Tiger
Posted on April 12, 2010
I thought it was interesting that Tiger Woods wore sunglasses during the Masters Golf Tournament. Nobody else seemed to notice, but Tiger never did that before.But, of course, Tiger never took five months off from the Tour before, became the center of scandalous speculation, became a regular target to late night comics the world over, and became a symbol of all that is wrong with the male species everywhere.
It would have been amazing if Tiger finished first in the tournament earlier today. Of course, he didn’t, but he still did pretty well considering.
After he finished, you could tell that he was angry, and not just about coming in fourth. He was angry about the whole thing, the whole scandal, the whole truth of his sex life that has slowly become a part of the American experience.
And maybe he has a right to be pissed off.
After all, it is not exactly news that professional golfers (or any professional athletes for that matter) routinely cheat on their wives.
And last year, with the many different examples of men behaving badly (Elliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, John Ensign, etc), it was only fitting that the year end with a bang, which it did with Tiger getting banged over the head by his wife.
Tiger doesn’t have to face the voters, unlike the politicians who all faced so much scrutiny over the previous twelve months. But he does have to face his sponsors, which I guess is just about the same thing.
That could explain why he agreed to that stupid Nike commercial, where he looked in the camera while a voice-over said all kinds of seemingly profound but mostly inane things.
For Tiger, it is all about the golf at the end of the day. He is unique because he usually wins. When that goes, he loses his thing. He lost his thing a little bit more today when he didn’t win the most prestigious major of the year.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Tiger decided to hang it up after today. He didn’t seem like he was having that much fun. Sure, the crowd warmly greeted him, but not nearly as warmly as the crowd greeted Phil Mickelson.
Mickelson finally beat his arc-nemesis, Mr. Woods, in a major show-down. It was an emotional win, made more emotional by the fact that his wife is having major health problems.
This story is interesting because it speaks to so much about what is going on in our society today. There is the racial element, which is undeniable. There is the infidelity story, which would have never hit the front page thirty years ago. There is the hypocrisy angle, where so many who condemn the actions of Tiger Woods live in very fragile glass houses. There is the great wealth that comes with playing the game of golf which makes everything more interesting.
This story may never go away, which may be why Tiger decided to wear shades in between golf shots today.
Tiger came back to the game this week. Not sure how long he will stay.