No athlete since Michael Jordan has captivated the world like Tiger Woods. I have an outsider looking in view on sports lately. It wasn't always that way, but for the past few years I've been anything but your typical sports fan. It's rare for me to become excited about particular athletes. I get way more excited about artists. I'm the kind of person who is more likely to become drawn to a painter I find intriguing than a star athlete. I find that the greatest art lives forever, and the creative spirit lasts a lifetime. Compare this to athletes who have a short and exciting career only to be left 'grazing in the pasture, waiting to die', as Jordan put it in a recent interview. Indeed, I am much more interested in say film makers than sports figures, in men and women who can have the prime of their careers stretch over the entire course of their lifetimes. That is, unless of course, we're talking about Tiger woods.
TW is the big exception for me. Everything about the man fascinates me. His persona, his focus, his swing and often the many problems with it, his ability to come through in the most crucial of moments, and yes his recent sex scandal(s). I want to dedicate this blogspot to the shameless overhyping of this absurdly famous mortal. I want to analyze and perhaps over analyze everything from his inner mental torments to his outer physical condition. I want to meditate on how changing your sex life MUST have a massive impact on your mental approach to a game as deeply mental as golf. I want to understand the man now that his life has irrevocably been altered, to know the new Tiger that has been forced to 'tone it all down a bit.' His public image has been damaged, but I'm not writing to be another pundit ripping his character flaws. I'm writing to bring a fresh look at what it takes to dominate, and how perhaps dominating many... many... relationships and being as sexually active as he was active on the golf course was perhaps a crucial piece of the psychological puzzle that allowed Tiger to defeat so many athletes of a similiar skill level to his own in the moment they all envision and prepare for the most.
As the Masters approach this March, I will get more and more involved in bringing the hype. Hyping out his return in current media fashion. Making sure that every little angle has been analyzed. Will his new sex life allow him to continue being the ruthless competitor unstifled by even the harshest of adversity? Or, will his new, more mellow spin on life and relationship forever damper his ability to crush opponents in the clutch and love doing it? Golf is a complex psychological game that has a lot to do with ALL of your life. The reason Tiger was able to downright steal tournaments from other competitors I'm sure involved a deep psychological story. A chess match one plays with one's own soul. It will be exciting to see if the greatness inside of Tiger can continue regardless of the new lifestyle... Only time will tell.
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