Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 8, 2021 - March 14, 2021

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright”, begins an old poem. Almost two weeks since the crash that shook the game, the world of golf is wondering if Tiger Woods will ever light its fires again.

Lying in a Los Angeles hospital bed with enough metal in his right leg to forge an extra iron, the game’s greatest player cannot be sure that he’ll ever need one. After the wildest drive of his career, he may have got a favourable bounce from oblivion but still has to take a season-long drop at the very least.

As for the sport, it will endure the concurrent, knock-on losses in viewing figures, galleries and coverage that occur whenever its talisman goes missing. Lee Trevino speaks for millions when he says: “I only watch golf when Tiger’s playing.”

If it seems indecent to be counting the cost when a man may not walk properly again, the US$90 billion global industry has good reason to be more concerned than ever before. Although it is well aware of his recovery powers, this time feels different.

The “limb-threatening” injuries Tiger sustained in his “single vehicle rollover” would be potentially crippling. But coming on top of an already-long list of major wounds — including five back and three knee surgeries — the fear is that the cumulative damage could prevent a return to his previous exalted levels.

Only in January, he had a fifth operation on that troublesome lumbar region — to remove a pressurised disc fragment — a minor procedure compared to the spinal fusion that saved his career in 2017. Afterwards, but before the accident, he was asked if he would be fit for next month’s Masters. The sport gave a collective shudder when he quipped: “God, I hope so… but I only have one back.”

If it seems an unhealthy dependence, it’s not dissimilar to the whole of Catalonia holding its breath every time Lionel Messi suffers a heavy tackle. They even coined a word — “Messidependencia” — for how reliant Barcelona has become on its greatest player. Golf has been Tiger-dependent for even longer; such has been his impact.

When he burst on the scene in 1997 with a 12-stroke victory in the US Masters, the sport was widely seen as the preserve of the male, pale and stale brigade. There were more smokers on tour than those who worked out. Only one other player (Vijay Singh) besides Tiger went to the gym and only John Daly could match him in averaging 300 yards off the tee. Prize money and viewing figures were a fraction of what they are now.

As Tiger bestrode the fairways like a conquering hero, everyone wanted a piece of him. Sponsorship, prize money and TV audiences soared and Augusta National was “Tiger-proofed” against his prodigious hitting. The world was glued as he made golf cool. He also made his peers very rich and inspired new generations. And they are nothing if not grateful.

Rory McIlroy says: “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Tiger.” Perhaps the biggest beneficiary, Phil Mickelson, recalls: “… when I won my first tournament in 1991, the entire purse was US$1 million… and I would say, ‘I wonder if in my lifetime, probably not in my career, we would play for a US$1 million first-place cheque.’ Now it’s every week. It’s unbelievable, the growth of this game. And Tiger has been the instigator.”

Researchers fully support that assertion. Dr Roger Pielke Jr, director of the University of Colorado’s Center for Science & Technology Policy Research, claimed: “The Tiger Effect was responsible for US$1.6 billion of the overall US$3.1 billion prize money won between 1997 and 2008,” while GOLF.com’s Josh Sens recently estimated Tiger’s presence is worth as much as US$15 billion to the game as a whole.

The American’s early domination was such that other greats would say they were playing only for second place if Tiger had entered. But the fascination wasn’t just with his brilliance: it was his persona — a black kid lording it in a predominantly white sport; his charisma — oodles of it; and his comebacks — for the ages.

Indeed, “Comeback Kid” would be his most apt pseudonym the way his life has panned out. Nicknamed “Tiger” by his Green Beret father after his South Vietnamese battlefield companion, Colonel Vuong Dang Phong, whom he also called “Tiger”, the son has more than lived up to it. No cause is ever lost, no green unreachable and no situation irredeemable — on or off the course.

After being world No 1 for 683 consecutive weeks, in 2017, he fell outside the top 1,000 in the rankings, but roared back to No 1. Back from all the surgeries, from the deepest bunkers of humiliation in his personal life: the death of his beloved father, the painful break-up of his marriage and the excruciating scandal.

Even a broken leg — in two places — couldn’t stop him winning the 2008 US Open. Nor could looking a haunted and broken man after being arrested at the wheel of his car high on opioids in 2017 — perhaps the lowest of all the malevolent twists of fate. Back then, painkillers were his kakis.

All this is why many feel even this latest battering to his body will not beat him. They point to his innate strength and fighting spirit: he has trained with the US Navy Seals and “Never Give Up” is his mantra.

They mention the legendary Ben Hogan suffering even worse injuries in a car crash 72 years ago yet recovering to win five more Majors. And US Open champion Bryson de Chambeau spoke for many when he said: “If anyone can [come back], Tiger can.”

Golf and the wider world desperately hope so. Although he will hang up his clubs one day, his 15th Major win at the 2019 Masters made us believe that anything was possible. And even if Jack Nicklaus’ 18 Majors now seems out of reach, we still thought that at 45, we’d be seeing plenty more of that red shirt leading the pack on Sunday afternoons.

As McIlroy put it: “It’s inevitable that one day he won’t be a part of it and that’s going to be just something that the game of golf and the tour is going to have to deal with and adapt to.”

As for him returning from the crash, McIlroy added: “He’s not Superman.” Which is why you sense the PGA are glad they got their US$700 million deal with broadcasters signed last year.

Indeed, in recent months, Tiger has been more like a regular guy: more settled in his personal life, still with the same partner after 4½ years, and enjoying being a dad to his two kids. If he decides he’s had enough or his body decides for him, his legacy will still be a vastly richer, greater and unrecognisable game. He would leave an unimaginable void.

The multi-billion-dollar question being asked from locker room to boardroom is: Tiger, Tiger, can the flame burn bright again?

There’s an awful lot riding on it.


Bob Holmes is a long-time sports writer specialising in football

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