The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
JEFF JACOBS
Golf embracing Tiger’s resurgence wholeheartedly
NORTON, Mass. — While golf ’s intelligentsia wonders if Tiger Woods is starting to tire, this much is certain. America is not tired of Tiger Woods.
While Tiger wonders about the proper balance of play, practice and rest, the president of the United States has no qualms about using Tiger’s celebrity to tip the balance of power in his favor.
America awoke Sunday to Donald Trump’s second twitter barrage in support of Tiger’s statement last week that no matter who is president you still must respect the office.
“Tiger Woods showed great class in the way he answered the question about the Office of the Presidency and me,” Trump tweeted. “Now they say the socalled ‘left’ is angry at him. So sad, but the ‘center & right’ loves Tiger, Kanye, George Foreman, Jim Brown & so many other greats, even more.
“The fact is that African/American unemployment is now the lowest in the history of our country. Same with Asian, Hispanic and almost every other group …” Etc.
Trump, who has golfed with Woods on a number of occasions, and millions of born-again golf fans are all but wearing caps these days that reads, “MTGA.” Make Tiger Great Again. And why not?
A year ago, almost to the day, Woods tweeted a picture of himself chipping after he had been cleared following his fourth back surgery. Asked this weekend about that tweet, he said he never dreamt then he’d be in the position where he is today.
He wasn’t talking about a tie for 15th place after three rounds, 7under par following a 3-under 68 on Sunday at the 2018 Dell Technologies Championship. He was talking about a position where he’s seriously back in the game, seriously back in American sports’ psyche, yes, seriously in America’s sweet spot.
With a second at the PGA Championship and five Top 10
finishes in 2018, Woods has been good enough for Tiger fanatics to swear he’ll win majors again. He has won the respect of all those who honor the wear and tear, toil and guts it takes to come back from excruciating back problems.
America loves nothing more than to pound away at the clay feet of our sports icons and Tiger had been reduced to a punchline. Yet at the same time America loves nothing more than a redemption story. So a serial wife cheater and a man pulled over for driving under the influence of prescription drugs 15 months ago gets his second chance each week on national television.
America’s president, much of America and certainly American golf, is hugging him tightly.
There’s a lot of George Foreman in all this. There’s some Michael Jordan and a bit of Serena Williams, who Tiger has compared comeback notes with. Tiger returns at 42, not nearly as frightening to his opponents and much more embraceable. On Sunday, questions surrounded his friendly 18-hole walk with Bryson DeChambeau. He called
Tiger a childhood hero. It was so chatty that Woods was asked if DeChambeau, whose round of 8-under shot him toward the top of the leaderboard, got on his nerves. No, Tiger insisted, he’s a friend and he’s fantastic. He said he had been friendly during rounds back in the day with guys like Mark Calcavecchia and Payne Stewart.
Here’s one big wager he wouldn’t have been nearly as nice to DeChambeau in 2002. Here’s another wager that after an over-par round like he had Friday, he wouldn’t have been joking about caddie Joe LaCava putting the wrong head cover on his 3-wood.
Say this about Tiger. He didn’t only make himself a rich man playing golf. He made a lot of other golfers rich, too. Golf will not abandon Tiger. Not when CBS hit 8.5 million viewers for the final round of the PGA Championship, a huge 73 percent jump from Sunday in 2017. Not when NBC’s final-round audience for the British Open was up 40 percent over 2017, tying the highest number (when Tiger won in 2006) in 18 years.
When Tiger is in contention America watches. Still.
So on a weekend when he switched putters, huge galleries cheered for every one of his putts to drop.
They did drop for Woods on Saturday and through seven holes Sunday. He started pulling some putts, especially on his bogey miss from 5 feet on 13. Yet save an 8-foot miss for a birdie on 12, we saw little of the angry Tiger of yore.
This is Woods’ fifth tournament in seven weeks. As step three in the four-event FedEx Cup, he’ll move on to the BMW Championship in the coming week. The Ryder Cup in late September in France would make eight events in 11 weeks. He’s pushing it. He knows it. Afterward Sunday, he did say he felt good. He also has said this weekend that he’s figuring out how to pace himself,
He’s 42. He’s back, but back as a human, not a machine. America loves it.
Tiger is smart and, yes, greedy enough to capitalize on it. C’mon, a $9 million winner-take-all match with Phil Mickelson in late November? Tiger hasn’t won a tournament since 2013, hasn’t won a major since 2008. When Mickelson, 48, won in March it was his first victory since the 2013 British Open. But Roarin’ Tiger and Smilin’ Phil sell, so ca-ching, ca-ching. Is there anything more American?
I do not think Woods will win another major. If he wins the 2019 Masters, he’ll
be 43 years, four months, 15 days, the 10th oldest to do it. Everybody else older on that list won before 1987. There are just too many great young players in this era. I love Tiger’s odds to contend. I don’t like them to win. Certainly he won’t catch Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18, once considered no more than a milepost.
That doesn’t matter anymore. Tiger just needs to play well enough and contend enough in the majors to be embraced.
At a time when LeBron James has decided to say more about society, Tiger obviously has decided to say less. It’s his prerogative to shut up and play golf. It makes him neither a villain or a hero. Just Tiger.
Asked if he’d like to comment about the state of the nation’s race relations last week, he answered, “No. I just finished 72 holes and am really hungry.”
“The Fake News Media worked hard to get Tiger Woods to say something that he didn’t want to say,” Trump tweeted. “Tiger wouldn’t play the game — he is very smart. More importantly, he is playing great golf again!”
MTGA.