Preface: I
learned to play golf at the age of 12. I
loved the game for many, many years before giving it up entirely 45 years
later. There are many reasons I gave up
the game I at one time played 365 days a year.
What you are about to read is most definitely one of them.
It’s
no secret I haven’t had the slightest interest in professional sports in over
20 years. I watched the Super Bowl this
year only so I could say I watched every one of the first 50. Since I doubt I’ll be around for Super Bowl C
(100, for all of you non-Romans), Super Bowl L (sorry—50) will in all
probability be the last one I watch. The
only remaining interest I had in professional sports was golf and that was for
two reasons: (1) professional golfers were paid for their performance, unlike
the players in the NFL, NBA and MLB who are given contracts with stipulated
salaries (then tend to get greedy and want more when they’re having a good
year) and (2) I played a little golf myself and understood just how difficult
it is to play the game well.
During
Tiger Woods’ prime I’ll admit to being one of his biggest fans. Maybe even the biggest. I have always enjoyed watching history being
made and there was a time I had no doubt Tiger would surpass Jack Nicklaus’
record of winning 18 major golf tournaments in his career. I honestly thought 25 majors and 125 other
championships were within his grasp.
Tiger’s
2008 U.S. Open victory over Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines in San Diego was one
for the ages. Playing on a bad knee (he
would have surgery following his win that would keep him out of action for the
remainder of the year), this—Tiger’s 14th major championship--was so
dramatic…so scintillating that an
entire book was written about it. Tiger
Woods was on top of the world; everything he touched was turning to gold. The man literally could do no wrong.
That
is, until November of 2009 when everything changed in the time it takes for a
car to slam into a fire hydrant. There
was the infamous Tiger Woods sex scandal…then his nasty divorce…finally the inevitable
fall from grace. Everyone’s read or at
least heard about them so there’s no need to repeat any of it here. Everyone has their own opinion of one of the
greatest mysteries in sports: What happened to Tiger Woods? Tiger’s ego became larger than his
overpowering golf game. Tiger had an
addiction to sex. Tiger no longer had a
desire to play golf. Tiger needed
something else to occupy his time. All
of them may have a little bit of truth to them.
But
ultimately what it all boils down to is this: The man simply stepped on his
d*ck. The man seemingly could do nothing
right. I was no longer a fan. Never will be again, for that matter.
In
2013 Woods somehow climbed back to being the #1 player in the world, although
he failed to win a 15th major.
Nike ran an ad featuring Tiger with the catchphrase ‘winning takes care
of everything’ during the year, proving the two of them—Nike and Tiger
Woods—complemented one another perfectly: Neither one of them had any
shame.
Tiger
was no longer the man who won majors. He
was now the man who dropped more F-bombs on Sunday afternoon on national
television than Tony Montana in Scarface. Tiger was no longer the man who could
will a golf ball to do whatever he wanted it to do. He was now the man who had the balls to believe he could live the
fictionalized life of a sailor by having a girl in every port. Tiger was no longer going to ‘do more than any other
man in history to change the course of humanity,’ as his father Earl had
predicted many years ago. The truth is Tiger
did more than any man in history to change the public’s perception of
professional golf…in a rather harmful and damaging way, that is to say.
Some might even go so far as to
call him a disgrace.
I remember watching a
professional golf tournament during Tiger’s prime. I believe it was at Pebble Beach. He was
paired with Jack Nicklaus, the man whose record of major championships he was
chasing. If memory serves it was during
a tournament Tiger would ultimately win.
I couldn’t help but think it was the official passing of the torch. Jack
Nicklaus, the current legend passing it to his successor, Tiger Woods.
If Jack had known Tiger was going
to take the torch and light his ass on fire he may have held onto it a little while
longer and waited for someone more deserving to come along.
Fans everywhere wonder if Tiger
will ever win another major. For me
personally I don’t give a damn, but if I had to venture a guess I’d say
no.
As I already said, some might call
Tiger Woods a disgrace.
Count me as one of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment