NO golfer generates a stooshie quite like Tiger Woods. The global game may be revelling in the exploits of a bunch of young, talented, fearless competitors at the top of the tree but old Tiger continues to move more needles than the World Speed Knitting Championship.
Injuries and surgeries, comebacks and setbacks, a WD here or a DUI there? You name it, the golfing world will pore over it with the kind of forensic detail you get in a box set of Quincy DVDs.
His latest update the other night worked plenty of folk into a brow-mopping lather.
Asked on the eve of the Presidents Cup, where he is employed as a US vice-captain, whether it was possible he may never compete again, he said: “Yeah, definitely,” before adding that “I don’t know what my future holds.”
We’ve not seen the best of Woods for a long, long time but we’ve certainly glimpsed the worst of him. Once again everyone – including the man himself – is now asking “have we seen the last of him?”
Given the ravages inflicted on his body by years of pushing himself to the limit and beyond, and the subsequent surgical pokings, proddings and probings that have tried to repair the seemingly irreparable, there finally seems to be a realistic acceptance of his fate where once there was always defiance. If it is the end, then Rory McIlroy will afford him a rousing send-off. Like many of McIlroy’s generation, Woods was the inspiring figure who stirred the senses and fired the ambitions.
“Look, if he doesn’t play again, he’s been the greatest player that I’ve ever seen,” said McIlroy after making a decent start to his challenge in the British Masters yesterday with a three-under 67 at Close House.
“He probably played the greatest golf that anyone in my lifetime has seen. I didn’t really see Jack [Nicklaus] play. Jack has a better record but I don’t know if he played better golf.
“Only he knows whether he can do it and he’s taking it very slowly. I spent a bit of time with him over the past few months and he’s waiting on his doctors to tell him when he can do things again.
“He’s going to take their advice and not be maybe quite as stubborn as he was maybe back in the day.
“But if this is it, he doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. He can walk away from this game with his head held extremely high and he’s done wonders for this game.”
McIlroy continues to wind down his own season and the relatively carefree approach to proceedings brought its benefits.
“I feel like I’m not under any pressure to perform at all and that’s probably the reason why I shot a decent score,” he added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here