I watch four golf tournaments each year—the four majors.
I watch horse racing the same way—I tune in for the three races of the Triple Crown, even if no one is in position to win all three.
So, I watched a lot of golf last weekend with the Open Championship being played at Royal Troon in Scotland.
You also know, if you know me at all, that I love tradition and the Open and The Masters and the courses on which they are played certainly draw me in more easily than the others.
As always, golf coverage is different when Tiger Woods is playing.
This is where I must pause for a disclaimer.
I don’t like Tiger Woods.
He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest golfers of all time. But I don’t like him as a person, and I cannot cheer for him on the course.
Part of it has been how he has been covered in the media in recent years. Tiger would barely make the cut, but TV viewers saw every shot of his round and then highlight packages to recap his best shots. Meanwhile golfers actually vying for the championship were mentioned only by the leaderboard graphic in the upper corner of the screen.
Tiger was the story, even when he really wasn’t.
Last week at Royal Troon, it was really sad to watch him playing golf.
He still hits the ball as hard off the tee as he has in the last 15 years, but just about every other part of his game bears no resemblance to anything associated with Tiger Woods.
Let’s be perfectly clear here—Tiger, in his prime, was doing magnificent things. What we are seeing is a guy who played at such a high level for such a long time not be able to duplicate those things anymore.
Age and injuries have taken the toll they claim on all of us, but add to that the aftermath of that automobile crash that almost claimed his life and it all has ganged up on him like a bandit in a dark alley to steal away his ability to compete in most tournaments.
He has lost his creative skill to shape shots to get himself close to the pin, and he’s lost his touch with the putter.
He’s changed coaches. He’s changed his swing. It just hasn’t mattered.
It’s over, and it’s not coming back.
My opinion falls in line with many others, but despite that, there is a strong sense of respect and caution when speaking on the subject of a potential Tiger retirement.
No one speaks of it—at all.
He’s Tiger Woods, and the prevailing line of thinking is that he has earned the right to say when that happens.
I am in that camp. If he wants to keep playing in the majors and the occasional regular tour tournament, he can do that.
But I wonder if there is anyone who he respects enough that could be in his ear and be truthful with him about his longevity in the game.
Is there someone who has the courage to lean into Tiger and say, “are you ok just making the cut?”
And maybe he does have people like that, and maybe he is ok with that.
But Tiger has been one of the fiercest of competitors in all of sports. He’s on a shortlist of players who can intimidate a fellow competitor in a sport where there is no physical confrontation.
Not anymore.
I wish Tiger Woods would just step away from the game of golf, for the good of the game itself.
His mere presence is holding back the growth of the sport. Go back and read what I wrote about TV coverage of his shots as evidence. Every shot we see of him is a missed opportunity for the cameras to show us someone else.
Every line written about him and what he didn’t do is a line that could have been used to share the story of an up-and-coming talent that carries with him the face of the future of the game of golf.
Tiger Woods’s contribution to the sport is both undeniable and immeasurable. An entire generation of young people who thought golf was not for them was inspired by Woods to pick up a club and try it are now coming of age.
But he has one more thing he can do to invest in the future of the sport…step away from it.