Tiger in the Woods

One of my everlasting memories is of Tiger Woods in his customary sunday red , pitching out of the bunker at the 16th hole in Augusta in the year 2005 ; and the resulting commentary exultation – “In your life have you seen anything like that ???”.....followed by a rather more sedate "This guy's pretty good."
Tiger , the sporting icon , has been writ large over our generation , across nations and continents in a manner very few athletes have – Michael Schumacher , Roger Federer , Michael Jordan and Lance Amstrong are the only ones that spring to mind. As a golfer, there is only one other in any that has yet played the game to compare with him. Tiger’s influence reaches far wider than the 14 majors and the 60 odd tournament victories to his credit. He is the only reason golf enjoys the global popularity that is does , the overwhelming desire (more than ever before) among increasing hordes of youngsters to pursue golf as a career is down whole and sol to the Tiger factor.....And then we are let to believe that the man has let us and the sport down; by actions in his personal front he has betrayed not only his family but the legions of fans and the sport that has granted him immortality. Tiger has been hounded by the flesh feeding carrion of modern society ...read Media..., his life dissected threadbare , cheap stand up comics on TV earning rating points by cracking lewd jokes at his expense.......alas , that this should be so....the fallout of Tiger’s recent discomfiture brings out aptly though disappointingly , how little understanding of sporting greatness and physical endeavour that the world truly possesses.We who love and live our sport, crave only the sheer excitement and ecstasy the athletes professing their trades provide on the field.....sporting greatness is not conferred by the millions of dollars of endorsements that an individual holds, if that were the case , David Beckham might well have eclipsed Don Bradman and Pele in the list of true sporting gods..... not by the number of charities one patronises , or how wonderful a parent or spouse an athlete has been.When the years have passed, and the striplings of today have grown to witless greybeards.... it will be remembered that George Best was a supreme artist of football, and not as one who wasted his life cohorting women and alcohol.....What will be remembered will be the look of incredulity on Mike Gatting’s face to a then obscure blonde youngster’s first ball in Ashes cricket spinning viciously from outside leg to catch the top of off. , and not the number and content of text messages Shane Warne had sent to nurses , barmaids and have what you may......In a similar vein, when the dust settles and the fickle attention of the media turns elsewhere , what true sports fans will remember , will be memories of Tiger , hobbling on one leg with a torn cruciate ligament to win the epic US Open battle in 2008 against Rocco Mediate.....and hopefully many many more memories of similar ilk (maybe even some in the 2nd weekend of April 2010).By all means, criticize your sportstars when they fail to achieve those standards for which they are so outrageously paid.Criticise Alex Rodriquez when (till last year at least) his overwhelming slugging feats would repeatedly come to an abrupt halt come the beginning of the Major League playoff season.Criticise Warnie for his persistant failures against the Indian batting and the likes of Tendulkar and Laxman.Criticise Federer for his repeated shortcomings against Nadal , Zidane for his head butt on Materazzi, and Henry for the hand ball against Ireland.We are privileged to be part of an era that watched Tiger at his prime. Future generations will wonder at the enormity of his exploits, much in the same way that we do at those of Bradman and Ruth. Here’s hoping that trivialities of family life do not hinder the golfing genius of the man....sex, lies and all the rest notwithstanding.....when the man finally steps up to the tee on the first at Augusta on the 8th of April....and the first shot of his so-called second coming is invariably heralded by the screams of “get in the hole”, here’s hoping that whatever he goes on to achieve is judged merely on his sporting accomplishments and not on the myopic scales of human morality.