I was saddened to learn yesterday that Tiger Woods suffered a season-ending injury to his knee and will have to undergo surgery to repair that and some stress fractures in his leg. This news came after his valiant U. S. Open victory held at Torrey Pines this weekend.
My husband, who is a rabid golf fan, sat glued to the TV for the entire tournament, while I read a book and glanced up to catch the highlights in between word chunks. I watched with growing concern as Tiger grimaced in noticeable pain after each drive, and the mom in me was thinking that he wasn’t ready for tournament play, at least, not yet. Still, he persevered and managed to pull off the win after a grueling duel with opponent, Rocco Mediate.
I golf, though admittedly not very well. I’m not at all athletic, but golf is a game where any old duffer who can barely walk would have the same chance of making a flawless shot just as same as a youngster with an amazing swing conjured out of thin air. It’s also a game where you don’t have to play against anyone except yourself.
Tiger is the reason this family even took up the sport. Back in the mid-1990s, the fresh-faced Tiger Woods was beginning to draw a lot of young fans with his boyish good looks, even and courteous demeanor and outstanding skill. Before then, the general consensus was that golf was a game for old, fat, cigar-smoking white men who belonged to snobby and exclusive clubs. Tiger Woods was the antithesis of all that. For one thing, he’s extremely athletic. For another, he was born of mixed race (being Asian myself, I like to think of him as being such), cutting a new pathway on the fairways for the extraordinary. Novel, but with considerable substance, Tiger was solely responsible for opening golf’s door to the Everyman.
Article comments
1 - Alessandro
I'm not sure I subscribe to this "no pain, no gain" philosophy. I had to ACL surgeries. I know what it's like to play before/after with this injury. I ruined my knees further damaging all sorts of ligaments along the way including the meniscus.
It's a tough call but Woods put a tournament and a game before his health. Hey, it's his decision and it "paid off" through a victory. It remains to be seen what the consequences of this will be.
Now people are making him out to be some sort of hero. I sure don't. He isn't the first or the last - hockey players (contrary to his comments about the game) put him in his back pocket when it comes to playing through pain.
More bizarre, we talk as if golfers are athletes. No they're not. You can play golf on a torn ACL. It won't be easy but it's doable. The stress fractures, I would think, was what he was grimacing about. Just because Tiger approaches the game with an "athlete's mentality" doesn't mean golf is an athletic game. It's a game for technicians.
I realize I'm going against the sports zeitgeist with golf being as popular as it.
Another debate that is odd is some are now calling him the most dominant "athlete" ever. I prefer to call him the greatest golfer ever leave it at that.
2 - Alessandro
Grammar corrections:
I had "two" surgeries
It's "in their back pocket" "
"AND leave it at that"
Isn't Sussman supposed to edit comments too? Sheesh.
Take care of me, Suss.
Sorry.
3 - Joanne Huspek
A: I don't think of Tiger as being a "hero" for playing when he probably should have been sidelined. You're right in that he put a tournament before his health. It's not always a wise thing to do. I DO think that many people (athletes included) tend to blow off whatever task they have at hand and cry pain, whether it is physical or mental. Sometimes you have to suck it up and charge forward.
I also realize golf has the reputation as being far from athletic. (Which makes it a perfect sport for me.) Tiger was the first golfer that I can think of who started using a regular work out including weight lifting in addition to hitting balls on the driving range.
4 - Alessandro
"I DO think that many people (athletes included) tend to blow off whatever task they have at hand and cry pain, whether it is physical or mental. Sometimes you have to suck it up and charge forward."
I agree.
But I'm gonna stop typing now because I don't want to bruise my fingertips.