by Luminița Paul
Observation skills test.
Picture No. 1, November 24th, 2009: Tiger Woods is golf’s world number one. A winner of fourteen major championships, he isconsidered by many to be the greatest golfer of all times. He is one month away from turning 34 and has the better part of his career still ahead, with high hopes for winning many more trophies. He is a sportsman with the highest endorsement earnings, reaching annual incomes in excess of 100 million dollars. His image is spotless: five years married to Swedish model Elin Nordegren, with whom he has two children – a girl, Sam Alexis, and a boy, Charles Axel.
Picture No. 2, December 11th 2009: Tiger Woods is (still) golf’s world number one, with fourteen majors to his name and still recognized as the greatest of all times. He is days away from his 34th birthday, and his future is uncertain, both in regards to his professional and his personal life. He has just gone public with admitting to multiple infidelities (the number of the women who confessed to having had affairs with the American golfer is by now over a dozen). He has announced he will be taking an indefinite break from the sport. His wife has filed for divorce. Some of his sponsors have abruptly terminated their contracts with him.
Please spot the differences. Three and a half years have passed, a difficult time for the proud, worthy Tiger Woods.
Years through which some have stuck by his side, placing their friendship above the shocking disclosures, but also years during which many have judged him, labelled him with tags like “unfaithful”, “cheating”, “immoral”. Years when he had to endure heavy, scrutinizing, accusing, suspicious looks.
Years when he had to address his sex addiction – he committed himself and spent 45 days in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi addiction clinic – and to own up to the mistakes of his past. Years when his golf playing and performances also suffered. But at the same time years during which, he claims, he has come to understand many things and has been able to change.
As a person, and perhaps as a golfer as well, without altering, however, the distinctive marks of his playing style. One year after the scandal, Woods gathered up the courage to step into the spotlight and talk about himself, about how he felt. “[I'm] just more clear, more clear about my perspective, who I am, where I want to go”, he confessed during an ESPN Radio interview on “Mike & Mike in the Morning”. “It's amazing how much better I feel internally each and every day”. He then added he wasn’t at all proud of the way he had acted in past years. He began spending more time with his two children, despite his divorce to Elin.
“I am beginning to appreciate things I had overlooked before [...] I'm not the same man I was a year ago. And that's a good thing”. Immediately after the story of Tiger’s infidelities went public, Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade and General Motors abruptly terminated their commitments with him.
Gillette withdrew the commercials he was featuring in. TAG Heuer, too, took him off their ads, but allowed the contract to run to its completion, not renewing it, though, after its end date in August 2011. Golf Digest dropped Woods’ column starting with their February 2010 edition. Nike, however, stuck with him, as did Electronic Arts. Even in these conditions, he maintained his first position in the top of the best paid sportsmen, according to Forbes, with some 82 million dollars per year. In the end, his time away from golf was not as lengthy as one might have expected.
In 2010, CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus, holder of numerous golf championships, was quoted by the New York Times as saying that “the first tournament Tiger Woods plays again, wherever it is, will be the biggest media event other than the Obama inauguration in the past 10 or 15 years”. That first tournament turned out to be the 2010 Augusta Masters, competition the American golfer had previously won in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2005. He finished it tying for fourth place. Then his results went on a downward slope for a while. Still, Tiger Woods the person was making headway.
“My life was out of balance, and my priorities were out of order. I made terrible choices and repeated mistakes. I hurt the people whom I loved the most. And even beyond accepting the consequences and responsibility, there is the ongoing struggle to learn from my failings. At first, I didn’t want to look inward. Frankly, I was scared of what I would find what I had become. But I’m grateful that I did examine my life because it has made me more grounded than I’ve ever been; I hope that with reflection will come wisdom.”
The divorce was finalized in August of 2010. Elin Nordegren came out of the settlement with 110 million dollars. Some say that, with his estimated worth of over 600 million, she could have asked for, and received, even twice that much. She made no comment whatsoever on the subject. She took the children and moved to southern Florida and agreed to a reasonable visiting schedule. When things had settled down a tad, Tiger built up the courage and became active on Twitter.
“What’s up everyone. Finally decided to try out twitter“, he wrote one morning in the summer of 2010. One hour later, he had more than 30,000 followers. “You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the love“, Woods acknowledged. In October 2010, he lost his world’s best crown to Englishman Lee Westwood. In November 2011, after a combination of injuries and poor form, he dropped to 58th in the world, an unimaginable situation for someone who had accumulated – up to that point - 623 weeks spent on the first position in the official rankings. Then, slowly, he began to make up ground. In December he won his first tournament victory in a while, at the Chevron Challenge. Following that, the ascent became more obvious. More wins, although none in a major.
Finally, the inevitable happened. In 2013, in March, after having won the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the sixth time in his career, he reclaimed first place in the world rankings. It was a much-awaited event that many had predicted. “It was just a by-product of hard work, patience and winning golf tournaments”, Tiger explained. People are now raising a different question: when is the next major win to be added to the list (he has 14 under his belt by now, but the latest dates back to 2008). “I'm very pleased with the way I'm playing, and enough of that”, Woods added.
Explanations have been come up with. The fact that he has been working with Canadian Sean Foley since 2010, who has slightly altered his swing, making it more of a rotary movement around the spine. The fact that he now once again has a stable relationship, and with a fellow great of the sports world, American skier Lindsey Vohn, winner of multiple World Cup and Olympics titles.
Moreover, the fact that he has a friendly rivalry with Northern Irish wunderkind of recent years Rory McIlroy was also a possible helpful factor. Even President Obama offered him notable support.
And, after all, the fact that he is Tiger Woods: an extraordinarily talented sportsman, who has worked immensely hard for what he has achieved and who has now found within himself the resources for a resurrection. Image No.3, unspecified date: Tiger Woods, 37 years of age. Back in first position on the world rankings. And still considered the greatest golfer of all times. Forget about spotting the differences. Let’s just leave it at that, for a while.
