November 8 -- C’mon, admit it -- you miss Tiger Woods. Not the world’s second-best Tiger Woods, who hasn’t won a tournament in 2010 and followed an up-and-down HSBC Champions event with a DFL in a one-day charity skins match in Thailand.
WD, MC. Certainly not the golfer who blamed a neck injury for withdrawing from this year’s Players Championship, or who four-putted a green and missed the Quail Hollow cut in April. Not even the fallen icon who finished in a tie for fourth in the 2010 Masters, his first event back after his sex scandal and self-inflicted plummet from grace.
No, you miss the Tiger Woods who only had to throw his “TW” cap onto the first tee to intimidate his opponents into knowing they were teeing it up for second place. You know, the guy who won the 2008 U.S. Open on one leg, captured the “Tiger Slam” at the beginning of the century, held golf’s No. 1 perch for five years running, was likely on his way to breaking Jack Nicklaus’ lofty major championship record, and, who, until oh, about a year ago, provided the perfect antidote to all that was wrong with rich, self-centered professional athletes.
Missing mystique. Then all hell broke loose blah blah blah, and with it went the mystique of the Tiger Woods who played a game of golf with which the rest of the world was unfamiliar. Granted, Woods’ aura of invincibility had left the building before his SUV slammed into a hydrant, it truly came crashing down after last Thanksgiving.
In its place is today’s Tiger 2.0, the humbled, disgraced, frustrated [fill in the blank] version of the erstwhile golf great, who maneuvers his way around the course like any other PGA Tour professional.
This Tiger Woods says things like, “I had numerous opportunities to play well and I just didn’t do it.” And, “I’m still learning this new move...and I’m doing thousands of reps until it becomes more natural.” Or, “I’m excited about the changes I’ve made in the last few months...started to see some pretty good signs.”
It’s a process. And, of course, everybody’s favorite: “It’s a process yada yada yada.” (Golf clap to the Washington Post for the quotes.)
With such mind-numbing pablum comes the stark reality of guys named Oosthuizen and McDowell as major champions, and Lee Westwood as the top player in men’s golf. For sure, each one seems like a nice enough chap, and Westwood bangs out his endless runner-up finishes with grit while hobbling around on a bum leg.
Zzzzzzzzzzz. But, OMG, could golf get much more boring? Yeah, yeah, Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and the rest of the 20-somethings can hit the ball, but it’s just not the same.
To be sure, Al Gore’s Internet has strained under the weight of pundits’ words claiming Woods will reclaim his brilliance, or that he’s absolutely, completely, and totally done for good. That’s not what this is about.
Best-ever. This is about the sheer joy of watching the best-ever, tourney after tourney, major after major, stick moon shots across hazards to within inches from pins. Blast impossible shots with 6-irons, over water, from fairway bunkers, to impossibly inaccessible holes, with tourneys on the line. And, of course, chip in 90-degree, bump-and-runs from the cuff of the second cut, from way below the hole, during a tradition unlike any other (speaking of mind-numbing pablum, Jim Nantz).
“Oh, wow!” is the understatement of this or any other century. And no, in your life you have never seen anything like that.
More to the point, what are the odds that you’ll ever seen anything like that again?
Woods has arrived Down Under to defend his title at the last golf tournament he won. Remember when Tiger took Australia by storm and won the event by two strokes?
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