Free the Tiger from the Woods

An article by Oliver Davis    No Comments

Let me be clear, I do not support Tiger’s “infidelities.” The icon he has become and the glory he receives from his fans defines his status as an athlete at the highest level. Any and all moves that Tiger Woods makes have been cause for a media frenzy. If Tiger changes the degree of his driver from 8 to 8.5, then full sports coverage, outside the lines report is immediately underway. The endorsement deals, retail items, and even a Tiger Woods Signature clothing and golf club line makes him one of the most popular brand names in the golfing world. Greatness, in comparison with Tiger’s on and off the course success, is an understatement when describing the public’s perception of golf. According to Forbes, in 2009, Tiger Woods became the world’s first athlete to receive over one billion dollars in his career. This, however, does not do justice to the level Tiger Woods has single handily increased the game of golf. For example, in 2000, Woods had arguably the best season of any golfer in history by winning 9 PGA Tour events; including a career high three majors. That season, in career earnings alone, he received just over nine million dollars. This past season, coming off knee surgery, Tiger won only six PGA Tour events with no victories in any major, yet he made over 10.5 million dollars. The reasons for the increased purse amount in each event could be attributed to a number of different factors. I, however, spend no time speculating on the coincidence of the fact.

On the eve of Eldrick Tont Woods’s (actual name) first televised public address since his personal life fiasco began, I find myself constantly distracted by the media coverage and attention he is receiving. This is not to say it wasn’t expected or another wave of criticisms would begin. At 11 A.M. on the third day of the WGC-Accenture Match Play, Tiger Woods will address those who choose to tune in via Sports Center. No questions will be taken. Interestingly enough, Tiger chose a date in which Accenture, who dropped Woods’s sponsorship in December, was the host of the Wednesday-Sunday event. Ernie Els has publicly described Woods’s decision to choose that day to make his statement as being “selfish.” “I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament,” Els said. Ernie began his professional golfing career in 1989, seven years prior to Woods’s professional debut. As easily as statistics can be skewed, with factual seeking intentions, Ernie Els’s statistics are transparent. With respect to only the PGA Tour, excluding the European Tour, we will begin with the years in which Els cracked the top 25 in yearly money list rankings, something Tiger has never failed to accomplish. Finishing 19^th in 1994s PGA earnings, Els received just over $680,000, this being prior to the arrival of TW. The 2009 season awarded Kevin Na, who finished 19^th as well, with an excess of 2.7 million dollars. Since that time, Els has finished outside the top 19 six times, all in years in which Tiger was a professional, but has exceeded a million dollars in earnings in five of those six years. Merriam Webster dictionary defines “selfish” as, “concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself: seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others.” Personally, I am unaware of any private conversation between the Woods and Els or whether Els has thanked Woods for raising the level of income for all golfers, but I’ll let you be the judge of how you define selfish. As for Accenture, seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being was clearly their goal in December.

As I walk throughout my room, I’m reminded why I jumped on the Tiger Woods bandwagon the first time I saw him play in the 1997 Masters. My authentic TW hat sits visible to all and   which I wore the day after the news of Tiger’s “infidelities” broke out. My golf clubs equipped with a Nike Sasquatch driver, used by Tiger, sit in the corner and include a golf club cover with the head of a tiger. If you open my closet, you can find two Nike Golf polo shirts, one of them red so I can improve my 18-hole score from 104 to 102. I have not followed Tiger Woods’s career because he married a super model, wrecked an Escalade, or his off-season trips to Vegas. I follow his career because of moments when he steps on a tee-box at the 72^nd hole, a torn ACL, down by a stroke, U.S. Open Championship on the line, and nothing but an innate confidence and determination in his posture. His mistakes are proof that he is human, which I once questioned. Whether he can save his marriage is no one’s business but his own. The questions in which media critics seek from him in relation to the events that took place on the night he crashed his car should be delivered, if at all, at his own discretion. As one of his bigger fans and someone who has spent money in which he profited from, I do not hold him responsible to tell me what occurred that night, or any other night outside his professional career.

Tiger Woods, 21 years old at the time, torched the field in the 1997 Masters shooting a record 18 under par and winning by 12 strokes. Ernie Els, 27 years old, finished 18^th and 18 strokes behind Tiger.