SOMETIMES WE'RE NOT GONNA SEE EYE-TO-EYE

SOMETIMES WE'RE NOT GONNA SEE EYE-TO-EYE
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

IS IT TIME TO SHUT IT DOWN? A TIGER WOODS INTERVENTION

Woods at British Open

Muhammad Ali was toward the end of his career when you just couldn't stomach to look anymore.  He should have shocked the world and walked away after the 1975 'Thrilla in Manila.' 

For Tiger Woods,  there has been no Joe Frazier.  Sergio gave it a run and Phil continues to chase.  Unfortunately, Woods has proven to be his own Trojan Horse, imploding from within.  No one was allowed into his private sanctuary until he C4'd his own fortress, leaving a gaping wound for the entire world to see.

2010 has been brutal.  Seven tournaments.  Zero wins.  His wife and children moved out, sponsors moved out, his swing coach exited and Woods' golf game is better on EA Sports.

Prior to the start of the British Open at St. Andrews, a course Tiger has tamed twice (2000 & 2005), he switched from long-time ally Scotty Cameron to a Nike Method putter.  His reason?  The greens were too slow.  On the course for the final round, guess who was back in the bag.  So now we have a Tiger Woods that is second guessing himself.  Who is this guy that is not remotely in contention on red shirt Sundays?

I made a $30 bet with a co-worker before the British Open.  Not to win the Open per se, but for Tiger to win any tournament for the rest of the year.  I was dancing like Mr. Bojangles when he accepted the conditions.  Tiger not win at all in 2010!  Get real! I jumped all over that wager.  I'm a little less confident now, but there's still plenty of time.

However, Tiger Woods and Eldrick Woods need to have a sit down.  When you've lived on top of the mountain known as Tiger for so long, Eldrick tends to get lost.  Eldrick can't get a word in.  Magic Johnson experienced the same thing during the heyday of Showtime in L-A.  He said Magic was a whole different person than Ervin.

Happy Days
For Woods, I can relate to one of the most difficult times in his life.  I'm not talking about right now-- I'm talking about losing his father Earl.  When you're that close, when you lose the one person in the world whose opinion carried a great deal of weight, you wake up a little broken.  Tiger went on to handle the golf part easily enough.  It was the one place he could find peace, the one place he could continue to make his dad proud.  It was the off the course stuff that Tiger handled badly.  For that, perhaps he needed to be more like Eldrick, the man few of us know.  With Earl gone, there was no one to keep Tiger grounded, no one to remind him how hard the journey to now was, and what it still could become. 

To some degree, I imagine Tiger thought marriage would help keep him grounded, but by then, it was probably too late.  As Woods admitted himself, it seemed as if Tiger could do whatever he wanted without there being any consequences.  It's a hard to lesson to learn that we all put our pants on the same way.  Some pockets are lined with more stuff, but the process is the same.

So how can Woods recover?  Clearly there is a ton of stuff on his mind.  Reports and details of his marital status, true or fabricated, make the headlines.  He has to sit and at least listen to questions never before asked by the media at golf tournaments, knowing full well the deck is stacked against him.  How he answers is scrutinized just as much as club selection on a tricky hole.  Woods has to get his personal life in order and decide what kind of man he's going to be.  He should know all too well the importance of being a father.  Doing it right can enrich one's life beyond words.  It makes all the superficial stuff seem ridiculous and mundane. 

In other sports, when a great player is in a slump, they manage to work it out.  A shooter in basketball is told to keep shooting, it will come back.  A baseball player in a hitting slump has to keep swinging, take extra batting practice in fact, and maybe even take a day off to analyze.

For Tiger, with no swing coach, he's trying to figure it out all by himself.  Eventually, he'll get there.  His DNA will see to that.  It's just painful to watch at times now.  On some level, maybe he feels this is part of his penance, to painfully fail before the masses.

When the pain finally subsides, Tiger will be back.  I'll bet you $30 on that.

1 comment:

  1. Great blog and I'll even double the $30 ;-)
    ~Amani

    ReplyDelete