You didn’t really care what Tiger Woods did off the course, right? I mean, all that stuff about Waitress X in Hotel Y on the Anniversary of Z, well, that was just window dressing. A government stimulus package for the tabloid media.
You care about the golf.
Oh sure, the other stuff may have made you blush a bit. You might even have found his dalliances morally reprehensible. Perhaps you applauded those sponsors who dropped Woods as spokesman, but did you stop patronizing those who didn’t? Well, besides not buying the kids that new Tiger Woods video game, simply for fear of an imaginative programmer’s Easter eggs.
And yeah, Tiger as a crass punch line was definitely new territory. Howard Stern even hosted a Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant a couple months back. Show me the fortune teller who predicted that a year ago. Three contestants competed, and you can imagine how the interview portion went. Congratulations, Miss South Carolina. You’re off the hook for most embarrassing beauty pageant answer.
But in the end, you had to figure it was all just a sideshow. A Barnum & Bailey sideshow on steroids, to be sure, but a sideshow nonetheless. All Tiger really had to do was weather the storm until he could step back on the golf course. Just start swinging those golf clubs again. Because then he’d have ‘moved on.’ And the past would be the past. And that would be between him and Elin. Or whatever PR-approved cliché you’d like to go with.
Yeah, once the Masters rolled around, it would be about golf again. Which is why you started caring about him in the first place. He’d done amazing things on a golf course, and he’d surely do them again. So you’d watch him again. Probably not in the same, almost reverent way. But you sure were rooting for him to do well. Most of you, anyway.
In mid-March, an Opinion Research Corporation poll revealed that 59 percent of respondents were rooting for Tiger to win The Masters, while only 20 percent were rooting against him. Not overwhelming numbers, but after what he’d been through? Not too shabby.
Then Tiger went out and placed fourth in The Masters. And while he was clearly never one for moral victories, this sure did feel like one. After what he’d been through? Not too shabby at all.
So we were getting back to normal, right? He’d pick and choose his tournaments, get his game back in shape, stick to his rehabilitation regimen – on both a personal and public relations basis – and simply reclaim the throne. It was just that easy.
Take care of the golf, and everything else about the Tiger brand would fall back into place.
But folks, we might be missing a step.
Because what if Woods can’t take care of the golf?
Impossible, you say. And up until a couple weeks ago, I’d have agreed. But look what’s happened.
Tiger’s encore after The Masters came at the Quail Hollow Championship, where he posted the worst 36-hole score of his entire career. Then on Sunday, he withdrew during the final round of The Players Championship, citing what may be a bulging disk in his neck. And on top of that, Hank Haney, Tiger’s longtime and legendary swing coach, just resigned.
That’s a remarkable 1-2-3 punch, and it makes you wonder. Tiger’s personal life went down in flames at an unbelievably fast pace. Could his golf game be following suit?
Neck issues are no small matter, especially for golfers, who treat their necks like twist ties. If this thing lingers, combined with the mental toll, could we be witnessing the unthinkable?
Could this be the beginning of the end?
But you say he’s the greatest golfer ever and surely he’ll bounce back. To which I say he’s not the greatest yet and nobody’s guaranteed to bounce.
You can’t be the greatest at something until you’re done doing that something and the entire record is on the table. No matter how good you are, or how foregone a conclusion your greatness may be, you still have to actually do it.
So yes, Tiger may be the most talented golfer the world has ever seen. He may play a game with which neither Bobby Jones nor Jack Nicklaus is familiar. But he hasn’t caught Nicklaus’ 18 majors yet, and until he does, he’s simply not the greatest.
History is rife with those whose potential greatness was cut short by injury. Gale Sayers was Barry Sanders before Barry Sanders, but his knees weren’t up to the challenge, so young football fans only know Sanders. Terrell Davis looked like Emmitt Smith, until he broke down nine years earlier than Emmitt. What about Bo Jackson? And how many games might Sandy Koufax have won? We’ll never know.
Tiger’s peak may have been higher than anyone else’s peak. The positive impact he’s had on golf is indisputable, and nobody can take away the things Tiger has done. But nobody can guarantee he’ll do anything else, either.
Would a healthy and happy Tiger have beaten Nicklaus’ record? Almost assuredly. But Tiger is now neither happy nor healthy. The truth is, nobody knows which Tiger will show up, be it in a few months at Whistling Straits for the 92nd PGA Championship or in a few years down the road. Or if he will even show up at all.
And this is where the real danger is for Team Tiger. Because what you and everybody else really cared about was what Tiger did on the course. But what if he can no longer succeed there?
What will you care about then?
After Tiger won his first Masters in 1997, Dave Anderson wrote about the historic moment in The New York Times. It was a glowing piece predicting a glistening future for Tiger, but not one without caveats. To wit:
“Will his celebrity status sabotage his life style, which has been chaperoned by his parents since he was a golf prodigy?”
“Will he marry a good woman to keep him on a straight and narrow fairway, as his parents have kept him?”
“Will his back, so flexible now in helping generate so much clubhead speed, hold up under the physical pressure?”
Hmm… maybe Tiger really did have a fortune teller.
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