Loading ...What if Somehow, Someway Tiger Woods Wins The Masters?
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Tiger Woods probably won’t win The Masters this weekend. It’s almost impossible to win a major championship in golf as it, without factoring in a blown up marriage, a huge layoff, and a rebuilt outlook on life.
But what if he does?
ESPN’s Rick Reilly has already written an article on this question, but I have my own thoughts. Reilly focused more on how it would affect Tiger’s personal life than how it would affect the game of golf. A win might be all Tiger needs to fall back into the self-centered life style he was living before, or it might be what he needs to realize the game of golf does need him and that his new life can still mix with a part of his old one to create a successful medium.
How would it affect the game of golf if Tiger wins? Things wouldn’t be back to normal like most believe. This is different than when Woods won the U. S. Open on one leg, just because he was on top of the world when he toppled Rocco Mediate in a 19 hole playoff that Monday. Right now, Tiger’s celebrity life is on life support and his golf career’s future is shaky at best.
He’s not just in the middle of a long layoff because of a knee surgery this time around. Woods has practically been on the sideline, watching as his entire life spiraled out of control because of bad decisions he made. He’s fallen from the top as far and as fast as a billionaire can.
A year ago at this time if Tiger Woods had run for president I think a lot of America would have voted for him without thinking twice. That’s the best way to describe how much we all trusted him and how much we believed that Tiger was different than other celebrities. We thought he was actually a good role model for children and seemed to never do anything wrong publicly.
Thanksgiving night we know that all changed. His wife has done everything but leave him while Tiger has stayed hidden behind closed doors. Now he’s emerging from the shadows and expecting to win his fifth green jacket at Augusta National. If anyone can do it, Tiger Woods can do it. At least the old Tiger could. Will he still be as dominant? Will he still be the same guy he was? We’ve asked those questions so many times about Woods, especially after all his knee surgeries and he’s always showed us quickly that he is as good as ever.
This time might be different. I believe Woods will be a dominant player again in the near future, but asking him to win at Augusta National without any warmup events is a tall task. If he does win, competitive golf might be canceled. If the rest of the world can’t defeat Tiger after everything he’s been through lately, I don’t know how other golfers can beat him on a consistent basis.
Maybe this controversy will make him even more dominant than he was before. A determined Tiger is always the scariest athlete in the world because when his mind is set to win he’s holding the trophy on Sunday afternoon most of the time. This week he says he plans to try to win, but for the first time ever I don’t think winning is his measure of success this weekend.
Last year’s final round with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson dueling behind the leaders was the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen either one of them play better golf than they did that day, although neither won the tournament. If Woods is in contention on the back nine this year and makes a charge, last year’s Masters won’t even be able to compare.
If he does pull out the miracle win, Butler’s NCAA Tournament Cinderella story will be quickly pushed aside by the story of a man that worked himself to the top, lied his way to the bottom, and somehow overcame all of that controversy to win The Masters right in the middle of it.
It’s almost too good of a story.
It’s almost too perfect.
Can a man that has lost so much green because of his mistakes really end his first weekend back in the public spotlight wearing green?
