Tiger Woods Fiasco Drowned Dreams of Epic Year In Sports History

I am far from a golf junkie or a links diehard, but I consider myself at least a moderate golf fan if not an above-average one. No, you won’t find me all giddy about the possibilities of a Rory Mcilroy, Padraig Harrington final pairing at the Deutsche Bank Championship, but give me Paddy and Philly Mick at Bethpage Black and I’m there.

Off the top of my head, I couldn’t tell you the last Tour win for Vijay Singh; why Ernie Els was abducted by aliens (wait, you’re telling me he wasn’t?); or how John Daly thinned out by crushing Diet Cokes and cigs like it’s his job.

But I have a handle on the basics. You play golf, you don’t “go golfing.” This isn’t horseback riding.

You are required to be genuinely infuriated when you play double-bogey golf, as if you earned the right to expect average play from yourself by hitting balls once every six months.

At least one time during the round, you must stare down an approach shot that, midway through its flight, appears like it will land between 12 and 126 feet from the cup and holler, “Be right, ball!” Or, “Down, baby!” Everybody has the buddy that will then hit you with the “that’s what she said” joke, but that’s just part of the spectacle.

I’ll join you for all of the major championships in any given year plus probably a half-dozen, or so, other events. For anyone with a hint of American pride, the Ryder Cup is always a beauty.

Those are my loosely defined parameters for consuming golf. Unless, of course, there is an event or story that has legendary potential and captures the imagination of all sports fans, not just Bagger Vance.

Which brings us to this Tiger Woods story that continually feeds the airwaves.

I’m not here to give counseling advice or to say when Woods should come back to the PGA Tour. I’m not here to run off the list of women who have claimed to have been with Tiger, nor am I even a bit interested in guessing what will happen between Tiger and his wife and their personal lives.

Their business, not mine, don’t care.

Oh, I’ve heard it all. People Magazine has representatives saying that Elin Woods is going to split with her husband. The New York Times ran a report that connected Woods, and other athletes, to an allegedly dirty 50-year-old doctor who injects himself weekly with HGH so he can “keep up with his 28-year-old wife.”

Infidelity, human growth hormone, crooked doctors…yawn. I think we got it. I sincerely hope Woods resolves his personal issues and then returns to the course so he can continue to inspire young kids to play golf. Say what you want about the man, but Woods will still be brilliant on the course, and that excellence is what he owes to society. His endorsement dollars require him to be a champion.

So, naturally, the saddest part of all of this is the lives that have been tarnished, the marriage that has possibly been broken, and the reality that two young kids will most likely be forced to ask mom and dad when they get a little older, “What happened?”

But none of those things involve you or me. With Woods’ personal conundrum aside, have you stopped to think about what type of year 2010 could be for golf? Sure, there is a chance that Woods’ leave of absence from golf will be a sustained one. If he does return, the piranhas will be after him. How much of the attention will be about golf? I have no idea.

Wrap your mind around a few things for a second: Tiger is four majors away from tying Jack Nicklaus with 18 all-time; the first three majors of next year are at three of golf’s most historic venues, which just happen to be courses Tiger has dominated in the past; we could potentially witness one weekend in August that not only reconstructs the annals of golf history, but rewrites the legacy of golf’s biggest superstar, hero, and villain all on the same canvas. Yikes.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, I have been frothing at the mouth for a weekend in April that is five months away. I’m never like this when it comes to golf. Golf is like Labor Day for me. It creeps up on me, I enjoy the day off, and then it is gone.

I can’t get over the potential of 2010, and it is gnawing at me because, as each day passes, the likelihood of this parade every getting out of the gate decreases.

But lets assume Tiger returns for The Masters, and lets play this out real quick if only for laughs.

Tiger strolls back to golf in April as the most determined athlete of this decade and conquers an Augusta National track for the fifth time in his career. Determined to redeem himself, repair what’s left of his image, and return some semblance of normalcy to his life, Woods laps the field.

Cue up the most picturesque landscape in the sport for the United States Open in mid-June. Woods won the first of his three U.S. Opens at Pebble Beach in 2000. By 15 strokes.

History will tell you that Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez were the runners-up, but I beg to differ. There were no runners-up. There was the U.S. Open, and then there was the Tournament For The Second Place Check. Woods has seen Pebble perked up to U.S. Open regulations. We don’t need to get creative to believe he could win there again.

As if those riches aren’t enough, we get the British Open at St. Andrews, too? Yep, the Open Championship returns to The Royal and Ancient, the same place where Woods beat Colin Montgomerie by five strokes in 2005. Woods is a history buff, think he wouldn’t get up for this?

With three down, we head to Whistling Straits in August. This would be Tiger’s toughest test. With the pressure of completing the Grand Slam and locking arms with Nicklaus all wrapped into the same four days, Woods would return to the course where he nearly missed the cut at the 2004 PGA Championship. And, my oh my, what a weekend that would be.

Is any of this likely? The answer lies somewhere between “no” and “hell no.” If someone told me this was going to happen next year, I’d subsequently ask if they have been snorting coffee grounds. It’s the dream of all dreams.

But as sports fans, don’t we sometimes have to dream the unimaginable and think the unfathomable? For Woods to win three straight times at three of golf’s most pristine homes and then go after Nicklaus’ record all in the same year is ridiculous. That’s fantasyland stuff.

The ongoing circus will take another turn soon, I’m sure, and our imaginations will be snapped back to reality.

But for us fans, here’s to hoping for a chance to live one of the most remarkable years in not only golf, but sports. 

You can reach Teddy Mitrosilis at [e-mail].