Tiger Woods is something special, not that you need me to tell you that. Watching the man play golf is a treat, and I for one am going to miss him over the rest of the calendar year.
There’s only so much hyperbole that you can use before it gets lost and worn out on the masses. The dude is tougher than any other golfer in the world, that’s for sure. Eagle One and I were talking about his feat, capturing the US Open title despite two stress fractures in his tibia and having a blown ACL. Most people simply couldn’t walk through that pain. Tiger Woods, by our estimates, walked somewhere around 30-35 miles during that week of golf. He played 91 holes of championship golf, and kept making clutch putts and shots, even though just to line up over the ball had to make him grimace.
There’s really nothing else to compare it to. True a basketball player, or baseball or football or hockey player, simply couldn’t perform their sports with those injuries. It would be career-threatening. I don’t know if Tiger could have hurt himself considerably more than he was already banged up, but it sure wasn’t career-enhancing to tough it out for the week. Well, maybe in terms of money, fame (like he could gain more of that at this juncture), and championships, but not longevity and quality of life.
Eldrick Woods is without a doubt the definition of what it means to be a champion. The guy carries himself with class, and delivers time and time again. I heard people were betting against him to make that putt on 18 at the end of Sunday’s round. Did you really think he would? Maybe at some point he’s due to blow up and not come through, but I don’t know when. Even hurt like he was, he’s the best golfer in the world.
I’ve heard other people say that rooting for Tiger is like rooting for the house in Vegas, or the Yankees, or OPEC. I don’t think so at all. Rooting for Tiger Woods is rooting to see something special. We watch him because he can make shake our heads in disbelief. We watch him because we want to see him stand over that impossible putt and rattle in off of the back of the cup and then pump his fists with authority. There is a joy in watching the best in the world. I used to love to watch Pedro pitch in the late 90s. I loved watching Larry Bird shoot jumpers, or Michael Jordan drive to the basket. I imagine it was the same watching Jimi Hendrix play guitar, or Bobby Orr skate in the free, or Stu Ungar dominate a card table.
Certain people are given gifts in life that others can’t contemplate. Instead of being jealous of those gifts, we should sit back and enjoy what we’re seeing, because eventually it all has to end. Sure someone else will come along to create in unfathomable ways, but it’s never quite the same.
They have their gifts to perform. Our gift is being able to watch and enjoy.
So, yeah, I’m going to miss watching Tiger for the next couple of months.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
