THE PGA Golf Championship, the last major of the year, has just concluded.
As I watched the event come to an end and saw how Tiger’s game just fell short of what the media would consider an official comeback despite his three victories this year, I couldn’t help but take a step back and reflect on the turn of events that has taken this man’s career to where it is today.
I have followed him since he was a top amateur and bar none, there is no one yet who has impressed me as much as he has.
Aside from his physical talent, it’s his desire to make an impact on the world through this game that has left me in awe.
His massive worldwide following is one for the book.
What he has done for the game just by “showing up” is immeasurable.
So as I saw his game fall apart on the third day of the PGA Championship, I found myself asking “why?” He seems to have all the physical components of his game back to where he needs them to be. He’s also made a few swing changes under the supervision of his new coach Sean Foley.
He actually led the pack after the second day of the tournament playing under conditions that were much more difficult than the final two days.
Yet, again in the weekend, his game disassembled.
One asks if this is starting to become a pattern wherein he leads or does well till the second day and then for some unknown reason, disaster strikes from seemingly nowhere.
Since golf is such a mental sport, we golfers always find ourselves looking for ways to get us mentally out of our so-called patterns with the hope that by looking at the situation in a new way, our bodies will respond differently and things will start to change for the better.
In the year 2009, Tiger had his famous scandal that shook him and the entire sporting world.
Yet, despite this, he has shown the courage and perseverance to continue to do what he loves most in front of the very eyes of those who once saw him as immortal.
This alone leaves me not only in awe but most definitely inspired.
For to be able to rise up from adversity without a guarantee that you will be able to be as good as you once were yet to continue to keep at it is, in my opinion, what makes his return to the game much more significant than all the majors that he has to his name.
To compete under such conditions, which perhaps many may consider far more difficult that teeing it up in hurricane, is what the worlds needs to see right now and draw strength from.
I’ve always felt that winning majors is a gift from the golfing gods. More so today, with existing competition you see out there which he was instrumental in building.
I do not think we will see another like him in our lifetime. With all the events that have led up to this point in his career, I have to say that it appears that there will only be one Tiger.
He will continue to make his impact in the world through the game he loves, only this time not in the way most of us expect.
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