Share this
Mister Wong
Digg
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Googlize this
Blinklist
Facebook
Wikio
Hear this text
Print
E-mail
Tags
Swing alone will not do it for Tiger WoodsWill he, or won’t he… and why he needs to – these three phrases are synonymous with Tiger Woods and whether he will return to professional golf and the Grand Slam hunt in 2010. Will he play professional golf at all, as warm-up or fine-tuning exercises before the US Masters tournament in April? Or will he not feature at all in the first six months of 2010, or even the entire season?
The third phrase, “why he needs to”, refers to the necessity of Woods embarking on a form of advanced lifeskills training in order to save his legacy as a role model and an icon.
But let us recap the factors that have forced Woods, the number-one golfer in the world, to take an indefinite break from the game.
Several women have been linked romantically to the married billionaire golfer, whose private life has come under the glare of public scrutiny since he crashed his car in late November last year.
Woods was taken to hospital on 27 November after hitting a fire hydrant and a tree, two days after a tabloid reported he was having an affair with New York club hostess, Rachel Uchitel. Uchitel publicly has denied the affair.
The crash prompted cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs, 24, to come forward with a voicemail as evidence of an alleged 31-month relationship. The recording features a man, who sounds like Woods, asking Grubbs to destroy evidence that may link the two.
The slew of sex scandals forced Woods to announce a break from the game in December. He stunned the golfing world by announcing a hiatus in professional play and admitting, for the first time, to being unfaithful to his wife – former model, Elin Nordegren.
"I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children," the married father of two said in a statement on his website.
"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father and person," said Woods.
According to former Masters champion Sandy Lyle, Woods’ chances of returning to action in time for the first major of 2010 look grim. Woods won the first of his 14 major championships at Augusta in 1997.
Lyle thinks the challenge of breaking the record of 18 majors won by Jack Nicklaus will help him get his career back on track.
Butch Harmon, a former coach of Woods, believes the world number one could return to golf in March. "Those who say he won't play again are crazy," Harmon said in an interview with "Sky Sports".
"If you want to put a timetable on it, I'd say you may see him in Florida before the US Masters (in April)."
A factor that could see Woods returning sooner rather than later, is that 2010 presents a great opportunity for him to move closer to the elusive record held by Nicklaus because of the venues at which the majors are being played.
“If Tiger is going to pass my record, this is a big year for him in that regard,” Nicklaus said in an interview with "The New York Times".
Woods has won 14 majors, with half of them coming at three of the courses that will host Grand Slam events in 2010.
However – and this is where the phrase “why he needs to" is relevant – he needs to reassess his legacy and his character as a man, as well as the way in which he returns.
Harmon believes that Woods must risk the humiliation and embarrassment of a full and frank news conference over his infidelities before he can get on with his life.
The need for Woods to do some soul searching and reassess his legacy, was never better illustrated than in a recent article in the "Montreal Gazette", in which the editor wrote: “Someone wrote to me yesterday to say that 'we' have torn down the icon that is Tiger Woods.
“Nothing could be more wrong. 'We' might have built Tiger Woods into the monster of ego and greed he has become, but 'we' had nothing to do with tearing him down.
“Woods did that himself, with his insatiable greed, his roving, relentless sexual appetite, his cynical use of his beautiful family as props to distract attention from what he was really doing," he wrote.
"In two or three years (if not sooner), most of this will be forgotten. Woods will be divorced, he'll have as many mistresses as he wants, he'll go back to winning majors, raking in millions and endorsing half the products on the planet.
“Why will he get away with it? Because sports fans want someone to worship, and the bottom line is that they don't care if the man inside is worse than Tony Soprano [the mafia boss from the television series, "The Sopranos")," he added.
“If you want to help your children find heroes in the world of sport, stick to figures like [footballer] Tony Dungy, [football coach] Marc Trestman, [quarterback] Anthony Calvillo, [footballer] Ben Cahoon, [ice hockey player] Jean Béliveau, [boxer] Otis Grant, [speed skater] Clara Hughes.
“Remind your children that when Hughes won her gold medal in Turin in 2006, she immediately donated $10 000 to Right to Play, the charity that attempts to help African children through sport," he wrote further.
“If Tiger Woods were to donate a comparable portion of his personal fortune, it would come to $200 million or more. But he won't do it. That is one reason he's not a hero. Never has been, never will be. Because for openers, if you're not a hero to your own family, you're nothing,” concluded the editor of the "Montreal Gazette".
All of the above explains why advanced lifeskills training could extend Woods’ shelf life as a professional golfer, and help him save face.
Recently, the lifeskills unit of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa won a tender to do a comprehensive lifeskills programme with 1 500 South African football players.
Lifeskills co-ordinator Gill Taylor explained that lifeskill gives someone the competency to cope with any challenge arising in sport and life in general.
It gives players coping mechanisms to deal with anything that life and the game could throw at you. It covers topics such as teamwork, leadership, communication and values, and conflict management.
Other topics such as sexuality, sexual harassment and successful relationships are also covered in the lifeskills programme.
Taylor added that when you ask top players in the world of football how much of their wins are due to physical talent, and how much to other things, they give you a 70/30 ratio, with physical talent accounting for 30%.
When you ask players if a screaming row with their girlfriend would impact on their performance, they would immediately agree that it would influence their performance severely. One simply cannot focus if one has other things on one's mind.
In the case of Woods, advanced lifeskills would be vital to focus his mind.
If he does not find a way to face the music in public, he may be known as the man who had the record of Nicklaus within his grasp, but failed virtually on the last hurdle because of lifeskills-related problems.
He may also be known as a great sporting champion but a failed hero, a potential icon who blew it because of his sexual misdemeanours.
And that would be a real tragedy…
