I thought since this was Masters week, it would be a good time to write about golf. And if I am going to write about golf, who better to write about than Tiger Woods. I am not real happy about the Tiger Woods situation that went down beginning on Thanksgiving Eve of 2009, but I think I probably feel like that for different reasons than most people.
Tiger Woods is not a saint as it turns out. I hope I'm not ruining your perception by saying this, but most athletes aren't. Athletes cheating on their spouses is not unusual, partly due to their celebrity and money, but also due to the fact that they are constantly on the road. I'm not saying this is an excuse, I'm just saying it happens. A lot. The reason it was as big of a deal as it was, is because it was Tiger Woods.
My biggest problem is that all of these things he did to satisfy his own needs, ruined his golf game. Taking the time off of golf ruined what was supposed to be the world watching the greatest golfer of all time. Now it's gone. Tiger Woods was not only the best golfer in the world, but what people who didn't watch him might not realize, is how feared he was by his competitors. Great golfers used to fold just because they played in the same group as Tiger. I don't have the stats behind this, but Sergio Garcia played his absolute worst golf whenever he played with Tiger.
The best of Tiger Woods was when people used to talk trash about him in the media. Whenever anyone would say the slightest comment that could be thought of as negative in anyway, Tiger would take that out on the course and just dominate everyone. Stephen Ames once said he doesn't know how Tiger Woods wins golf tournaments for how bad he hits the ball, not long before he was going to play him in a match play tournament. For those who aren't familiar with golf, instead of playing against everyone like a normal tournament, in a match play tournament you are matched up against one person, and if you win more golf holes than the other golfer, you advance to the next round of the tournament, until there is only one golfer left. When a golfer is leading in holes by more than the amount of holes left to play, the match is over. So if a golfer wins a match 2&1, that means they are 2 holes up against their opponent, with only 1 hole left to play. So Stephen Ames decided to make these comments about Tiger Woods right before he was matched up against Tiger. Tiger then went out and beat him silly, winning 9&8. If you're keeping up with the math, this means they only played 10 holes, and Tiger won 9 of them, and they tied 1. This is as big of a beat down as you can give someone in match play golf.
Golfers now talk trash to Tiger all of the time, and there's nothing he can do about it anymore. Ian Poulter called him #2 soon after losing his #1 ranking in golf which he held for about 10 years during a dispute on a putting green. Young golfers are talking about how beatable Tiger is, which would have been unheard of 3 years ago. This was supposed to be about the time Tiger was beating Jack Nicklaus' record of 19 majors won, but instead he's reduced to being demeaned by a bunch of young guys who haven't even won anything yet.
So I know most people are upset about what Tiger did, and they are certainly justified. I am more upset because I feel robbed of what should be watching the greatest golfer in history. I don't expect Tiger to do well in the Masters this weekend, because he just seems to be having too much trouble putting 4 good rounds in a row together, and is not putting well. Golfers I am looking to do well this week are Phil Mickleson, Graeme McDowell, and Dustin Johnson.
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