The Last Comment About Tiger Ever…until April 12th

The Last Comment About Tiger Ever…until April 12th

The Last Comment About Tiger Ever…until April 12th

Up until a couple of days ago, Tiger has held us all at gun point by stating that he will, “Return to golf some day.”
Well, now he is returning and a collective sigh of relief has been felt all over the world of golf. All the way from players, to the industry, even to the casual observer who would only dedicate 30 minutes of TV golf viewing, if the great one was two up with 1 hole to play.
To be born and raised in the time of Tiger is unlike anything that most people could appreciate. You could mention Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, or even Michael Jordan, but none of those athletes can compare to the world wide fame that Tiger has created, for good or bad.
It’s a personal pride that everyone can silently recognize, “I was alive when he played.” or “I saw him make that chip on 16 at Augusta.”, even if it was only on TV. You are watching history, or at least hoping you were. I was 16 when Jack won his 6th green jacket and I knew that what I was watching was history unfolding.
We all want Tiger to overtake Jack in the Major wins department, because many of us believed that it was out of this world to imagine that someone could do it.
And I believe it still is…
Watching Tiger apologize to the world for his behavior, I saw the look on his face and I finally realized that I was looking at the inner core of an opponent that was facing Tiger on the first tee box on Sunday. It’s an utterly powerless uncontrolled feeling that assumes a defensive posture-something that Tiger is completely unfamiliar with. That is why so many people felt his apology was not genuine-but he is incapable of feeling fear or remorse. I don’t want to say he is a robot, but years of training, and simple killer instincts that are born into us, are difficult to let down or let go.
The only thing that Tiger wants is to “get back to things the way they were…”-and that takes winning. Wanting to win and letting it happen are two different entities. Everyone of us have stood over a $5 dollar putt and said to themselves, “I have to make this!”…and then blow the putt. Golf is a consciously unconscious game, and things happen more easily when they are allowed to happen. Recall when Tigers father was gravely ill, and Tiger knew that the 2006 Masters would be the last Major his father could potentially witness? Well, he blew it…
When Tiger came on to the Tour, we needed him. We needed a reved up version of Nicklaus, an assassin like mind better than Hogan, a putter like Crenshaw, and a deep respect for the game with the bulls eye focus of just wanting to win Majors and to destroy the record books.
Well, he was it…
We needed someone to hit the shots that on-course broadcasters said were impossible. We needed him to have to make a 20-footer to win. We needed him to bomb it past everyone when he needed to. We needed him to be an extension of our “dream-selves”. The being that we wish we were, when we are up at night going over the round that we played in our heads, and saying, “Man I wish I could have hit that shot like Tiger!”
But now, the fans are standing on the first tee box on Sunday, and we are sitting on a two shot lead. We are making our way through the gallery with hushed murmurs, and Tiger is waiting for us thinking,” They know that I know, that they can beat me.”
Tiger needs us now, and unless he wins this April in Augusta and gets down on his knees to slip the green jacket on Elin, he will never be the same Tiger that we knew-or that we used to say,” The Old Tiger could have pulled that shot off.”