woods highlights golf's problem.

For David Leadbetter, the coach who rebuilt Nick Faldo's swing, that was an alarm bell. "The rumours are he has mental issues with his short game," he said. "We saw that a year ago when he had the chippy yips, or whatever you want to call it. When you have something like that it can destroy your game. They don't totally go away once they make their mark. If that's the case it's a severe problem.

"Along with Jack Nicklaus, the old Tiger probably had the best mind in golf. He is not in that place now. The old Tiger would say, 'Let me out there'."

Leadbetter recalled the case of Dave Thomas, twice a runner-up at the Open but a man beset by mental torment. "He was a great player but he would not chip over the bunker, he had to go to the side. It can drive people to distraction, if not drink.

"Is it curable? Yes and no. That's why you see people using the long putter or the claw grip. It's a way of nullifying the putting yips. Vijai Singh went to cross-handed chipping. It's more drastic with a short shot because you have such a variety of options around the green.

"If Tiger's worried about technique then that gets in the head. He had one of the best short games in the history of golf, but a year ago he was duffing chips and, under pressure, these things come back to haunt you. Something is going on in his head and he's obviously not confident in his ability to perform in public."

The trouble for Woods is there is no hiding place. The longer he stays out of action, the stronger the clamour for his return. That cloak of mystery will also be worn until after next month's Turkish Airlines Open, another event he has opted to miss.

If you want to know how big Tiger Woods still is then rewind to the winners' press conference at the Ryder Cup, where he was a non-playing backroom staffer. It was there that Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champion, was reduced to a starry-eyed stalker as he gushed that he now had Woods's mobile number; rarely has so much been written about a man who did and said so little.

He will come back, but will he win again? And if he wins again will he end an eight-year wait for a 15th major? "It's an unknown quantity because we've never had somebody as good as him," Cowen said.

Antoni Jakubowski, a Harley Street chiropractor whose clients have included Willett, Faldo and Justin Rose, is more pessimistic because of the three back operations. "Surgery two, for a pro athlete, is probably a good excuse for retirement," he said. "With backs you don't have nine lives."

The players want him too. "He's the only guy I've ever looked up to," said Chris Wood, one of Europe's Ryder Cup defeated, as he prepared for the British Masters.

"He doesn't deserve his career to finish in this way," Luke Donald, a former world No 1, added: "He still moves the needle in golf. But he's just not quite ready to tee it up from a mental standpoint perhaps.

"There's a lot of mental anguish when you take time away. I think obviously Tiger, the greatest player that's ever played, he's got very, very high standards and expectations.

"I think that you have to weigh that up with that feel of almost failure or fear or anxiety of not performing well."

If these are the last angst-ridden holes of Woods's career then he is certainly due a fine for slow play. His game remains on ice, the guessing games are back to boiling point.

THE TIMES, LONDON