Unsettling future after Tiger crash
ALREADY in the final chapter of one of golf’s greatest careers, Tiger Woods may have penned a shocking end to that story when the winner of 15 Majors was involved in a single-car crash.
Battered by years of back and knee surgeries, Woods has recently spent as much time away from the PGA Tour recovering from injury as he has on the course, providing the golf world an unsettling glimpse of what the future might look like without its biggest draw card.
Almost since the moment he burst on the professional scene in 1996, Woods has been the tide that raised all boats, a crossover star who drove television ratings, purses and endorsements to spectacular heights.
With more viewers came more sponsors and larger purses, with Woods creating a new class of golfing millionaires.
That popularity made Woods one of sports’ richest athletes, Forbes anointing him in 2009 as the first athlete to reach $1-billion in career earnings (prize money and endorsements).
Along with injuries, the 45-year-old has survived several scandals throughout his career, including a 2017 arrest on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
For more than a decade, golf has waited for Woods’ successor to emerge from a crop of prodigious hitters and skilled young players, but none has been able to grasp his mantle or the imagination of the golfing public.
There were signs Woods had been on the cusp of passing the torch and not to world No 1 Dustin Johnson or Rory McIlroy, but to his son Charlie, when they partnered last November in the PNC Championship, a joint PGA/ LPGA Tour family tournament.
The 11-year-old Woods showed he had some of his father’s golfing genes, from the twirl of his club to walking in a birdie putt.
The greatest golfer of his generation, Woods, as the game’s first African-American superstar, did more than rewrite the record book, but changed the way golf is played and looked, bringing diversity to a sport that had been the domain of the white middle class.
With never-before-seen power, Woods revolutionised the game, forcing courses, even iconic Augusta National, to “Tiger-proof” layouts.
While Woods appears to have another long, gruelling road back to fitness in front of him, one of the hallmarks of his remarkable career has been resilience.