Running Tiger Woods thread

If WT's story is to be believed, why is TW trying to come back? If his back is that screwed up, along with his knee, why make the effort to play golf?
Because that's all he has? No. It makes him happy? No.
You screw up your back, you have issues for the rest of your life. So why is he trying to play?
He played five holes this week. And its reported he's shooting for Quail Hollow, while also having registered to play at Oakmont (though I'm reading a whole lot into that).
WT's story makes it seem like golf is no longer something TW enjoys or cares about. His heart's not in it. So why? I'm not sure that's a question that was answered.

 

But there is nothing he does like. The SEAL thing is over. What does he turn to? So, golf it is.

That's a lot of what Jordan was saying -- he better find something/someone else to get him through life or it's going to be a long 40 years.

 

It's a compulsion, an addiction. The history of sports is littered with great athletes chasing the high when it's obvious to everyone else they should stop.

 

Ir's obvious Woods never learned to "enjoy" anything. He's been programmed since he was a toddler.

 

That too.

 

On a related note, the best thing about this story for me is that it made an athlete I never had any sympathy for a sympathetic (and sad) figure. It humanized Tiger in a way that I don't think would have been possible if he had talked.

 

This is a stretch perhaps, but one thing Woods IS interested in besides playing golf is the golf business, particularly the marketing of the sport. His first course design down in Texas is aimed directly at new golfers. It's a field where he could be very effective even if he can't play anymore and it might kept him away from existential despair.

 

Wright got Jordan to open up for a piece timed for Jordan's 50th birthday.

OTL: Michael Jordan Has Not Left The Building

I don't know if Wright gathered the Tiger string during that time—totally possible, given how long he was working that story—or whether he went back to Jordan specifically to talk about Tiger. But Wright is a master of the parlay, which should be in every journalist's toolbox. His Masters story about his father got him in with Jack Nicklaus, for instance. Jordan gets him great stuff on Tiger. If you see a story in the future that you want to do, you can quietly peck away at it, double dipping in a way. Sometimes a big story will land and look like genius, and really it was just someone doing a little bit of work on something every day for a long time. Buster Olney's story on Mariano Rivera's broken bats is still my go-to example for that, even however many years later. (Just looked it up. 16 years ago!) That thing landed in press boxes across baseball like a bomb, but really it was a devoted, observant beat guy taking a few minutes during each series to do a little extra work.

BASEBALL 2000 PREVIEW; Rivera Tops in Broken Bats and Broken Hearts

 

I just assumed Jordan lost a golf bet to Wright.

 

Yeah, he's a golf nerd. ... But supposedly, he doesn't like or want to do PBP or color.
Is he going to end up with a GC show giving swing tips?
He's already doing design. He could never pick up a club again and still do design, based on his past performance. He's no Tom Fazio or Donald Ross, but a TW-design company will have a market for decades.

I don't believe that. He used to want to be anonymous; the scuba diving story (fish don't know Tiger Woods), then he wanted to be a SEAL. Again, if WT's story is to be believed, TW wants to be something other than what he is. He's rich enough to do that. He's got a relationship with his kids and his ex. I just don't see how WT's story meshes with TW's effort to come back and play.

 

No amount of money can make you someone you're not.