Call me a pessimist. Call me what you want, but I worry. With each win Tiger attains with a less than impressive performance, I worry. Whether or not you are a Tiger Woods fan, you must admit that he brings great drama to the PGA tour. If he wins, he does so in dramatic, if not impressive, fashion. It is great television. Without him, tournaments are rendered, “he won, but Tiger wasn’t here” status. I agree with these statements. I don’t necessarily want Tiger to win, but I want someone to win with him there, at the very least. Without Tiger, Phil, Ernie, or Vijay, it seems like watching a minor league baseball game.
Why am I worried? In my glass is half-empty world of golf I contemplate the cosmos. Tiger has hinted on several occasions that he will not play forever. He has no intention of playing into his twilight years as Jack Nicklaus has done. With his father creeping closer to the end, him being married, and being the unquestionable greatest golfer in the world at the moment, I wonder what he has to play for. I’m worried he will walk away from the game soon. He took his longest break between seasons and didn’t even pick up a club. Tournaments are offering him millions just to play. His endorsements have made him richer than Genghis Kong. He broke a record in Florida for the largest purchase price for a home on record. What more could he want? Where is the hunger going to come from?
Please tell me I’m wrong; I have nothing to worry about and Tiger will be around for my kids to watch. I just don’t see it.
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How about more than 18 majors and 82 wins, and maybe 4 majors in the same calendar year as the "icing on the cake".
Where is the hunger going to come from?
Tiger is a fierce competitor by nature, something he shares with the likes of Michael Jordan. It is not about the money anymore. He wants to win period, and Golf is the vehicle that will provide food for his winning hunger.
When Tiger has kids, golf will doubtless become less important to him (just as it did when he got married, etc.), but if he didn't want to win, he wouldn't play.
Further, Tiger has said that the ultimate goal of his career is to surpass Jack's record of 18 major victories.
So:
-when he has no interest in winning, he'll quit,
- but winning 19 or more majors is his ultimate golf game.
These two statements lead me to believe Tiger will be around for a few years yet - in fact, for as long as he still believes he can win tournaments. And that will probably be into his 50s.
I don't think he'll want to play the Champions Tour. Tiger wants to win PGA Tour tournaments; he seems to have little interest in arsing around on the seniors' circuit, too stubborn to just retire in style.
Besides, he probably WILL beat Jack's record.
I believe that if Tiger thought that he probably wouldn't beat Jack's 18 majors, he'd just quit now.
I'd like to see that quotation because I can't imagine that he wouldn't want to cement his place in history as the greatest golfer of all time. I also will point out that the young Nicklaus said that he didn't see himself playing past 35 and, well, we know what happened. The fact is that the young(and Woods is still quite young) are notorious for misjudging what their mindset, goals, perspective, ambitions, passions and priorities will be a decade or two hence.
Having said that, there is one profound difference between Woods and Nicklaus insofar as this goes. More often than not Woods seems to be having a miserable time on the course, with the club abuse and profanity (which shouldn't be allowed). Now, I realize that virtually all professional athletes place pressure on themselves and take their misfortune to heart in a way that people who just play for fun may not. I also realize that Nicklaus didn't exactly bounce up and down like an effervescent eight-year-old after every long drive, but he also didn't seem to be in agonizing emotional pain 50% of the time. Thus, if there's any reason to believe that your fears may have a solid foundation, it's the fact that Woods seems to derive precious little joy from playing the game.
A minor point, David: it's "Ghengis Khan," not "Ghengis Kong." Do not confuse him with King Kong, for, while he probably emitted his fair share of putrid odors and was a barbarian, he was no gorilla.
I'm not trying to embarrass you -- we all make mistakes. Heck, I remember that even I made one about seven years ago.
I've also heard Jack saying he thought Tiger would win more than 18 majors. But maybe he's just saying that so that he looks graceful in defeat if/when Tiger beats the 18-majors mark.
Also, I don't think Tiger's going to retire early. He wouldn't have very much to do, surely. Yes, he's absolutely stinking rich, but golf has been such a large part of Tiger's life up to now, I just don't think he'd know what to do with himself as a young retiree.
We've seen things like this in other sports; George Best retired from football at a ridiculously young age, thinking he could move on, but after a while realised that he missed football too much.
If Elin has anything to say, expect to see a few babies in their future and watching Tiger's offspring swinging a golf club on Entertainment Tonight!
And Tiger's cape has a big "T" on it. ;-)
10 years ago he introduced himself entering the professional ranks as 'Hello, world'. He now seems to be saying, 'goodbye' to all of his competition. He was easily beatable last week, but no one choose to step up to the plate and beat him.
Now if you were to write a column about Mr. Phil 'milktoast' Milkenson being 'finished' - I wholeheartedly concur.
This is a very interesting statement. You dont WANT him to win, you just want others to beat him...so you want him to stick around for years to come so he gets beaten by guys like Phil? WOW.
"Tiger is finished............ "
..wow.