We Are Tiger Woods

The great ones always have a habit of sucking you back in.  Michael Jordan's final run of titles.  Brett Favre's magical 2007 and 2009 seasons, which defied time, the odds, and everything we knew about Brett Favre.  Tiger Woods on Sunday at the 2011 Masters.

Yes, the man America said would never bounce back has bounced back.  And I love it.

I'm not the biggest golf fan in the world, but I do somewhat follow the sport.  Like tennis, I like to tune in for the major events but I couldn't tell you much detail about the non-household-names competing in them.  (Though I can tell you that Adam Scott's putter should not be legal, much like someone who showed up to Wimbledon with a racket the size of a surfboard would likely be sent home hanging their head.)  But four or five times a year the stakes are high enough to always provide entertainment.

The Masters might be the best example of this.  The tradition, the prestige, the intensity of the competitors is all ramped up.  And Augusta National adds its own stamp to the proceedings--at times, it feels like the course is almost in the competition itself.  Like Sunday afternoon, where at several points it seemed feasible that a 7-9 man playoff was going to happen.  Like Sunday afternoon, when Rory McIlroy cemented his name next to Jose Mesa, Greg Norman, and the 1993 Houston Oilers.  Like Sunday afternoon, when Tiger Woods seemingly smelled blood and absolutely shredded the front nine.

Count me among those who wish he had pulled it out.  Watching his back nine effort, you just kept waiting for something to happen.  "Okay, if he pulls out a few birdies here, he'll be in great shape."  "If he can finish strong he's in contention."  Never happened.  He was destined to come back, but not come all the way back.  Not yet.

The sad truth is that Tiger's best days as a golfer are probably behind him.  He's well into his thirties at this point.  Years of hitting punishing drive after punishing drive have taken a toll on his knees and shoulders.  But he showed on Sunday that maybe he's still got a little left in the tank.  Maybe he won't be the golfer he once was, but that doesn't mean he can't be a great golfer.  Jordan and Kobe both aged like fine wines, compensating for their declining athleticism by adding new elements to their games, changing their styles to reflect this, and using their wealth of experience to guide them.  And I'd love to see this from Tiger.  Haters be damned, I love a good comeback story.

We loved Tiger In His Prime.  He was the greatest athlete of our generation.  Hell, he was the greatest athlete of all time.  Name any one person who dominated a sports landscape with the longevity and magnitude that Tiger did.  The great ones have a sixth (or even seventh) gear in reserve, another level to step up to when it's necessary.  Tiger is the only athlete I could ever remember who operated in sixth gear all the time.  If Reggie Miller was the quintessential "steps his game up in the big moments" athlete, tiger was the quintessential "steps his game up right away, buries your ass, and coasts to victory" athlete.  You didn't just expect him to do the extraordinary, you were a little disappointed when he didn't.

And off the course, he was everything you were supposed to be.  Successful.  Rich beyond your wildest dreams.  Utterly perfect, to the point it was boring.  Name one celebrity (prior to the fire hydrant incident) who was less exciting to talk about.  What did we know about Tiger Woods?  He took a game that was centuries old and brought it to its apex.  He was married to a Swedish supermodel/nanny that most of us would give our right pinky to wake up to every morning.  He never said or did anything controversial.  If an errant Sergio Garcia tee shot had one day hit him in the head, cracking open his exoskeleton and revealing the true nature of the TigerBot 3000 android, I probably wouldn't have even blinked.

So when it all came unraveled, we overreacted.  We attacked him with a little more venom than we would save for a lesser mortal.  The jokes were far more over the line, and far more frequent.  It didn't help that professionally, he was fading too.  Recent years saw Tiger suffer through injury problems, struggle with adjustments to his swing, and even lose the #1 in the world ranking.  The facade was gone.  Time to move on.

But there's one thing we forgot in this whole thing.  Tiger Woods is a man.  Nothing more, nothing less.  He is not perfect, and neither are we.  He did something that thousands of men do every day, and that an even larger number would have done in a second if they were in his shoes.  And he was crucified for it.

If that was the end of the story, it would be a sad one indeed.  But it is not.  Sunday afternoon Tiger taught us all a valuable lesson, if we were able to stop moralizing for a second and recognize it.  No matter how down you are, you can always bounce back.  We are all human, and we are all going to make mistakes.  Tiger took himself out of the public eye, dusted himself off, put his personal life back together behind the scenes, and returned to doing what he does best--making golf shots that we will remember for the rest of our lives.

If my children pick up on that lesson, I'll consider Tiger to be an exemplary role model.