Monday, May 22, 2000
Even non-fan has to admire
Tiger Woods
By Candy Reagan
I’m not a big Tiger Woods fan, but
even I have to admit that professional golf’s number one
player is amazing.
It’s not the victories and the winning
streaks that impress me so much — it’s the losses. In
the last year, even when Tiger Woods has lost, he’s at least
been a factor in every tournament he’s played. He’s
always a threat to win, and often he’s coming from behind
to challenge.
That’s difficult for any golfer to
do, no matter how good he is. But Woods is doing it.
I’m at a loss to explain why I root
against Tiger Woods. He’s great at his sport, he’s a
good person, his is a great story, and he has been the toast of
the sports world since his third amateur championship.
In fact, I watched that heralded event with
much interest and cheered him on. But somewhere between that victory
and his 12-stroke Master’s victory, I grew disenchanted and
began to cheer for almost anyone else.
Perhaps it was his early cockiness. (Some
people called it confidence, but I don’t think he had the
maturity at the time to show the appropriate humility and the
proper respect for the accomplishments of golf’s greats.)
However, his early struggles changed that
and showed him that those accomplishments aren’t all that
easy, even for a young golfer destined to become the greatest
ever. Woods is much more mature now.
Perhaps it was the fact that I hate to see
the records of Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Byron Nelson fall
too easily. Or perhaps it’s the fact that Woods had the whole
world on his bandwagon, and I tend to root for underdogs. Or perhaps
it was the fact that Woods won the Master’s so convincingly,
and the media was convinced he would do the same in every tournament
thereafter.
That doesn’t really make for entertaining
golf.
Well, fortunately, that hasn’t happened.
Woods is dominant all right, but he’s not winning every tournament
and even when he wins, he’s not winning by 12 strokes. Instead
he’s winning by one or two strokes, or in a playoff.
Woods’ real dominance comes from the
fact that he’s never out of a tournament. He was nine strokes
back in the Master’s when he challenged at the end and wound
up in fifth place.
This past weekend, he had a slow start and
wound up coming from behind to take the lead.
And last week at the Byron Nelson classic,
he came from behind to challenge and wasn’t out of it until
the last few holes. In fact, I’m getting tired of thinking,
“Yes, Woods had a bad day and is way back” only to watch
him stage a huge comeback to the cheers of everyone else in my
family.
He really is amazing, but this kind of dominance
I don’t mind. This makes for great, entertaining golf.
No doubt Woods is going to break many, many
records. No doubt, he’s going to wind up one of the best
golfers ever, if not THE hands-down best ever. No doubt he’s
the best in the game right now.
But all that’s a little easier to swallow
knowing that while Woods is always the safe bet in a tournament,
his victory is never, ever a foregone conclusion.
Unfortunately, even with Woods’ maturity
and respect for the game, I can’t bring myself to root for
him — even when he’s nine strokes back and somewhat
of an underdog.
But don’t ask me to explain why.
Candy Reagan is a local free-lance writer
and avid sports fan who writes a weekly column on sports happenings.
She can be reached by e-mail at reagan@camalott.com.
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