Tiger in the Woods

Get it, Tiger in the Woods? Really it’s not about Tiger in the woods, as much as its about not seeing the forest for the trees.

Listen up. We have a fabulous opportunity here. We can rise above our lowlife selves and let the media and the world know that what Tiger does in the woods of his house is not our business. If he rammed a golf cart into the clubhouse at the U.S. Open after being chased by Jack Nicklaus because he moved his ball an eighteenth of an inch on the eighteenth green one stroke shy of losing to Jack just as dusk was setting in so it went unnoticed, then we would be entitled to be a part of his drama. But this situation, one that no one expected from the likes of the man who can focus better than a computer chip, has left those of us who expected he had the same championship personal life as he had in his professional life reeling.

So, let’s reel on down the highway, out of his space and let him and his wife figure out their future without us.

That said, can we discuss the word assumption? There is that stupid saying, “to assume is to make an ass out of you and me.” Whatever.

I hate that I assumed he had it all together because he wins on the golf course. I hate that I can never watch him again with the same awe that his life is better than mine; that the parenting that seemed to be the strong suit of his parents and something that I yearned to have as my own, must have had some sort of flaw. I hate that the lovely hugs with wife and children when he wins might just be for show, and mostly I hate that maybe they aren’t just for show but I will never believe it again.

So, Tiger hasn’t let us down. We have let him down. We are not entitled to his private life becoming part of his public life. We must reject it. I will not read one more article about it. I will turn the channel if it’s on TV, and most of all, I will try and watch that black or red shirt on the course and the fabulous way he masters the clubs in his hands without the benefit of knowing what went on in the privacy of his home the night before.