Roaring in the background
It's Monday afternoon, friends, so that's one day almost done, four to go until the next weekend rolls around!
As most regular visitors to this space know, I'm a big sports fan. Baseball, college (but not professional) basketball, football and, yes, professional golf all attract my attention.
I have to confess, despite friends who are definitely not on board, that I enjoy watching Tiger Woods play golf. And let me qualify that. I enjoy watching a HEALTHY Tiger Woods ply his craft on the golf course.
It's been really difficult for the last several years watching him endure one surgery after another (seven was the number I heard yesterday) over the years. There are lots of lists out there, but I believe the worst of this started after his astounding U.S. Open win at Torrey Pines in 2008, when he limped through a playoff round with Rocco Mediate and then had reconstructive surgery on a knee about a week later. He's since had at least four procedures designed to deal with chronic back issues, the most recent a fusion of vertebrae in his lumbar region.
But he's played a pretty full schedule of tournaments this year, appeared in all four major championships and was simply too far behind in yesterday's final round of the PGA Championship to catch eventual winner Brooks Koepka (who has won the U.S. Open the last two seasons).
I'll acknowledge that the media fascination with Woods has seldom waned during his periods of inactivity and recovery, and his personal conduct has been the subject of widespread reporting during all of this as well.
But I must say it was fun to watch him brush away the years and play some remarkable golf shots. I say "shots" because, as I've experienced recently, Tiger couldn't find most of the fairways at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis with both hands and a flashlight yesterday. But he shot 64 when it counted and damned if he didn't finish in second place.
In case you weren't aware, worth noting that the man needed help getting out of bed this time last year. Literally. All of his comments in the media sounded very much like a man who was struggling to accept that he might never play golf again. Any golf, let alone world-class competitive professional golf. He said over and over again that he just wanted to be able to live his life without pain and to play with his kids.
But little by little since that last procedure, he's rediscovered his skill, albeit wrapped in a somewhat less compliant physique, but watching him hit one stellar iron shot after another (I'm no expert, but I agree with some of the experts who've said that Tiger is one of the best iron players in the history of professional golf) and making clutch putts a large percentage of the time yesterday was thrilling indeed.
My wife has said that she doesn't really get too excited about watching golf with me, unless it's a big event. She likes some of the young guns, like Jordan Spieth (ditto) and Kentucky's own Justin Thomas (also ditto), but Tiger's the guy who still commands her attention enough to get her to watch.
She did yesterday.
Next are the four events of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and then the Ryder Cup. Hope we get to see more of this version of Mr. Woods. It sure is fun when we do.
As most regular visitors to this space know, I'm a big sports fan. Baseball, college (but not professional) basketball, football and, yes, professional golf all attract my attention.
I have to confess, despite friends who are definitely not on board, that I enjoy watching Tiger Woods play golf. And let me qualify that. I enjoy watching a HEALTHY Tiger Woods ply his craft on the golf course.
It's been really difficult for the last several years watching him endure one surgery after another (seven was the number I heard yesterday) over the years. There are lots of lists out there, but I believe the worst of this started after his astounding U.S. Open win at Torrey Pines in 2008, when he limped through a playoff round with Rocco Mediate and then had reconstructive surgery on a knee about a week later. He's since had at least four procedures designed to deal with chronic back issues, the most recent a fusion of vertebrae in his lumbar region.
But he's played a pretty full schedule of tournaments this year, appeared in all four major championships and was simply too far behind in yesterday's final round of the PGA Championship to catch eventual winner Brooks Koepka (who has won the U.S. Open the last two seasons).
I'll acknowledge that the media fascination with Woods has seldom waned during his periods of inactivity and recovery, and his personal conduct has been the subject of widespread reporting during all of this as well.
But I must say it was fun to watch him brush away the years and play some remarkable golf shots. I say "shots" because, as I've experienced recently, Tiger couldn't find most of the fairways at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis with both hands and a flashlight yesterday. But he shot 64 when it counted and damned if he didn't finish in second place.
In case you weren't aware, worth noting that the man needed help getting out of bed this time last year. Literally. All of his comments in the media sounded very much like a man who was struggling to accept that he might never play golf again. Any golf, let alone world-class competitive professional golf. He said over and over again that he just wanted to be able to live his life without pain and to play with his kids.
But little by little since that last procedure, he's rediscovered his skill, albeit wrapped in a somewhat less compliant physique, but watching him hit one stellar iron shot after another (I'm no expert, but I agree with some of the experts who've said that Tiger is one of the best iron players in the history of professional golf) and making clutch putts a large percentage of the time yesterday was thrilling indeed.
My wife has said that she doesn't really get too excited about watching golf with me, unless it's a big event. She likes some of the young guns, like Jordan Spieth (ditto) and Kentucky's own Justin Thomas (also ditto), but Tiger's the guy who still commands her attention enough to get her to watch.
She did yesterday.
Next are the four events of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and then the Ryder Cup. Hope we get to see more of this version of Mr. Woods. It sure is fun when we do.
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