Tiger Woods, the world’s first billionaire athlete and golf’s Player of the Year (in more ways than one), is taking an indefinite leave from the sport, presumably to try to save his marriage and get his mind right.
How long will he be away?
My response is one borrowed from the Baptist church in which I was reared:
“How long? Not long.”
I believe Tiger will return to the pro tour at the Arnold Palmer Invitational,
Not only is the Palmer Invitational played in Tiger’s backyard, it is also staged on a course he loves.
How much does Tiger love Arnie’s tournament? He’s won it six times, including each of the last two years.
On the Palmer Invitational Web site, it says, “Watch Tiger Woods defend his title at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in
We know Tiger isn’t talking publicly to anyone these days—not even to a former journalist-turned-TV icon named Oprah—but don’t think Tiger would allow Palmer, one of his golfing idols, to use his name to sell tickets for the 2010 event without giving a tacit commitment to appear.
Playing in Arnie’s tournament makes perfect sense for Tiger because it comes two weeks before The Masters, the first Grand Slam event of 2010.
Tiger would be doing the legendary Palmer a favor by making his 2010 debut in
Tiger could then spend the next two weeks fine-tuning his game for The Masters, April 8-11, at the Augusta National Country Club.
Tiger is first and foremost a golfer. That is what made him great.
Not his personality. Not his charisma. Not even his supposed sexual voracity despite what we’ve heard from the publicity-seeking women identified as his “alleged mistresses.”
Tiger became a legend, a sought-after pitchman and a billionaire at the tender age of 33 because of his prowess in golf.
And what motivates Tiger is the chance to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 Grand Slam titles.
Tiger has 14. And, remember, he did not win a major in 2009.
(Given what we know now about his serial adultery, it is easy to see why he failed to win a major.)
It’s impossible for me to believe that Tiger would now take an entire year off, no matter how much he may want to repair his marriage.
A champion athlete does not sit out a year during the prime of his career unless he is forced to, as was Muhammad Ali after being stripped of his world heavyweight title and prevented from boxing for 3-1/2 years during the 1960s.
Although Ali recaptured the heavyweight crown twice after his return, he was never as great again.
Michael Jordan was not quite the same either after 1-1/2 years away from basketball to play minor-league baseball, his three additional NBA titles notwithstanding.
I have never met Tiger, but through his public statements he has always impressed me as a student of sports history.
Hence, there is no way he stay away from the sport he loves for a full year and allow his skills to atrophy, thereby ceding the world No. 1 ranking to, say, Phil Mickelson and endangering his chances of breaking Nicklaus’s record.
Take away all of Tiger’s non-golf endorsement deals and he’ll live.
But take away golf for an extended period and Tiger would not be able to function.
So like the azaleas in full bloom on Amen Corner at Augusta National, Tiger will be back in the spring, and we will not be able to take our eyes off him.
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