You have to give the guy credit. Tiger Woods is never rattled, even when going through the longest winless drought of his career from November 2009 until this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, he remained calm, cool and collected.

He finally won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his first win in more than three years, and seemingly everyone was ready to hop right back onto the Tiger Woods bandwagon.

Immediately, people began to talk about whether Woods could eclipse Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major victories again, oddsmakers pronounced him the favorite at the Masters.

And then, Tiger Woods plummeted again. He finished tied for 40th at the Masters, and then missed the Cut at the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, just his eighth missed cut as a professional.

Instantly, analysts began offering theories for Woods’ sudden struggles. Nick Faldo, former player-turned analyst reiterated his theory that Woods has “lost his confidence”. Brandel Chamblee, an analyst for the Golf Channel, has called for Woods to fire swing coach, Sean Foley.

And suddenly, we’re right back to where we were during Woods’ three year winless drought. We’re back to golf analysts and fans dissecting Woods’ swing, his psyche, his putting, and now, we’re even talking about his swing coach.

But through it all stands Woods, as confident as he’s always been, preaching patience. He brushed off his two disappointing finishes at Augusta and Charlotte, and instead, echoed his oft-heard sentiment about how his new swing is a “process”, and how he’s “close”.

The problem is we’ve heard those same two words come out of Woods’ mouth much too often. The public is growing impatient. He needs to stop talking about perfecting Foley’s swing changes and actually do it.

Woods has defended his decision to switch coaches by explaining how he’s gone through struggles like this after each coaching change.

“I've been through it with Butch (Harmon), I've been through it with Hank (Haney), and you get through stages like this, go through periods like this,” Woods said. “We've all done it. It's just I'm in it right now.”

The problem is he’s been in this “stage” longer with Sean Foley as his swing instructor than with Butch or Hank Haney. He’s in a slump, but isn’t willing to admit his mistake.

As Chamblee said this week, Woods needs to part ways with Sean Foley, The issue, however, is that his pride is interfering with his judgment.

“Simply, he needs to fire Sean, call Butch,” Chamblee said. “I think that would get it done right there. Fire Sean, call Butch. I know he'll never do that, because he's letting his ego get in the way of common sense. He wants to prove to people that he's right. He would rather prove to people he's right than be right.”

Woods can’t continue the trend he’s on now. He can’t continue to stress patience; the public isn’t interested in seeing him be another very good golfer who is occasionally in contention.  People want to see Woods dominate the sport of golf again, but, with him struggling to perfect Foley’s swing changes, his consistency has deserted him.

Woods has plenty of critics who keep saying he can’t regain his old form. They’re saying he’s washed up, that his well-publicized scandal, divorce and indefinite leave of absence have ruined his career.

But Woods has the chance to prove all those critics wrong. He can show all of the analysts that have questioned his psyche that they were wrong about him. He needs to practice instead of talking about how practicing more would help him.

If he’s unwilling to switch swing coaches, than he must become more consistent with Sean Foley’s swing. If he doesn’t want to have to defend himself after every tournament in which he struggles, than he must contend again, not just in a regular tour event, but in majors.

Everything Woods does is news. His past successes have made him one of the most famous athletes in the world. He can’t expect his patience to satisfy the public, at least not much longer. People want to see him draining long puts, hitting those signature Tiger Woods shots that leave you saying “how did he do that?”

People want to see the Tiger of old, the player who went out and didn’t overthink his swing. That player is, unfortunately, long gone.