Tiger Woods: Great golfer, bad bloke
The return of Tiger Woods at this year’s US Masters has an awkward feeling about it. It is on par with taking your best mate to your favourite golf course only to find two holes are out of play, the greens have been cored and you’ve left your putter at home.
However, perhaps the more pertinent aspect of the famed golf club’s controversial membership policy to Tiger Woods’s impending comeback is its failure to embrace a single woman. Thus, on the Sunday before the Masters when Augusta National’s gentlemen members tee up alongside practising superstars, the temptation for a recovering sexaholic will be diminished somewhat.
Ernie Els for example, is not a bad bloke. He might even be referred to as a bloody great bloke who would look great in a green jacket.
Of all that can be said of this tawdry affair the thought of attaching the word triumph is most distasteful. Yet if Woods is draped in his fifth green jacket winning at his first tournament since scandal overwhelmed his career such exaltations will doubtless flow.I fear the context will be misrepresented. There is no redemption to be found on a golf course for Woods. This is not overcoming adversity. Nor fighting back from injustice.Golf was never to blame for this mess. It was the collateral damage.Watching Woods at the Australian Masters in November reminded me how pure sport can be.Given the betrayal taking place at that very moment the bitterness is acutely felt.
Come the final round of the US Masters next week, if Tiger is a chance to win another green jacket there will be plenty of fans rooting for him to win but not nearly as many as there were this time last year.
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I cannot wait for the first Tee shot from Woody at the Masters. He will feel just like I did when I first played pennants. Sh#tting myself I was.
Tiger’s inactivity will have a negative impact on his play. The constant media pressure which his enemies are continuing to use as harassment will also hurt his concentration. There have been many negative stories about sports figures in our glorious history. It is only the blown out of proportion media negativity concerning Tiger that will be treated in the manner that it has been and will continue, it seems, forever. The only reason Tiger is receiving so much attention is that he is proving not to be the black eunich who had no visible sex life and no education and stayed out of sight and out of the minds of our young folks. I wish the people who did not want Tiger to play in professional golf in the beginning,would stop pretending that he was somehow their children’s hero. The only time he was mentioned in many homes is during negative conversations. For many of the people that I work with every day, they are finally getting their wish that the “Black Golfer” has finally been brought down.