Tiger is bigger than golf but rebirth looks like a long shot
TIGER Woods returned to the golf course over the weekend. You might have heard. Less than a year after the single-vehicle crash in Los Angeles that almost cost him his leg, the 15-time Major winner was on our television screens, purposefully prowling the greens at the PNC Championship.
We are currently in the middle of the season where social media goes into meltdown about who did and didn’t get end-of-year awards. Unfortunately, the re-emergence of Woods came a tad too late to be considered ‘the comeback of 2021’. But judging by the American news cycle, his story still captivates.
They say that no athlete is bigger than their sport, but that has never been true when it comes to Tiger. Since the press conference where he proclaimed ‘Hello World’ in 1996 and his annihilation of the Masters field at Augusta the following year, Tiger has been much bigger than the game he mastered.
Even though he may now not catch Jack Nicklaus’ total of 18 major championships, he still has the title of greatest golfer that ever lived.
But he was more than that, he’s the most transformative figure in the history of sport. For all the genius of Leo Messi or Michael Jordan, they have never attracted a slew of new people to their sport. That’s what Woods did.
And, more than that, he got people watching who didn’t even like golf. Or actively hated it.
I saw the Tiger effect first-hand with his remarkable win at Augusta in 2019. Sitting beside me, my wife, who has no interest and doesn’t even like golf, was more enthralled by what she was seeing than I was.
When he was at his peak in the 2000s, the viewing figures that run-of-the-mill USPGA tour events would get in the States should he be in contention were remarkable, rivalling the numbers for the NFL, America’s most popular sport.
So, there were plenty of relieved television executives when he took to the Ritz-Carlton Golf course in Orlando to compete with his youngest son, Charlie in the $1 million PNC Championship. Unlike in normal PGA tour events, Woods was able to use a buggy as he is still rehabilitating from getting his right leg crushed in the accident.
‘I’m a long way from playing tournament golf,’ Woods explained on Friday. ‘This is hit and hop in the cart.’
We had to do a double-take at times watching the coverage on Sky Sports Golf. Father and son were so similar in everything they did around a golf course that it was a little disconcerting.
From their swing to the little twirl they give the club at the end, from the way they scratch their nose to how they stand with a club, Charlie is a mini-Tiger.
‘When he impressively holed a long putt early into Saturday’s round of 62, Charlie even gave the customary Tiger fist-pump.
Charlie has clearly inherited his father’s talent, but it will be understandable if Tiger doesn’t push the sport onto his son, given how his life turned out.
Tiger has been in the public eye since he was an infant, with his own father, Earl, constructing him into the ultimate golfing machine.
Woods redefined and re-imagined every parameter of the sport, but there was a pretty big price to pay, as we discovered when his personal life unravelled as he confessed to the indiscretions that ruined his marriage.
At the time, the golfer admitted that he thought he could play by different rules.
Like everything else in Tiger’s life since he was three years old, his apology was delivered in full public view. Damage control was needed for Tiger the brand as well as Tiger the man. It’s not a life that anyone would wish for one of their children.
Woods turns 46 next week. It is difficult to believe but that first Masters triumph, when the rest of the golfing world realised that everything had changed, will be 25 years ago next April.
Since then, there have been 81 more tournament wins including a US Open won on one leg, five back surgeries, his personal life coming apart in public view and two car crashes, both of which played themselves out in the media.
Can sport’s ultimate comeback king come back one final time? That was the question in everyone’s head as they watched the coverage at the weekend. Woods didn’t move all that smoothly. There were times when he walked gingerly – and there were a few grimaces after a drive or an iron shot. He is not at 100 per cent.
But of course, even when he was at his greatest, Tiger seemed to move in slow motion. It was as if he had bent this world so much to his own will that he could control time. The slow, purposeful stalk was part of his aura. We will never see that kind of Woods again – unless Charlie does follow in his father’s footsteps.
Woods has admitted that it is unrealistic to expect him to return to the PGA Tour on a full-time basis. Ordinary Sundays on the Tour will never garner the viewing numbers they did during the 2000s. Like Ben Hogan did after his own car crash, Woods has spoken about picking and choosing events. It is likely that he will build his year around the four Majors.
That in itself should make his return to competitive golf all the more dramatic.
If Woods feels healthy enough to come back for Augusta in April, just imagine how massive a television spectacle it will be. Look at how he dominated the news cycle this weekend, because he was playing golf with his son.
Woods insists that the idea of him playing in a tournament is still well in the distance. He insists that he can barely walk nine holes around a flat course, never mind 18. The only reason he was able to play this weekend was that golf carts were allowed.
However, they are not allowed on tour. At least, they haven’t been. If the only way to get Tiger back in competitive action might be through the use of a cart, it is not hard to see some sort of dispensation being granted. Allowances can be made for someone who changed the sport.
Whatever happens, Woods’ next move will be monitored closely. And dissected very publicly, It has always been thus.
Given his ability to create sporting theatre, we are almost expecting Woods to do something dramatic in 2022.
‘There was a pretty big price to pay’