The Masters 2012: Tiger Woods's mood swings on hellish third day in paradise at Augusta National Close to the water fountain where the Nicklaus plaque can be found, on Friday evening, Woods hit a spectator beside the 15th green, shook the victim's hand, then fluffed his chip into the bunker before saving par and marching over to the 16th tee, where the world observed the biggest of his tantrums on a hellish day in paradise. With a nine-iron he sent his lofted shot into a greenside bunker, turned and booted the club along the grass. "Tiger's lost his game and his mind," chided Nick Faldo later in a television commentary booth. There were reports of "profanities" throughout the round. In an unusually candid interview Woods talked about the mess his swing was in and stomped off to the practice range, where he was seen swiping away at balls in the dark. The respected Associated Press reporter Tim Dahlberg called him "an embarrassment to his sport" and fulminated: "If [chairman] Billy Payne was as serious about keeping club decorum intact as he is about keeping women members out of Augusta National, he would do well to take it upon himself to show Woods the door." When dear old AP savage such an iconic figure (in sporting terms, at least), you can see the demons swarm around his quest to eclipse Nicklaus, who must be more confident than ever that his 18 majors will remain unsurpassed. Two weeks ago, Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots and appeared comfortable with his new post-Hank Haney action. To the four-time Masters champion, now 36, a golf swing is an infinitely complex arrangement of moves and thoughts. If there is one word to describe his agonising it is: neurotic. "I've been working on my short game, and it's been taking away from my full swing," he said by the gorgeous live oak in front of the clubhouse. It's not what it was at Bay Hill [in the Arnold Palmer] and prior tournaments. I get it in streaks where it's really good and then I lose it for a little bit. He has not won here since 2005 and no one was buying his claim on Friday night: "I can do this." He smacked his first drive of Saturday straight down the middle at 3.45pm London time. A teeming gallery pursued him. In their thoughts, no doubt, was Faldo's evisceration: "He's one of the greatest players of all time and he hasn't a clue how to put the clubface on the ball right now," said England's three-time Masters champion. He's had a few snap-hooks with the driver, he's blocked a few iron shots, his distance control is lousy and he can't hole a putt. He used to have an amazing ability to make things happen. When he tries to make things happen now he puts himself under pressure and it doesn't happen. He's become like the rest of us which he wasn't - he was paranormal. Suddenly he's affected by poor shots, he has a few demons on his shoulders, he struggles to find it on the golf course and he struggles to fix it on the golf course. He's running on sheer frustration. It's a different time in Tiger's life and in his career. There was the Tiger of old but over the last couple of years he's had change technically, physically and mentally - the whole karma of his life. "I've just got to stay patient with it and keep doing the reps, and eventually it'll become where it's second nature," Woods said before striding down through the pines with noticeably fierce intent. A measure of his aura is that no one ever really writes him off. But that 2½-year hiatus nags away. Are the old certainties recoverable? Were the Haney years the golden time, now vanished? Woods is trying to reconquer a changed world in which one win at Bay Hill proved to be illusory when he tested his new set-up in the trees of Georgia. His mood turned dark again on 13, after two birdies were nullified by two bogeys on the front nine. His draw with a three-wood landed up against Rae's Creek, and Woods threw his second club of the week - this time into the tee box. The plaque near 16 reads: "Jack Nicklaus elevated his game to meet golf's challenges, including those at the Masters Tournament." Woods seeks only to lift his game back to where it was, up in the Gods.