Tiger Woods Finally (Yes, Finally!) Let Me Down

Tiger Woods has let me down. I know, quite the shocking statement.

I grew up watching Tiger Woods. I grew up rooting for him because he was the greatest at what he did. I grew up practicing putting in my living room, telling myself that I was putting against Woods for the 2015 Masters title.

This was the man I put all my faith in, the person I thought would never, never let me down.

Well, he did.

No, he did not let me down because he cheated on his wife. No, he did not let me down because he brought embarrassment upon himself and his family. And no, he did not let me down because his apologies seemed to lack heartfelt meaning and thought when he did apologize.

He did not let me down by doing these things because his moral compass is not why I loved the man. His relationship with his wife was not why I said to myself, “I want to be Tiger Woods when I grow up.” I could not care less about his morals.

Instead, Tiger let me down because he failed to win a tournament this year on the PGA Tour or any other tour.

Every year, I could always count on Tiger winning at least one tournament.

He let me down because he could not seem to hit a green as big as the ocean with a wedge. He let me down because he could not sink a putt if he were putting into paint buckets. He let me down because he hit drives so high that I thought they were going to enter orbit.  He let me down, because his game let him down.

I will be the first to admit that I watched every moment of the Chevron World Challenge. I was rooting for Tiger to win from the moment his first drive was airborne. And yeah, I will be the first to admit that I was hoping Graeme McDowell would miss his putt on the 18th green and again on the first playoff hole.

But that is not because I root against McDowell like he is the current day Colin Montgomerie.

I wanted McDowell to miss because I wanted my sense of normalcy back. I wanted to see Tiger give us one of his famous fist pumps. I wanted to see Tiger give Stevie Williams a hug. I wanted to see what I saw as a child: Tiger Woods atop the leaderboard at the end of a Sunday afternoon. I wanted to continue to tell everybody that Tiger Woods has never let me down.

Well, he finally did.