First, so there's no hint of sour grapes or anything like that...
I truly admire him as a rare, possibly unique and always astonishing combination of unprecedented golf skills, athleticism unseen in golf prior to his arrival on tour, and a psyche that simply will not allow him to lose.
Of course, he loses all the time -- if you can call shooting 16 under, coming in second and pocketing half a million bucks "losing." But he never expects to lose, no matter the situation. He's playing to win from the first swing at Wednesday's practice round to the final putt on Sunday afternoon. And in 2006, he actually won more than he lost, posting a .533 winning percentage for the year
When he does lose -- and people forget he's failed to win about 3/4 of all tournaments he's entered in his 11+ years as a pro... well, fuck it. That's what next week's for. There's never any sense that losing means being beaten. If anything, losing only pisses him off and increases his drive to win the next one. A guy with that combination of physical skills, along with the focus and determination to dominate virtually any situation, is a pretty unusual and exceptional human, capable of much more than a 10-under-par round.
So I had high hopes for him when his father was hinting that he's much more than just a golfer -- that he's the kind of guy who could actually change the world. And I suppose he has, in a way; he's made it far more common to see non-whites on a golf course and he's made golf cool in a way I would never have thought possible.
However, that's not the kind of change I care much about. I was hoping to see him transcend golf and use his status as the world's most recognizable athlete and celebrity to advocate for social justice and economic equality.
I saw him hanging with Mandela and other progressive African leaders developing a reliable supply chain to get regular shipments of food and medicines to poor people throughout the continent. I was hoping to see him use his fame to shame Americans into scaling back consumption toward more sustainable levels. Now that's a tall order, but still...
I would like to have seen him set up foundations to fund everything from childhood education that focuses on developing creativity and unconventional thinking to an NGO version of Kucinich's Dept. of Peace, stocked with people of serious political clout with tons of money and the right connections who could exert influence successfully over US foreign policy. Kind of a reverse PNAC and minus the reactionaries.
His fame and thus far unspoiled image, delivered 24/7 by international mass media, give him a level of access to peoples' hearts and minds available to nobody else alive today -- and maybe ever.
I'm sure his foundations(s) do much good. But he seems content to remain behind the scenes when what's really needed is the force of his personality and unique marketability out front selling progressive answers to key social problems, like the shameful state of US public education; chronic poverty; lack of universal health care; institutionalized racism, bigotry and xenophobia; the huge and growing wealth disparity...
But... That's not what Tiger's up to these days...
He's buying gigantic yachts, acquiring property throughout the world, living in truly palatial splendor. He's hanging out in Dubai with the world's emerging stateless community of the insanely rich. He's designing his first golf course there. He's got at least two private jets, probably a helicopter for short hops to the mall the dry cleaners, and christ knows what else.
He's shilling for products that are made by slaves (Nike), that perpetuate American's love of burning gas in large superfluous vehicles (Buick) and that exist to drive ever more workers of the world deeper into debt slavery (Amex).
Fortunately for all us celebrity stalkers and zillionaire wannabes,
The Onion has been tracking the Tiger Woods product pitching phenomenon for years and reports on
this unique endorsement agreement from back in 2005. wp
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