Tiger's Tour?
June 23rd 2009 20:26
When people talk about golf or the PGA specifically, the first thing everyone else jumps to is Tiger Woods, and deservedly so. The man's resume and killer instinct are unrivaled in the history of golf, if not matched only by one Golden Bear. I enjoy watching Tiger charge up the leaderboard to win a major on Sunday, and his ledger of wins and major championships is so impressive that I don't even remember whether he won or lost a particular tournament. However, I think all the talk about taking Tiger over the field every time a major rolls around is irresponsible, unrealistic, and sells some other fantastic golfers way short.
On a rain-soaked weekend at Bethpage State Park's Black course, the site of the U.S. Open, the Tiger obsession by the NBC commentators was embarrassing. With Woods sitting 7 or 8 strokes back in the final round (and showing no signs of moving), the network just couldn't help but give Tiger the majority of coverage. Don't get me wrong, the guy is the heartbeat of the PGA Tour and is absolutely essential to its prosperity, but this ridiculous attention he garners is moderately off putting. I'm just sick of it. Its like they were trying so hard to make Woods a contender for the championship that they pretended he was and covered him like he was.
I have to stop myself right here because I'm guilty of the same thing the media is: glorifying Tiger and ignoring everything else. I'm 3 paragraphs deep in this post and I haven't even mentioned the names of the Open's only contenders. Those men would be Open champion Lucas Glover (he won right?), David Duval, and Ricky Barnes.
Once again, Tiger deserves 98% of the coverage and discussion he gets. He is an immortal among mortals. However, I think its appalling that every time a no-name player accomplishes something great, all we can manage to talk about is the absence of Tiger and how his late run wasn't quite enough and how something was wrong with Tiger's short game that week. Why can't we embrace the underdog like we do in every other sport and give credit where credit is due without Tiger Woods being our point of reference? Let's stop picking Tiger to beat a full field of elite golfers before the tournament starts. Let's stop wishing him into the final group when he's not even close. Let's stop analyzing his defeat when we should be telling the story of the champion.
Maybe the Tour knows this is the only way that it can survive and thrive and I'm being unrealistic. I am sure, however, that there is much more to this sport than Tiger Woods.
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