Adam Hunt
Senior Reporter / Columnist
With the most eagerly awaited Masters in recent memory about to commence, there is only one question on everybody’s lips: Will Tiger Woods take the title?
But this year’s tournament heralds the dawn of a different Tiger. What remains to be seen is if the new Woods will storm up the leaderboard as fast as each new version of his self-titled video game storms up the charts.
Augusta National is where it all began for the original Tiger, who won his first Masters in 1997 at age 21 by 12 shots and began to turn himself into the most famous athlete since Muhammad Ali.
Woods isn’t trying to win a major on a dodgy knee this time though, the way he did at the 2008 US Open. He is trying to come back from a compound fracture of his own reputation. From now on, he will only be judged as a golfer, not a creation of marketing about as real as the Tiger of the video game.
Golf fans will only believe what he does on the course this time, not what he or his various minions says off it. If he tears up courses all over the world as he did before, he will make headlines all over again for the right reasons.
The fact is, we love champions, even when we find out they acted up. Their fantastic achievements trump their misdemeanors on almost every occasion.
So even with the way Woods has been banging away about his good name, he counts on winning to carry him through.
Woods isn’t a politician. He didn’t cheat voters and he didn’t cheat his sport the way steroid abusers do. The best thing for him now is to stop talking about everything but golf and just play, not try to sell himself like some rehabbing politician. Or turn this whole thing into a religious experience.
“I think Augusta is the place where I need to be,” said Woods last week, suddenly getting all hippie on us.
“After a long and necessary time away from the game,” he continued, “I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.”
The setting is perfect. Before Woods’ world exploded on Thanksgiving, we had merely seen the Tiger Woods he wanted us to know.
Can he win the Masters after not playing competitively since November? You bet he can. Within two weeks of Michael Jordan’s return to the NBA, he came to New York and dropped 55 points on the Knicks. Yes, 55. If Jordan can do that, Woods can win another Masters.
Just don’t make him out to be a hero if he does. This isn’t an athlete overcoming adversity. This is a guy going back to his job after the job he did on his personal life.
Now it is time for Woods to let his game do the talking.
Kudos for the good ideas, It was just what I was hunting for