THE great golfing showdown that the world hoped 2015 would provide has never seemed a more distant prospect.
Mere hours after Rory McIlroy stormed to the front of the field at the Dubai Desert Classic, half-way across the world, Tiger Woods plumbed historic depths.
There will be no head-to-head between the most marketable men in the game any time soon because Woods' marketability is plummeting almost as fast as his scores go in the other direction. Yesterday he recorded the worst round of his career as he shot an 11-over par 82 in the second round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Woods' previous worst effort had comet the 2002 Open Championship when, in horrendous conditions, he shot 81 in the third round at Muirfield - but he went one worse than that in Arizona. That left Woods 13-over, last in the 132-man field, and certain to miss back-to-back cuts for the first time in his career.
The Phoenix Open was Woods' first event of the season and his first outing since he finished joint last at the World Hero Challenge in December.
The 14-time major winner had missed the cut at the US PGA Championship in August, his last official Tour event, and then withdrew from contention for Ryder Cup selection as he continued to recover from back surgery.
Woods had cut a positive figure in the build up to play in the desert, stating that he was "ahead of schedule" and expressing optimism in the work he had done on his chipping with new swing consultant Chris Como.
But his short-game problems returned with a vengeance at TPC Scottsdale and he may now have to go back to the drawing board in the search for a first major Championship since the 2008 US Open.
Earlier the world number one could not have been a more polar opposite to the fallen titan. McIlroy showed his peerless power and precision that put him in pole position at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
The Northern Irishman produced a superb bogey-free eight-under-par 64 to take a one-shot lead over Scotland's Marc Warren at 14-under.
McIlroy underlined his class by closing with three successive birdies but even so, he would have come off the course with the feeling he could have gone even lower on a track where he recorded his maiden professional victory in 2009.
That shows how far the 24-year-old's expectations have risen in the six years since he lifted the title at the Emirates Golf Club, during which time he has won four majors with two of those coming in the last six months.
"It was good. I hit a couple of loose shots early on but found my rhythm and after that I played pretty well and converted most of my chances," he told European Tour Radio.
"You can't ask for much more: bogey-free, eight birdies. I've set myself up nicely for a good run at it in the next couple of days.
"I saw a stat yesterday that since the first round of The Open, I've played 45 rounds and a third of them were 66 or better, which just shows you the level that I am at.
"I've put the work in and I've worked hard; I continue to work hard and this is the result, which is nice.
"I am very comfortable and a lot of the parts of my game are in good shape but the conditions out there are absolutely perfect so I would expect the scoring to stay low for the weekend and I am going to have to carry on playing like this.
"It is the best place to be, one shot ahead, but you just got to go out and be aggressive and try to make as many birdies as you can.
"I'm going to need something similar over the weekend to stay in the same position, as there are so many people close to the lead, it is so bunched up, you can't play defensively on this course."
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