Almost two months ago, Tiger Woods announced that he would have reconstructive surgery on his knee and miss the rest of the 2008 PGA tour.
Oh, what a tail spin that announcement caused.
Media personnel across the board were screaming about the damage this would do to golf. You could almost feel announcers shaking in their boots while realizing they had to become knowledgeable about players with a name other than Tiger.
Although I knew the game of gold would survive, I must admit I was worried— based on a situation I had the privilege to watch play out personally at the most recent Masters.
Andres Romero from Argentina had an awfully long putt for eagle on the second hole that would’ve taken him from the fringes of contention to the middle of the dog fight on Sunday. All eyes were on Romero as he read the putt that could’ve jumped started his day and changed the course of the tournament.
Then, something that I simply couldn’t understand took place.
People began breaking their concentration on the putt and started straining their necks to look up the fairway. At first, it was just a few. But then a slight murmur began. Almost every fan began paying more attention to what was surfacing down the fairway than Romero's pivotal putt.
It wasn’t Tiger.
It was his ball, lying in the fairway.
People were more interested in seeing where Tiger’s drive landed and how good of a lie he had than watching a potential tournament changing putt. Romero's putt didn’t drop, but in that brief moment, it became painfully obvious to me how infatuated the golfing world had become with Woods.
I am in no way saying he doesn’t deserve it, because he is arguably the best there has ever been. I was just blown away with how desperate the gallery was for Tiger to appear.
In fact, if I would’ve closed my eyes immediately after seeing what was occurring and then heard a roar erupt from the fans, I would have been unable to tell if the Argentine drained the eagle putt or if Tiger finally appeared around the bend of the fairway.
So, when news broke that Tiger was hanging up his cleats for the rest of 2008, although I was not happy at all of his circumstance, there was a small part of me that was excited to see who— any single individual or the rest of the tour as a whole— could step up and fill the void.
Well, two majors later, I’m now as excited about golf as I have ever been.
The British Open and the PGA Championship were phenomenal. It was almost as if the golf gods gave the announcers an early Christmas present by having Greg Norman play the most excellent, but most unexpected, three rounds of his life. Seeing close ups of Norman eyeing a putt gave young viewers an explanation of why he’s acquired the nickname "The Shark".
And then, Padraig Harrington's domination of the British Open's final round with breathtaking shots that bordered between boldness and baffling reminded the golfing world that it’s still a beautiful game, with or without its best competitor.
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