An amazing thing happened in the sports world while I was away in Italy on a trip with my friends (more on that trip in subsequent posts). No, not me winning a March Madness Bracket that involved money for the first time ever (I've come in 2nd or 3rd a few times), but Tiger winning a major for the first time in eleven damn years - and in a more real sense, a full lifetime ago.
A car crash, a downfall that beats maybe any athlete ever, a life exposed in tabloid after tabloid - fully deserved it must be said, an agitated, aging back that kept him from playing on so many occassions. All of it - with the end being a drug-induced Tiger prancing around sadly, meekly, depressingly, an Arizona suburb arrested for driving under the influence. That was rock bottom of his recovery. This is the top that I hope he never leaves.
Tiger Woods was the most famous, most perfect, athlete in the world for a good eleven years, from 1997-2008, a period in which he won fourteen majors, countless other titles, dominated a sport in a matter no one had ever seen, and did so despite unending media scrutiny, and the pressures both internally (his demanding father wanting this so badly for him) and externally (the black face in a white sport opening up golf for so many minorities). It worked because he worked. Then it all broke.
The dominant Tiger honestly was before my time as a golf fan (2005-2008), if not in a sense, a sports fan (1997-2002). I missed that completely. I could of course go back to the record books and the stats and see his dominance, but I never knew it. I then watached him struggle for year after year.
His actual struggles on the course never interested to me. If anything, he was probably the best player from 2009-2018 without a major win, with multiple spells in his major-less gap of being the best player in the world - especially true in 2013 where he won everyting but a major.
His struggles both physical and mental is what attached me to Tiger. The physical struggles were so real, with so many back surgeries, so many injuries, so many times pulling out of a tournament. So much of all of it. The back surgeries were his equivalent of Peyton's neck surgeries, and while the total number of surgeries (4) was the same, Tiger's was across more years and seemingly more serious. In reality, both got their last surgery (both spinal fusions) in an effort to more or less live a normal life, rather than play a normal game. With both Peyton and now Tiger, their game did not leave them - and maybe even more than the incredible aspects of their initial dominance, their rebirth after so much agony and pain is what makes them forever legends.
It's tough to talk about Tiger without talking about the mental challenges that started the second Tiger drove out of his house (likely on the influence of something) and hit a fire hydrant. The most famous athlete in the world, in the world's most conservative game, was outed as a serial philandering sex addict. His perfectly manicured life: over. In the end, Tiger should have never gotten married, especially when he craved this desire, no matter the reason that craving existed.
Over the years, while he rebuilt his image, started a few soft relationships, and ultimatley grew as a father, it was obvious the mental stress was reducing... until it wasn't. I still remembered how horrifying Tiger's mug-shot is - even if in the end it was seemingly a prescription-drug issue and not a liesure-drug or alcohol one. But it brought all the same horrors again.
We don't know if that part has left the world of Tiger just yet, but for one weekend, it was all perfect again. There was even symbolism that brought back the old, soulful, wholesome Tiger, with him giving big bear hugs to his children (both of whom would have no recollection of any proir Tiger triumph). If anything it showed that even if he was a bad husband, at at times the bad guy, he could still be a good father - the most important title he may hold.
Seeing Tiger win was thrilling, not because of the golf (I watched the last hole), but because of the road back, a bumpier, more dirt-path road of maybe any great athlete. Tiger Woods battled all demons, physical, mental, societal, chemical, and in one area has succeeded every test. Tiger was great because he was a robot, a man who perfected the most frustrating game. There were a few cases where he was hailed because of his emotions - mostly those around the death of his father. For once, and maybe forever more, he was hailed because those emotions were truly, earnestly, certainly, earned.
A car crash, a downfall that beats maybe any athlete ever, a life exposed in tabloid after tabloid - fully deserved it must be said, an agitated, aging back that kept him from playing on so many occassions. All of it - with the end being a drug-induced Tiger prancing around sadly, meekly, depressingly, an Arizona suburb arrested for driving under the influence. That was rock bottom of his recovery. This is the top that I hope he never leaves.
Tiger Woods was the most famous, most perfect, athlete in the world for a good eleven years, from 1997-2008, a period in which he won fourteen majors, countless other titles, dominated a sport in a matter no one had ever seen, and did so despite unending media scrutiny, and the pressures both internally (his demanding father wanting this so badly for him) and externally (the black face in a white sport opening up golf for so many minorities). It worked because he worked. Then it all broke.
The dominant Tiger honestly was before my time as a golf fan (2005-2008), if not in a sense, a sports fan (1997-2002). I missed that completely. I could of course go back to the record books and the stats and see his dominance, but I never knew it. I then watached him struggle for year after year.
His actual struggles on the course never interested to me. If anything, he was probably the best player from 2009-2018 without a major win, with multiple spells in his major-less gap of being the best player in the world - especially true in 2013 where he won everyting but a major.
His struggles both physical and mental is what attached me to Tiger. The physical struggles were so real, with so many back surgeries, so many injuries, so many times pulling out of a tournament. So much of all of it. The back surgeries were his equivalent of Peyton's neck surgeries, and while the total number of surgeries (4) was the same, Tiger's was across more years and seemingly more serious. In reality, both got their last surgery (both spinal fusions) in an effort to more or less live a normal life, rather than play a normal game. With both Peyton and now Tiger, their game did not leave them - and maybe even more than the incredible aspects of their initial dominance, their rebirth after so much agony and pain is what makes them forever legends.
It's tough to talk about Tiger without talking about the mental challenges that started the second Tiger drove out of his house (likely on the influence of something) and hit a fire hydrant. The most famous athlete in the world, in the world's most conservative game, was outed as a serial philandering sex addict. His perfectly manicured life: over. In the end, Tiger should have never gotten married, especially when he craved this desire, no matter the reason that craving existed.
Over the years, while he rebuilt his image, started a few soft relationships, and ultimatley grew as a father, it was obvious the mental stress was reducing... until it wasn't. I still remembered how horrifying Tiger's mug-shot is - even if in the end it was seemingly a prescription-drug issue and not a liesure-drug or alcohol one. But it brought all the same horrors again.
We don't know if that part has left the world of Tiger just yet, but for one weekend, it was all perfect again. There was even symbolism that brought back the old, soulful, wholesome Tiger, with him giving big bear hugs to his children (both of whom would have no recollection of any proir Tiger triumph). If anything it showed that even if he was a bad husband, at at times the bad guy, he could still be a good father - the most important title he may hold.
Seeing Tiger win was thrilling, not because of the golf (I watched the last hole), but because of the road back, a bumpier, more dirt-path road of maybe any great athlete. Tiger Woods battled all demons, physical, mental, societal, chemical, and in one area has succeeded every test. Tiger was great because he was a robot, a man who perfected the most frustrating game. There were a few cases where he was hailed because of his emotions - mostly those around the death of his father. For once, and maybe forever more, he was hailed because those emotions were truly, earnestly, certainly, earned.
