High price for golf glory
BURDEN IS TOO MUCH FOR TIGER TO CARRY
WILL there ever be peace in Tiger Woods’ life?
As we wait to learn whether he will commit himself to another remarkable comeback, and what that may take after the serious leg injuries suffered when his car flew off the road in Los Angeles, we were back following an existence that has been played out for almost all of Woods’ 45 years in headlines and bulletins that feel exhausting just to follow.
The two-part HBO Tiger documentary released last month – recommended as an unflinching take on one of the most extraordinary sportsmen the world has seen – reminds us very early into three hours of viewing that Woods was set on a path of professional greatness and personal disorder right from the start.
Prodigious? In one television interview, he is so young that he interjects that he needs a “poo-poo”.
The footage of a two-yearold swinging a club on TV to impress Bob Hope may have been endearingly cute once but is presented here as troubling evidence that a life of obsession – with winning – was not chosen by Woods but for him. He was not just a child but his domineering father’s masterplan.
That triumphant “project” brought 15 majors, more wealth than Woods could spend, the singlehanded growth of golf and transcendence of his sport, but the question at the heart of the film is: “at what expense?”
He must not just be a black man triumphing in a very white world but also heal the planet. How could anyone expect to live up to that?
“The greatest scene in golf forever,” Nick Faldo told CBS viewers as Woods won the 2019 Masters, coming back from the fire hydrant, the excruciating confession, the multiple back surgeries, the opioid dependency and a place outside the top 1000 to stand on top of the golfing world once more.
When he can do that, who knows what could be left? For the immediate future we can only hope that he can return to the game, if he so chooses.