Tiger: ‘Nothing to look forward to’
THERE is an overwhelming sense that Tiger Woods is done and even if you refuse to accept it, it is surely impossible to dispute that Tiger Woods is done with being Tiger Woods.
A 30-minute press conference this week all but confirmed it.
Nobody expected this from Woods, nobody anticipated anything other than defiance.
This was not a definitive resignation speech, but there was definitely resignation in his speech. And we had never heard that before.
Woods was often ridiculed for limping into media centres, clutching a form sheet as wretched as his medical notes, and insisting he was there “to win”, vehemently denying anything whatsoever had changed in his outlook. It was the only certainty left with Tiger, the red-shirted one always a certainty on Sunday afternoons.
The physique was in tatters but the psyche was still intact.
But now it has followed his frame and begun to fall apart. When the question came, Woods not only veered off the script of the past six years, he yanked at the steering wheel and sent his career inexorably up that road to retirement.
“There is nothing really I can look forward to,” Woods said, his clear discomfort as much to do with the admission as his aching back.
As journalists sat there agog, Woods flew into obit orbit, that rarefied atmosphere he had steadfastly refused to visit before; at least not in public. He all but conceded his immortal match with Jack Nicklaus.
“I think pretty much everything beyond this will be gravy,” he said. “I’m still shy of Jack’s record [of 18 majors to Woods’s 14], but in my 20 years out here, I think I’ve achieved a lot.
“And if that’s all it entails, I’ve had a pretty good run. I’m hoping I can get back out there and compete against these guys. But if that’s not the case, I’ll find other avenues; growing my foundation, course design and other projects that will certainly take up more of my time.”
He will then be able to take leave of his PlayStation. Woods’s confession that he spends his days playing computer games was sad enough. But then to go further and reveal that he mutes the volume so those he is playing against cannot hear who he is drove the scenario beyond pitiful. The most recognisable competitor of this sporting generation is now trying to be the most anonymajors mous. That is the hole he is in.
Worse, just two years ago — before the trio of surgeries which has reduced him to spinal servitude — he won five of the PGA Tour’s biggest events and was crowned player of the year.
Furthermore, his is a pursuit in which professionals can win long beyond the 40 mark. Be sure, golf is taunting him, saying: “Come on, Vijay Singh did it, so did Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els.” But Woods is not like them, in body or celebrity.
Woods turns 40 at the end of the month, but will be a very old 40 having undergone multiple operations on his knees as well as his back. Just to launch another comeback will be a huge ask, but after that the demands will become truly absurd. There will be no chance of gentle progression in the shadows and from the outset he will be compared to the Jordan Spieths and Rory McIlroys.
After the press conference McIlroy remarked on social media that “golf without Tiger doesn’t bear thinking about”.
But for Tiger it will be him without golf. And now he has started thinking about it, the reality will inevitably follow. — ©
I think pretty much everything beyond this will be gravy . . . I think I’ve achieved a lot I’ll find other avenues; growing my foundation, course design and other projects