Jeff Schwartz
Blog #4: Tiger Woods, LOL I’ll Pretend You Stuck to Playing 18
July 3, 2010
For fans of the sport is there anything more thrilling than a battle between two golfers on Sunday coming up toward the eighteenth green? A little under two years ago I relished the moments that Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate shared the lead at the U.S. Open played at Torrey Pines, ending in a playoff on Monday. That was sports drama, that was compelling television, and that was what big time competitive athletics is all about. As I type this blog Tiger Woods is sitting at +3, good as a tie for 49th place while playing in a tournament that he’s the current reigning and defending champion (AT&T National). What in the hell has happened to a golfer who was viewed as the Michael Jordan of his sport?
We can beat the issue into the ground, but the most pertinent issue Woods is facing is not the plethora of whores, skanks, ho’s, and Perkins’ waitresses he’s slept with behind his wife’s back. It’s not the potential 750 million dollars his wife may be taking in a divorce settlement. Shockingly it’s not even the firing of former swing coaches Butch Harmon and Hank Haney. The biggest issue facing Woods is his mental approach to the game of golf is spent. At almost 35, Woods is physically beat and his swing has taken a turn for the worse. Mentally Tiger Woods is at his wits end on the golf course and in his personal life.
I certainly am not one to judge someone I’ve never met but what I can say watching Woods on the golf course each week is no longer the epic event it used to be. His swing has fallen off, gone are the powerful bursts as Woods shifted his hips. There’s no force behind the best golfer of his generation. His family is in shambles; his game might just be worse off. I can’t honestly ever see Woods regaining his form on the course. When I began playing the game of golf as a child, I was always told to square my shoulders with my feet. I check that out before every single swing I take. Tiger Woods doesn’t even do that anymore, it looks like he just doesn’t care.
You judge an athlete not by his actions on the course, floor, court, pitch, or field but by the look in his eyes. There is no fire in the eyes of Tiger Woods. None, at all. His eyes are empty, his dark skin is pale. When the day comes that I can see the fire in Woods eyes, the passion that it takes to win any competition return, I for one will be thrilled. I don’t root for Tiger Woods, I never have. But I do root for compelling drama in all sports.
Had Woods stuck to what he knew, the game of golf instead of fraternizing with females who’d be voted most likely to be a stripper in high school I wonder if his game would have remained as dominant as it was. It’s a similar conundrum to the notion that had Michael Jordan not gone off to play baseball for a year would he have won nine straight championships instead of six. Had Woods kept his head down and focused on golf and not fired Butch Harmon in 2003 would he have already broken Jack Nicholas’s major tournament wins record? It’s certainly possible.
To me there are so many factors that have led to Tiger’s problems. Getting married, having children, firing coaches, social contacts with people like Charles Barkley, firing coaches, and sexing it up with random broads could all be contributors. While never commenting on his problems, Woods would likely blame none of those as factors. That’s why he should have stuck to playing his 18 holes of golf each week, and moved on to the next one. If Tiger Woods truly wanted to be the best, he’d ignore everyone else and refine his approach. Clearly what he’s doing now does not work.
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