Now Is The Time To Start Appreciating Tiger Woods

As the old adage goes, anything becomes normal if it happens often enough, which is exactly what happened with our appreciation of Tiger Woods.

Throughout the past 12 years of his career, we have become accustomed to seeing Tiger Woods completely dominate the PGA Tour, and have therefore taken it for granted.

As Woods gets set to make the most anticipated return to the PGA Tour since Ben Hogan returned a year after a near fatal care accident, golf fans are beginning to come to grips with a humbling notion – Tiger Woods is not as young as he used to be and he won’t be around forever.

This past December, Tiger Woods turned 33 years old, which is hard to believe.

At 33 years old and having undergone four knee surgeries including a complete reconstruction of his ACL, we are beginning to realize just how fragile Woods’ incredible career is, and that it will inevitably not last forever.

When Tiger Woods shut it down for the year following his now legendary win at the 2008 US Open, many golf fans went running for the hills, television ratings plummeted and sponsors became edgy.

If Woods’ absence has taught us nothing else it has shown us just how central he is to the PGA Tour financial success and just how lucky we, as a generation, are to be witnessing Woods’ career.

We read books and see footage of past greats such as Bobby Jones, Babe Ruth or Johnny Unitas and say to ourselves “wow, I wonder what it would have been like to see them play”.

Well, it is time for us to wake up and smell the roses.  

Right now, we should all be considering ourselves lucky to have been given the opportunity to watch a golfer who is virtually assured to go down as the greatest to ever pick up a club.

We are watching a player who is a step above and beyond legends such as Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones and Johnny Unitas.

You see, players such as Ruth, Jones and Unitas could be considered ‘arguably’ the greatest players of all-time, whereas Tiger Woods is easily on pace to become the undisputed greatest golfer of all-time, which is extremely rare in any sport in any era.

How many people alive right now can sit there and say that they saw the undisputed greatest player of all time in any sport?

Not many.

Tiger Woods’ absence, though clearly detrimental to the PGA Tour, could have actually created the perfect atmosphere for the tour to thrive even more upon his return.

As Woods gets a little older and golf fans have gotten a small glimpse at what the PGA Tour would be like without him, something interesting has begun to happen.

Despite 14 majors and 65 PGA Tour wins, it has taken a glimpse into life without Tiger Woods as if we have been visited by the ghost of PGA Tour future to make us actually start appreciating the magnitude of what we are watching every time Woods tees up a golf ball.

If you are a young man like me, one day your children and grandchildren will be hounding you for stories about the legendary Tiger Woods.

Folks, we have been given an opportunity that very rarely comes along in the history of any sport; we have been given the opportunity to witness with our own eyes a player who will wind up being the most legendary player the game of golf has ever seen.

We have seen what life would, of course, one day will be like without Tiger Woods playing on the PGA Tour.

Now, it is time to sit back and enjoy the next ten years of Woods’ career, as you will almost surely never get another opportunity to witness what you are about to see.