A bit off topic for this blog, but they say letting you in on who I really am is good so…
Don’t hurry back Tiger. Believe it or not the sport of golf was just fine before you arrived and will continue on long after you become just a memory.
The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA will be played without you and a champion for the ages will emerge just fine in each.
Your place in the history of the sport of golf is, well, interesting to say the least at this point. You’re in that magical world of “what might still be” that so many great mid-career sportsman find themselves.
At this point, despite all you’ve done, you’re no greater than about a dozen special athletes I could name: Kobe… LeBron… Brady… Manning… Jeter… And I’m a stupid American which means I just left out some amazing soccer, rugby, and cricket players.
You were great. You dominated your sport like few others ever have. Not since Watson, Nicklaus, Palmer, Hogan, Snead… You were special but had work to do.
Sadly, you also played your sport in a time where you were both expected to be perfect and yet exposed to the temptations of a weak moral core more intensely than anyone that came before you.
You were both blessed and cursed to be Tiger Woods and you failed.
Like so many others, you were proven to be human. Vulnerable to the temptations that fame and wealth bring you were revealed to be just a man. A sad, lost, sorry little man.
If nothing else, and I hope you recover from the hole in which you now live, you have provided a great service.
You are yet another lesson reminding us that we are all, yes, all, human.
That those that came before you were more successful and yet did not fail as you have speaks well to the history of the sport. I’ve never respected Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, or Arnold Palmer more than I do now thanks to your weakness.
Get well Tiger. Play again soon. Or don’t… The game lives on either way.
Tags: Golf
