Tigermania
Millions of golfers and golf fans owe their allegiance to one player. Thanks in large part to Tiger Woods, the game is now in its latest golden age.
A new phenomenon was born when Woods arrived. In the 1990s, he slew courses with his length, made every putt he needed to make, trademarked a fist pump, and for several years could do no wrong. His first three wins came against Davis Love III, Payne Stewart, and Tom Lehman and he ran through those men as if they were players in the U.S. Amateur. He turned Augusta National into the proverbial pitch-and-putt course, reaching the par-5s with wedges. He was golfs highlight tape. Newsweek put him on the cover. Sports Illustrated made him its Sportsman of the Year. Jack Nicklaus predicted that Tiger would win as many Masters titles as Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer combined.
Because he is of mixed heritage his father is black and his mother is Thai Tiger was more than just a golfer with the skills to excel. He was also a golfer of the people, a young man who represented the breaking down of ethnic barriers. People said that he transcended the game, that he was a crossover star who brought people to golf who had never considered golf a sport. Kids began turning up at golf tournaments in droves. They were white and black, Asian and Hispanic, boys and girls. Golf had a new crowd. and it was hungry for this kid from Cypress, California, who turned golf into a video game. When Tiger smiles, it seems that the whole golf world smiles with him. It is a powerful thing.
What we releamed as Tiger Woods "slumped" in 2003 and 2004 is that golf is not like basketball. One player cannot dominate it the way Michael Jordan did in the NBA. Golf is a game of cycles, and not even Tiger can dominate all the time. For one thing, he has more great players to beat than Arnold Palmer did. He also has to deal with more than Palmer did pressures that can turn a young man old in a hurry. Tiger plays almost every tournament under a death threat, surrounded by a phalanx of security personnel. He cannot go to dinner or a movie without being mobbed.
Potentially, he still could be the greatest golfer who ever lived. He has the talent and the will, as he proved by retooling his swing and roaring again in 2005, when he won his ninth and tenth majors. Time is on his side, and he certainly has all the tools. But there's more to golf than warp clubhead speed and a burning competitive edge. Tiger must keep refining those tools as he continues to live with the highest set of expectations placed on any golferwho has put a peg in the ground.
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