Posted by
Bill Crawford on Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:10:04 PM
The Nike commercial playing during the Accenture match play events was so close to truth that it must hurt some PGA members. Tiger shows up to play, and the party is over for everybody else. It was as funny as it was painfully accurate.
I'm only a casual golf fan, so I pretty much took some time off, too. Nothing personal, guys, but I can't get worked up over a dog fight between Sergio Garcia and Fuzzy Zoeller.
This is Tiger's third respite from the game, and the longest one. The second one was also for knee surgery, though less extensive than this one. The first one was the most intriguing- some time off from the tour to rework his swing with Butch Harmon.
And, as expected, he comes back as much a player as when he left. No time for warming up or fine tuning his game. That was all done during practice time. Tiger is thirty one years old, a pro golfer's prime. When he walks up to the tee, he is the one to beat.
In a world where so many deign to disappoint (Alex Rodriguez being the last in a long line), unblemished, sustained excellence is something to take time out and savor. Even if nobody is prepared to listen, I will be prepared to share with my offspring stories of Willie Mays, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Tom Seaver........and Tiger Woods.
It will be an honor to keep their legends alive. I had the same done for me with the likes of Jesse Owen, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Bill Russell and many others. I owe it to them to do the same thing.