Ah yes. Spring has sprung. It's the second week of April, the glorious magnolias sweetly sing their sound of sirens beckoning the golf world to Augusta National. A green jacket, Rae's Creek, Butler Cabin, Amen Corner, and even a couple lady members are primed and ready to welcome the best of the best to the most prestigious golf tournament in the world. It's all coming at you. Along with likely a couple million camera views of Tiger Woods, and umpteen terabytes of mostly useless information describing his every move. Yep, it must be time for the Masters.
Much has been made of Eldrick once again becoming the #1 ranked golfer, though it appears he's almost claimed that title by default. In other words, Woods hasn't exactly had a spectacular run over the last few months, but the other hot-shots from around the globe that were beating him like a drum not long ago seem to have regressed for whatever reason. Either that, or they've been busy beating each other's brains out in tournaments on other continents that fly under the radar of the attention of the American viewing public. To be fair, Tiger will occasionally play in such a tournament located in a "remote" part of the world -- like Dubai, or Abu Dhabi, or Kemo Sabe, or whoever else will give him a couple million bucks up front just to show up as an "appearance fee". Mighty nice work, if one can get it.
At that, Tiger has the luxury of "cherry-picking" his schedule. Despite whatever other tournament may be going on, Woods will always take the week off prior to a "major", to prepare and hone his game to that particular course. In the meantime, other professionals continue to play on at "lesser" venues and, yes, entertain the fans. Tiger's attitude in such matters could be likened to Kobe Bryant deciding to sit out a game against a bad team like the Charlotte Bobcats, while he studies film for the Lakers' next game against the Miami Heat. Or perhaps Detroit Tigers' ace pitcher Justin Verlander skipping a 3 game road trip to Cleveland, because he just won a big game against the Yankees, and his next start will be against the rival Chicago White Sox in 4-5 days. How would that go over with Tiger fans and the media? But Eldrick has done much the same thing for years, and somehow that's OK.
In my opinion, being a professional, especially one as highly paid as Eldrick Woods, with his endorsements and all, means an athlete should show up for every "game", regardless of the venue and/or level of competition. Even if they can't play due to an injury or whatever, then show up anyway. Greet the fans, pose for pictures, sign autographs, and otherwise be a good will ambasssador for the game. After all, without the fans, any sport would quickly cease to exist. The game of golf was there long before Tiger Woods and will be there long after he's gone. But he never seemed to comprehend that, because he's been too busy trying to build his personal shrine.
No doubt, Tiger was not only groomed for golf (apparently at the expense of parental guidance in other matters) since he was barely potty-trained, but has also built quite a cult following over the years since. Eldrick Woods was, and may still be, a great golfer, one of the best of all time.
Yet when his time is past and all the hoopla he generated starts rapiding fading into the rear view mirror -- only to be replaced by the next sports icon -- golf or otherwise -- as is the nature of how it seems to work these days -- it might be interesting to see how totally objective historians eventually chronicle the life and times of Eldrick Tont Woods for all posterity.
But for now it's the Masters. And get ready for the Tiger show, because regardless of how he fares, you're going to see him every 30 seconds or so whether you like it or not.
Just for grins -- an off-the-wall comparison between Tiger Woods and Minnesota Vikings' star running back Adrian Peterson. Next time.
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