Whether you’re a golf enthusiast or just a sports fan in general, everyone has an opinion on Tiger Woods because the gifted native of California, thanks to a well-oiled media machine and his immense talent has revolutionized the golf world at a time when it needed it. No one in golf history has had as much impact on a particular generation of golfers that did Woods. Not even Gene Sarazen, Arnold Palmer or even Jack Nicklaus.
Of course, these are true legends and inspired the passion with great class for decades but nobody has brought as many people to play golf than Tiger did in the early 2000s. It was a real revolution. Everybody began to play golf, grandpa, grandma, the benjamin, the teen, your brother, your neighbor. Everybody! Tiger made it "IN." to play golf. His domination has inspired people to go back to tournaments, to watch golf on TV. Everyone being involved in golf has benefited.
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods, although the excesses of his private life made him lost a lot of fans for almost two years, deserves our respect for the great contribution he brought to the game of golf. It is hard to imagine someone in the future with more impact on golf has had the former world #1. While the whole world has worshiped him for more than a decade as a superhero, time catches up with him and reminds us by the way that Tiger is in fact a man. A man like you, like me, a man with strengths and weaknesses.
And as a man, the practice of his sport has become difficult for the holder of 10 Player of the Year titles on the PGA Tour. Difficult because of injuries, distractions related to family issues, change of coach and caddy and as well, very simply, because of age.
Many of you will say that Tiger is still young at 35 years and it's true. As an individual he is young and as an athlete, not yet old. However, at this age unfortunately, we do not heal as quickly and we don’t learn as quickly and we do not perform as naturally. And everyday life of former Stanford University is there to remind him brutally. It's hard to put everything together.
What Tiger Woods has to face is not different from what is part of the lives of all the other golfers. Everything must fall in place at the same time to be successful on the circuit # 1 in the world. And he knows very well the process of changing a golf swing having made it already twice in the past. It takes time before being completely at ease. And it will be even longer this time. He will have his big share of ups and downs; especially since he also seems to have lost his magic on the greens.
It will take longer because he’s older, more eager to perform and because the automatics return when he relaxes a little. A golf swing is both simple and complex. And to be perfectly effective, it must be natural, deeply rooted in the depths of the brain. Woods is in his third change of golf swing since he is professional. This may be one to many ... But he has no choice, he should be less demanding of his left knee, while remaining efficient and powerful. Imagine the difficulty. But above all, old habits are more difficult to suppress...
Once all the mechanics will again be well established, he will still have to restore the confidence that he added during those good years. Woods will not tell but the doubt is now part of his mind .The great Bobby Jones once said "golf is played on a course of five inches long, that is, the distance that the golfer has between the ears.”
Tiger must relearn to trust his shots. It is human to doubt and while some peoples do not want to admit it, Tiger is one...
The winner of 14 majors will make it through. While for many professional golfers of this age it would be an almost impossible mission, Tiger will do it. He will get back among the elite. He’ll savor other triumphs. He spread out the full extent of his extraordinary talent since childhood. This time, however, it will be longer and harder before he declares victory and he will be more satisfied. The W will taste more delicious than ever and he will tell us proudly.
Tiger Woods will never dominate golf as he did in the past. Despite all the talent and determination he got, he has ironically to blame himself for it. Because he is the godfather of this new generation of talented, athletic and powerful golfers who will take away the honors more often as he would wishes. He helped growing up the beautiful game of golf. Its evolution has gone through Woods. This we owe him and for that reason he deserves to be considered among the greatest, he will be a legend.
And that is a thing to be proud of…
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