The World’s Greatest

I wrote extensively in my first post on this blog about Tiger Woods’ amazing victory at the U.S. Open in 2008.  On this night, the eve of his return from surgery, I thought it would be pertinent to write a post about his career thus far.  Tiger Woods competes in a sport that rarely gets the publicity or attention of the NFL, MLB, NBA, or even NASCAR.  But Tiger has slowly changed that, at least for many people like me.  I will admit, I am a fan of the game of golf in and of itself.  I play golf (not well), and I cover the men’s and women’s golf teams for my university’s sports publicity department.  But until Tiger came along, I really did not enjoy watching golf.  Tiger makes the game of golf exciting.  When Tiger hits a huge putt and does his signature fist pump, I get jacked up, sitting in my room.  Perhaps what makes Tiger so exciting is his ability to hit amazing shots from impossible lies.  Tiger gets himself into trouble on the course more often than almost anyone else, but he also gets himself out of trouble better than anyone else.  For instance, to watch Tiger hit out of a fairway bunker from a different hole than the one he is playing, during the Monday playoff of the U.S. Open, and hit the ball on the green inside Rocco Mediates’ is unbelievable.  No one hits shots like that.  But perhaps more exciting then his ability to recover is his ability to come up with the big shot when he needs it.  I will give you two such examples.  At the U.S. Open on Saturday, Tiger was two strokes down heading into the final two holes.  Watch what he does:

No one puts together runs like Tiger does.  Watching that round live, I remember everyone was just waiting for Tiger to turn it on.  He had been struggling, but hanging around for two consecutive days, and the fans, announcers and other players were just waiting for Tiger to flip the switch.  Not because they wanted him to (though the fans and announcers certainly did), but because they expected him to.  When Tiger needs to turn it on, he somehow manages to do so, no matter how poorly he has been playing.  That Saturday it began on 13 when he sunk a huge eagle putt and culminated on 18 with an eagle and the outright lead heading into Sunday.  Speaking of outright lead’s perhaps Tiger’s most staggering statistic is the following: Woods has never lost a major heading into Sunday with at least a share of the lead and he has never lost any tournament when leading by more than one shot after 54 holes.  Woods gets out in front and he never looks back.  Not only that, but players crumble around him.  No other golfer and very few other athletes have had that kind of effect on their fellow competitors.

I could sit here and rattle off all of Tiger’s statistics and all the honors he holds, but there is a Wikipedia page for that (located here in case you were wondering).  Instead, I will another reason he is my all-time favorite athlete (perhaps in a tie for first with Michael Jordan but that is a discussion for another time).  For a man who portrays such a serious expression on the golf course, off the course he is a man with a sense of humor (or just someone who likes to get pay-checks, but I like to think he has a sense of humor).  Last year, Electronic Arts released their annual Tiger Woods video game, entitled Tiger Woods ’09.  Now, apparently there was a glitch written into the game where you could hit the ball into the water and still play it while walking on water.  Once this was discovered EA and Tiger released the following television advertisement:

While this advertisement is obviously EA’s attempt to cover its own butt for putting a glitch in the game, it is also proof that companies (and hopefully Tiger) have a sense of humor about these things.  If that advertisement didn’t convince you then I present the following ad of Tiger bloopers that Nike converted into a commercial

Tiger will return to competition tomorrow at the Accenture Match Play and the biggest question on everyone’s mind is how is he going to play?  Personally, I would not be surprised if he won the tournament and if not this one, one shortly hereafter.  Tiger won the U.S. Open on a torn ACL and a pair of stress fractures.  If that’s what he can do when he is grimacing and limping his way through five days of golf, then I would not want to be the rest of the PGA Tour after he has surgery to fix it.  In fact, Woods won four out of his last five events after tearing his ACL.  Nevermind, I would just retire now if I was the rest of the PGA Tour and watch Tiger rewrite the rest of the history books.  Tiger will break Nicklaus’s record of 18 majors and he will break Sam Snead’s record of 82 wins.  And to be quite honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if after this surgery he broke Byron’s record of 11 consecutive wins.  He has separate streaks of five, six, and seven, so who is to say he can’t get to 11 on a healthy knee.  To say Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer in the history of the sport is an understatement (no offense to Nicklaus, Palmer and Hogan all of whom I greatly respect), but Woods has dominated golf like Jordan dominated Basketball and like Phelp’s dominated swimming.  They are in a league of their own.  And if you don’t believe me, watch the following video. 

One last thing, enjoy tomorrow’s match play.  It could be the start of something special…again.

The Passion of Yale Athletics

The following is a response to an opinion piece that ran in the Yale Daily News last week (View Article Here).  I decided not to submit my response, and instead posted it here:

The interesting thing about the discussions of Yale athletics that have raged in the YDN’s opinion section over the last year is that no one seems to be able to hit on exactly what the real value of athletics at Yale is.  Some non-athlete submits a piece about how Yale athletics should be abolished or turned into something bigger, and then the athletes of Yale respond with their sometimes sarcastic, often insightful articles.  But, the one argument I have yet to hear clearly made, though it is there if you can get past the outrage and sarcasm, is the one that I think is most important: Yalies play sports because it is their passion. 

 It is often said that college football and basketball are much more exciting than their professional counterparts, since college athletes play for the love of the game.  But it is no secret that big time college sports programs generate huge streams of revenue for their universities, and that their athletes are essentially paid through scholarships.  And who is to say that those athletes are not simply playing because they intend on making a career of it.  Now, I do not mean to suggest that those athletes do not love their sports, simply that there are outside incentives as well.  The same could be said of high school athletics.  Many athletes play sports in high school because their school requires them to or because they think it will help them get into college. 

 Now tell me, what incentives are there for Yale athletes?  Sure some of them might not have gotten in to the university without sports (as Mr. Fulmer so eloquently stated last April), but what is to stop them from quitting the second they step on campus, nothing.  There is no risk of losing scholarship or financial aid money.  And sure a handful may be able to continue their sport at the next level, but those spots are reserved for the Righi’s, Lavarnway’s, and Lee’s of the university.  So again I ask, why do Yale athletes play sports here?  The answer is, truly, the love of the game.  I would argue that at no other level is the game played for pure passion, then at a university like Yale.

 Sure, Yale athletes do not have time for other extra-curriculars, but to say that is to miss the point.  They do not care.  Some students run around this campus involved in multiple activities never fully committing to one.  You would think that they would have learned their lesson from the numerous admissions talks they went to when applying to college.  “Don’t just fill your resume with activities, find one, maybe two things that you are passionate about, whatever they may be, and pursue them.”  Well guess what, that is exactly what Yale athletes are doing and that is exactly why they got admitted here.  They have found their passion and they will continue to pursue it for as long as they are students here, even if the only incentive for doing so is the simple love of the game.

So let’s once and for all put an end to these pointless discussions.  Yale athletics is not going to change regardless of how many opinion pieces show up in the YDN.  Yale athletics is here for the same reason academics, drama, music, and debate are here.  Everyone has their own passion and that is why people come to a place like Yale, to pursue it.