Tiger Woods Personal Life: Is It All Relevant to the Game Of Golf?

Tiger Woods—the man everyone had always known as loyal, committed, and determined.

If someone was to use those words to describe Tiger now, they would be laughed at as if they were a stand-up comedian. After the adultery incident occurred, almost everyone around the world, who didn't know about Tiger Woods, knew all they could ask for about Tiger's personal life. 

That was 10 months ago. I know how big of an issue this topic is with golf fans and Tiger (which arguably are the same people), but how long before we let him get back to what he has always done best? For those of you whose imaginations are floating, I was implying his "golf game." 

I have been a long-time, dedicated fan of golf, watching as many tournaments as I possibly can every single year, but this year was a little bit different.

With all the "Tiger drama," I have become more and more interested in the "off" days of the week (Monday-Wednesday). These days are when golf analysts, average Joe's, professional golfers, and TV announcers can weigh in with their opinions. Also on these days there are tournament previews, player profiles, and my favorite of all, press conferences. Press conferences in the past have been golf time, tournament time, and now for Tiger, personal time. 

The amount of hassling that has occurred, even now, with Tiger's personal life, is in my opinion, ridiculous. If you watch any other player's press conference before a tournament, you don't see questions being asked like, "Can you give us some insight on your wife and kids? How is your sex life going? If your kids love you?" All those questions are irrelevant to all the players—except one. 

But the question is, is all of this relevant to fans of the golf game, or fans of golf players' personal lives?

Tiger Woods is arguably the reason that golf has even become remotely popular—not his personal life. If anyone calls themselves a golf fan, they can remember The Masters in 1997, only nine months into his professional career, Woods tore up Augusta National to win by 12 Strokes with an impressive 18 under par. Or, there's Pebble Beach in 2000 where Tiger was leading by 10 strokes after his third round—even par 71.

Sunday afternoon, he was quoted before teeing off, "I want to go out and play bogey free round of golf." Then came a 20-foot putt on the 16th hole for par, and Tiger, in winning fashion, slipped the putt into the right edge of the hole.

The biggest example, of how much of a competitor Tiger Woods is, came in the facial expression he gave after he made that putt. He was 15 strokes in the lead at the U.S. Open, in his third year as a professional, and he gave this look as if he had two more holes to prove he was the greatest player in golf history. He did it—a bogey-free, 4 under par 67, to win by an insurmountable 15 strokes with a score of 12 under. 

THAT is who Tiger Woods is. Deep down, he is a true competitor. He does not enter a tournament if he does not believe he will win. At one point in Tiger's career, every tournament he entered, he had a 33% chance of winning it in a field of 180 players. 

But what has Tiger become?

He grew up with his father, later saying his father Earl was his best friend. Earl was a man who cheated on his wife, an Ex-Green Beret, and a man who was stern yet very soft on the ladies. It is not hard to see how Tiger could have done what he did, when you look at his past.

What can we expect from Tiger right now? Has the public become more concerned with his personal life over the golf game? 

Like I said, I am a die-hard golf fan. I want to see golf at its exciting moments, and almost always, that has happened when Tiger Woods is on top of his game. Everyone knows too much about his personal life and too little about the game of golf. IMO, we should focus on the game that we love, and if you want to see Tiger get prosecuted about his personal life, try a channel other than the Golf Channel.