Tiger Woods: Love Him or Hate Him, He Is a Living Legend

I for one enjoyed watching and listening to the U.S. open today—especially at work. It was something magical to behold 18 holes of golf, only to have one more hole added to what was an amazing day for golf and sports alike.

Rocco Mediate played a great round, and could have won it just like he lost it.  Up and down, back and forth it went.

"Truly," I said to myself, "this must be some of the greatest golf in history." 

I will be the first one to admit that I love watching Tiger Woods play. His style is unmatchable by anyone around. Though he carries with him an "aura of invincibility," we saw this weekend he is very much human.

Tiger is human. This can be determined scientifically in many different ways, but as humans we can tell in many different ways. We saw him react in ways we had never seen before. We saw him struggle with physical pain with his knee. We saw the grimacing on his face after he would hit the ball.

We saw so much that it only adds to his already legendary performance in his professional career. And the most compelling act of all was seeing him with his daughter after he had won the U.S. Open.

There is another aspect that I enjoy most about Tiger. He maybe the toughest competitor on the field, but after its over, he is a gentleman. We saw him joke around with the man that tried to take his thunder away only a few minutes ago.

"He’s finally healthy and when Rocco’s healthy, he’s a hell of a player. It’s just he hasn’t been healthy in years, so now he’s finally able to swing the way he can swing and look at the results. This is what he can do when he’s healthy," said Tiger of Rocco.

It's something that most people cannot understand unless you are out there competing with another person in a pressure situation. That is the best thing about golf, that I love so much. 

And now you maybe wondering, "What do I care?" 

I tell you dear reader that this is history. I try to be an avid golfer, and I wish I could play at the level the pros do, but I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this era I am witnessing. I would love to go back and have seen all the other greats in golf (Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nickalus to name a few) and how they played against others.

I would have loved to seen how the average fan's reaction to them would have been. Would it be the same to Tiger now? Did more people admire or loathe those stars back in the day? Did their competitors feel the same as the fans? All these questions, and yet I only have a small window to see the answers through. 

This is why, love him or hate him, Tiger is what he is today. Witness the level of play my fellow readers. This may not happen again in the sport for a long time to come.