With Tiger's recent announcement about returning for the Masters, I wanted to take some time to think about how much Woods means to the game of golf. Ever since I was little, Woods has been The Guy. There was no one who could make the game as exciting to watch, let alone compete with him. Frankly, he was my idol. Then came that fateful Thanksgiving, when the world found out about the real Tiger. I was crushed. Don't get me wrong, I think Tiger's actions were despicable and he deserves every bit of hatred that the general population gives him. However, to this day, that isn't the Tiger Woods I see. I see the Tiger who made golf cool to watch. I see the Tiger who made me want to play.
For that reason, I was happy to see Tiger return to form following his public shaming. I was happy to see the PGA Player of the Year Tiger back on the course. However, it was obviously short lived. Now us golf fans are subjected to nonstop questions about whether or not Tiger will regain form.
This brings me to my point. It isn't just us Tiger fans that are rooting for a return to form. The PGA Tour needs it. Since Tiger has decline, and more recently not played, the game has failed to capture the casual fan. With that, the game is no longer growing. Kids just now seeing the game don't have someone to look up to like we did. Sure, we can hope for Ricky Fowler or Jordan Speith to take over as the "next Tiger", but who knows when we will see someone dominate at a level like Tiger did.
I enjoyed reading this post. i agree with a lot of what you are saying, I was also a fan of Tiger and have always been impressed with his career. I liked seeing Tiger back in the masters and he played well and was able to finish back to back days within the 60's.
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