If you have read much of what I rant about you will probably know that I dont care much for Tiger Woods as a man or human.  However, I do like the way he plays a game that I have loved and played, sometimes on a daily basis.  It can be argued that he is the best that has ever played the game.  I happen to think he is.  He devotes himself to practice like few others who play now or in the past.  He can make shots that few can make.  But, despite his physical skills connected with the game, he has something that even fewer players have.  He has the mind for the game.  He is an automatron when it comes to the mental part of the game.  Bad shots bother him less than they do most players.  He doesnt often get rattled.  This takes skill.

Our local newspaper had an opinion to the editor this morning stating that Tiger was not a good role model.  The opinion listed a number of reasons, mostly having to do with being a good sport.  Well, just maybe he doesnt want to be a good role model.  Maybe he just wants to play his game and be left to hell alone?  I know of few people who would like to have a son or daughter who was just like Tiger.  Many people would like to be able to play golf like Tiger.  Maybe we should just be happy with that.  We place too much value on what professional atheletes give our society.  We are exposed daily to their feet of clay.  Many professional atheletes are people who left school to go “pro” at a time when they are unable to handle such fame and fortune.  They usually turn out to be just people like we are.  They have problems just like we have.  Many people get too bent out of shape when one of their “heros” falls from grace. 

I cut people a little more slack in how their fame and fortune affects me.  Little that Tiger Woods does on a daily basis has much to do with how I live, think or act.  I enjoy watching him play in a golf tournament.  I would like to have dinner with him some night.  After dinner I would take him out behind the barn and give him some advice that his father Earl apparently failed to give him.  He wouldn’t care for the advice but if he thought about it for a few minutes he would know I was right.  My advice would simply be that the sun doesn’t rise from his shadow or the shadow of people like him and he should realize that he is what he is simply at our pleasure.

Gary