If you paid rapt attention like everybody else did to Tiger Woods’ meteoric and unprecedented rise to the top of the golf and advertising mountaintop that began in 1997 with his 12-stroke victory at the Masters, It’s a good bet – prisoners of the moment that we are – that it gave you renewed hope, perhaps just momentarily, that you could conquer anything you put your mind to.
The victory was the first of Woods’ 14 majors victories, second only to Jack Nicklaus’ 18. Over the next decade it was Woods – not LeBron James or Kobe Bryant – who occupied the throne atop the sports world. And if anyone doubted his supremacy, the $10 million he earned by winning the 2009 FedEx Cup that made him the first athlete to crack $1 billion in career earnings removed all doubt as to who wore the crown.
But Woods’ climb to the top was atypical, an outlier. The combination of hard work and talent can certainly help you get where you want to go, but it is only singular talent the likes of which Woods possessed that can produce those kinds of accomplishments.
He has lost his marriage as a result of multiple affairs and has spent time in rehab for “sex addiction.” He has experienced multiple setbacks at lower-level tournaments while attempting comebacks from multiple spinal surgeries and torn ligaments — injuries associated with football and not golf.
In 2017, he was arrested on suspicions of driving under the influence. Turns out it wasn’t alcohol that had Woods swerving across a Jupiter, Fla., highway but rather a mixture of Vicodin, Xanax, Ambien and THC, the primary compound in marijuana. As a result, Woods entered a rehabilitation center for prescription drug treatment less than a year ago.
In short, Woods fell down hard, and herein lies the true moral and redemption to be culled from his evolving story.
The easy thing for Woods would have been to quit. After all, he has made enough money for his entire family tree to live comfortably for centuries. But despite repeated setbacks and the inevitable signs that his body is aging and breaking down, Woods has continued to challenge himself to battle back — to fight and to not give up.
He has played PGA tournaments once seen as beneath him, oftentimes having to quit due to physical limitations, other times failing to make the cut, something once unheard of when he was the unquestioned king of his sport.
All the while, Woods has forced himself to dig deeper inside and work harder than ever before in an effort to achieve just a smidgen of the magic that a decade ago he was able to summon on demand.
This season, Woods has competed in five events, two of which he has truly contended, and in two others that saw him put a scare in the leaderboard. His 2018 showings have raised enough eyebrows so that entering this weekend’s Masters Woods is among the three favorites – the others are Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas – to win his first major in 10 years since his last win.
Who knows what will happen beginning on Thursday? Golf can be an unforgiving game. Woods could disappoint; he has teased fans in the past who have waited patiently for years for the resurrection of his superstardom only to be disappointed time and time again.
But that is irrelevant. What is noteworthy is the tenacity, desire and the grit he has exhibited in an effort to return to the top of his sport. And in this, there is more of a lesson to be learned than anything else he has ever accomplished.
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