View from the Cheap Seats is kind of an extension of the newsroom. Whenever our three regular reporters, Calvin Daniels, Thom Barker and Randy Brenzen are in the building together, it is frequently a site of heated debate. This week: Is Tiger Woods finished as a professional golfer?
Massive fall
I honestly cannot think of a greater sports fall from grace than Tiger Woods and it has nothing to do with his disgrace following revelations of sleeping with prostitutes.
Obviously, there are some more spectacular falls from grace. Lance Armstrong, O.J. Simpson, Pete Rose and Michael Vick come to mind, but for different reasons. In terms strictly of being the best at something and then sucking, Tiger is king.
Even Brett Favre doesn’t hold a candle because he never should have come out of retirement. He was too old to play football any more. Tiger should still have some good years left in him.
Tiger’s irrelevance became official this year when, after 14 years, EA Sports’ Tiger Woods Golf video game became Rory McIlroy Golf.
Since then, the greatest golfer of his generation, who had been cruising to greatest golfer ever, missed the cut at two major tournaments back-to-back for the first time in his career.
Also this year, he has missed three cuts in total, also first time in his career. Currently, the man who holds the record for most consecutive weeks as world number one (281) and the cumulative record (683) is ranked 226th in the word. And that fall despite the fact he last held the top ranking only a little over a year ago.
There was a time, not that long ago, if you had told me Tiger Woods would not hold all the significant records in golf by the end of his career, I would have laughed.
There are only two he needs, Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors and Byron Nelson’s 18 wins in one season. The latter doesn’t really count because the tour has changed so much it’s simply not achievable in the modern game.
Is a comeback possible? Well, anything is possible, but I’d say it is remote at this point. Jack, I think your record is safe.
-Thom Barker
Hardly biggest fall
Is Tiger Woods fall from grace the greatest of falls?
Hardly!
Ben Johnson holds that honour given it was a meteoric rise to the heights winning an Olympic gold medal in the 100-metres, and an even faster fall having that medal striped as a result of drug use.
Within a short time Johnson was relegated to racing a horse in a gimmick race, and was poster boy for Olympic drug use at a time when one’s gut suspects he was among the many, nit the few doing it.
Then there is Barry Bonds who popped more home runs than anyone in major league baseball history, but has been unofficially banned from the Hall of Fame by baseball writers who vote in inductees. Yes the same writers who had to be aware of rampant steroid use in the game but never wrote the stories; not about the players using, or the trainers and coaches who could not have been so naive not to have known.
There are other examples of big falls, leaving Woods as just another fading sport star..
Woods has won 14 majors in golf, and is still playing a game as a career. Is that a fall?
Sure he missed the cut in back-to-back events for the first time in his career with an early exit in the British open on the weekend.
That though is less a fall from grace and the reality of a golfer whose skills have eroded. Yes, the erosion may be because of off-course issues and distractions, but ultimately he’s just not that great anymore.
And sadly, like a long list of boxers, he keeps trying rather than fading with dignity into retirement.
- Calvin Daniels
On the fence
Has there been a greater fall from grace than that of Tiger Woods?
I’m sure there has been, but maybe not in the world of sports.
I mean, the Aaron Hernandez story comes close, but only at a glance. Dig deeper and you’ll find that Hernandez really was just a completely terrible person that had big time brushes with the law before his most prominent criminal charges (namely, murder).
So Hernandez’s character rules him out of any ‘fall from grace’ competitions.
Historically there has been, namely when it comes to cultures, civilizations and cities, but that is hundreds, even thousands, of years ago.
In the current day and age, Tiger’s fall from grace is trumped by absolutely nothing.
At one point he was adored by many, loved by many and envied by many.
He had sponsorships, a beautiful wife, fame, the best caddy in the sport of golf and he was the most successful and dominant golfer in the world.
He also had an affair (affairs, more like it).
And that’s where his downward spiral began.
Now he’s single, he’s infamous; he lost his caddy, his sponsorships and his mistress.
Oh, and his golf game is about as good as Brent Gretzky’s hockey game.
He’s still incredibly wealthy of course, but I bet he feels… Well, probably like he’s incredibly wealthy. But with a tinge of regret.
Maybe?
- Randy Brenzen
