Mike Cormack

Mike Weir has struggled on weekends when in contention ever since his collapse at the '04 Canadian Open.

Mike Weir has a partial ligament tear, but that’s not all that’s wrong with his game.

Mike Weir said Tuesday he’s relieved to have discovered he’s been suffering from a partially torn ligament in his right elbow all summer.

You would be too if you’d just turned 40, hadn’t won in almost three years and there was no other reason to account for your worst year on the PGA Tour since 1998.

Before a recent MRI revealed the partial tear, the 2003 Masters champion says he thought he was merely suffering from tendonitis.

"It's been a couple months of bugging me and it's really been inhibiting my game as well," Weir told the Canadian Press Tuesday. "At least I have some answers -- what's been going on and why it's been sore and why I haven't been able to be as aggressive at the ball as I could be and why I'm hesitant."

Last month at the Canadian Open after he failed to make the cut with rounds of 72-74, Weir refused at the time to blame his poor showing on the elbow.

"I just played poorly," Weir said. "You know, no excuses. I just didn't play well."

Several weeks -- and a few more missed cuts later -- and suddenly the elbow is to blame for his poor play. But the truth is, Weir’s 2010 struggles began long before the elbow injury became apparent and -- as any honest golf observer will tell you -- his career has been in decline for several years now.

Going back to April and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Weir has missed the cut in seven of his past 10 events and he has broken 70 just twice in his past 18 rounds on Tour.

The chart below indicates just how out of sorts Weir is with his swing.

Dig a little deeper into the Bright’s Grove, Ont., native’s record and the picture isn’t any prettier.

Since blowing a two-shot lead with three holes to play six years ago at the Canadian Open before eventually losing in a playoff to Vijay Singh, Weir has recorded just one PGA Tour win, and that victory -- at the 2007 Frys.com Open -- was in a Fall Series event against a less-than-stellar field.

The collapse at the Canadian Open -- which he later blamed on a neck injury -- seemed to scar Weir, as he’s struggled on weekends when in contention ever since.

At 40, it’s far too soon to suggest Weir can’t resurrect his game to become an elite player again, but he’s clearly facing an uphill climb.

If you’re Weir, you’re no doubt hanging your hat on the fact that the likes of Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh and Kenny Perry were able to take their games to another level in their 40s.

But then there are also former top players such as David Duval, Ian Baker-Finch and Seve Ballesteros, who through a combination of injury and self doubt, lost their way and never recovered their previous form.

Here’s some hoping some rehab and some R&R are enough to heal Weir’s elbow so when the 2011 season rolls around he can once again let his clubs do the talking.