Tiger Woods

If you didn't already know what a huge figure he is, bigger than any other athlete in the world right now, and that includes Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo and Muhammad Ali, all you needed to do was watch SportsCenter or PTI or any of the sports shows yesterday.... On the morning and afternoon after Boston won it's 17th NBA Title, Tiger Woods led all of the news shows. Even the opinion shows like PTI or ATH started with Tiger rather than lead with the newest NBA Champions. That is absolutely saying something, and it says a lot.

But here's the news, and I'll recap it quickly because for some reason or another people seem to be a little confused on what exactly happened to Tiger...

Last June he was jogging after the British Open and tore his ACL. He knew he would eventually need surgery, but wanted to put it off. Since that injury Tiger won the PGA, came in 2nd at the Masters, and of course won the US Open. He also won the Buick, the Dubai, the Match Play and the Arnold Palmer. All with a torn ACL.

Then, 3 weeks ago, while rehabbing that ACL, he suffered 2 stress fractures in his tibia. His doctor told him 3 weeks on crutches, and then 3 weeks of inactivity. Tiger said no, said he was going to play in and win the US Open, and this precisely what he did.

So before we even address or look at what him being out for the year means, let's look at what he did. It's been said before and I will say it again, the guy won the US Open on one leg. On top of that, he played an EXTRA round on Monday, walked over 20 miles, and torqued his hurt knee countless times on those power drives.

During the US Open on Father's Day Nike kept running its commercial with old home video of Tiger Woods with Earl Woods narrating, and he kept talking about how mentally tough Tiger Woods is, and how he will never encounter anybody as tough mentally as he is... and he was absolutely right. Earl Woods may have been wrong about some things--such as Tiger being faster than Michael Johnson, et cetera--but he was certainly right about his mental toughness.

It certainly takes some physical toughness to fight through the pain that he was in, but more than anything for Tiger it is a mental thing. He decided he was going to win, set his mind to it, and he went about and achieved it. Obstacles be damned.

I've said this before and I will say it again, as hyperbolic as this sounds, forget the sports world, I've never seen anybody as determined or capable at their chosen field than Tiger Woods. He is the best I've seen at anything, ever. He truly is. And as I discussed on Monday, some of that is athletic blessings, some of that is his father, and some of it is just plain good luck, but more than all of those things combined is his overall drive to win and to be the best. And then not only to be the best, but to hurdle over the bar that he has raised to such heights. I'll say it again, Tiger Woods has made himself, in my opinion, the greatest athlete of all time, and I'm honestly not sure it's that close.

This US Open was just another chapter in his story. Just like winning the Masters by a record margin was a chapter, and like winning the US Open by a ridiculous 15 strokes in 2000 was a chapter, and redoing his swing twice was a chapter, and losing his father and then becoming a father was a chapter, and just like becoming the first billion dollar athlete will be a chapter, as will becoming the first 2 billion dollar athlete, and Major Championships 18 and 19 and 20 will all be chapters. This is just another chpater in an absolutely mind boggling story, and I can't overstate enough how lucky we are all to be able to experience it with him, even if it's just through our TVs.

And despite what some people may be saying right now due to the injury, that story is far from over. But before we get to what's next for Tiger Woods. Let's address what this means for the rest of golf.

Will ratings go down? Certainly. Will people be less interested in the Majors or the FedEx or anything for the rest of the year? Clearly. But does it give the sport a major opportunity? I think it absolutely does, and it does it in a way that could not happen if Tiger were playing. And here's how.

Whether its Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson or Sergio or Justin Leonard or Geoff Ogilvy or a young player like Ryoji Imada or Anthony Kim or whomever, if one of these players can step up and win a major, or maybe even both, can win the FedEx and if one guy, not a group of guys, not a even 2 or 3 guys, but if one guy can step up and dominate the tour in Tiger's absence, then that makes the Tour that much more interesting when Tiger comes back.

I don't necessarily think this will happen. In fact, my guess is nobody will win more than 2 tournaments the rest of the year and the FedEx Cup will probably be close ... But if I'm wrong, and one player does truly step up and up his confidence and make it clear that when Tiger isn't around there is a different golfer that can dominate the tour, then the sport would be better off for it.

No single player can dominate the Tour or dominate the media attention when Tiger is playing. Nobody can do it. But when he is out, there is a chance, and because we know for certain he is out until the end of the year, the door does get pushed a little open for somebody to step up. I doubt it will happen, but if it does it could just be an excellent development for the Tour and for the sport.

OK... so now that we have addressed what happened before and leading up to Tiger's injury and we've discussed what could happen while he's gone, let's talk about what will happen once Tiger gets back.

First of all let me say this. Is there a chance that something will go wrong with the surgery? I suppose that there is a chance, along the lines of if there is an earthquake in the area during the surgery. But as far as the surgery going poorly, unless quite literally it is an act of god, I don't see how it could possibly go anything but perfectly.

Maybe this is an obvious point but I think it needs to be made, Tiger Woods will quite literally have THE BEST surgeon's IN THE WORLD working on his knee. That's not an exageration, whoever is the absolute best knee surgeon the world knows will be working on Tiger's knee. It will take place at the best facility there is and the doctor will have all of the available resources at his side. I truly mean this, absent an act of god, the surgery will go perfectly.

OK... so now that we have addressed that question, the remaining question, which is probably a fair one, is do we know if after having his knee repaired it will work the same, or will it forever hamper him and deteriorate. We dont know that. I tend to believe with Tiger's work ethic and with his unbelievable drive, his rehab will be nearly perfect and he should be back to just about 100% in a year's time. But, that is something we dont know. We don't know if Tiger's knee will respond the way it should, or if he will have a setback or whatever. So there is some questions about whether or not he will be as dominant again as he already has been. That is a legit question.

But what I will tell you is not a legit question is whether or not now is it a question that Tiger will beat Jack's 18 majors. I say this with the utmost sincerity. There could be that earthquake during the surgery, and he could never gain full motion in his knee back, and arthritis could set in, and he could be bedridden for months... and Tiger would still get 5 more Majors. And that's where that mental toughness comes into play.

Tiger's biggest goal, his entire life, has been to get to Jack's 18 Majors. And now he can sniff it. And I don't care what injuries he suffers, and I don't care if that knee never fully recovers... Tiger Woods will pass Jack Nicklaus, even if he has to do it purely on smarts and guile and mental toughness. If he needs to only play Majors, and scout out the Major Championship courses months ahead of time, he will. If he can only hit irons and doesnt have the strength to hit drives, he will learn how to do that, and win. Tiger Woods, in my opinion, can quite literally will himself to victory. How do I know this? We saw him do it this past weekend. He had no business winning that Tournament, but he wouldn't let himself lose and that's why he didn't.

And that's why that putt on 18 on Sunday is now even more amazing. He knew that he was damaging his knee, he knew he should have shut it down months ago, had the surgery, and started rehabbing. And he knew the one reason that he didn't do that was because he wanted to win this particular tournament. And while he knew all of that, he also knew that if he missed that putt, it was all for nought. It would be a second place for a man who has no use for second place, and he would have sacrificed the rest of the Majors for this year, the FedEx Cup and the 10 Million that accompanies it, all of that, for nothing. Yet he was able to channel all of that into his focus, and make that putt. And I say it's more amazing, but as Dan Hicks said on the call on Sunday, could you expect anything different?
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