Full circle
Good morning, all. Our temperatures have been, well, all over the place in the past few days. Yesterday we reached the high 70s here in Lexington and this morning it's in the 30s, with a high projected in the upper 50s. Welcome to springtime in Kentucky!
Are you a sports fan? Even a casual one? Then you most likely know that Tiger Woods completed something that was so improbable not long ago by winning the 2019 Masters golf tournament yesterday.
Yes, he made mistakes, and, yes, he had some help by having some of his fellow competitors run into problems. If you watch the Masters annually as I generally do, you know that most of the time the player who wins is the one who avoids problems. Tiger Woods was that player yesterday.
But if you've forgotten or never knew this, Woods has had a pretty large amount of adversity to deal with, and some of it was pretty severe.
Woods kept his distance from his fellow golf pros for a long time, having only a few friendships among the player ranks. Now, he's friendly with a lot of them, including many of the younger players whom he inspired when he himself was a young pro.
He used to train extensively to maintain his physical endurance and strength, and said that he was among a small number of players who used to work out. Now they all do.
His body betrayed him over and over again, requiring multiple knee surgeries and repair of a stress fracture that did not prevent him from winning the U.S. Open in 2008, his last major championship.
His athletic swing took its toll on his health, as he had a total of four back surgeries, including a spinal fusion that disabled him for many months. He reported at the Masters' annual champions dinner just two springs ago that he probably would never play golf again, at least not competitively.
And his personal life unraveled during one of his recovery periods, as it came out that he had been conducting multiple affairs with women other than his wife.
He lowered his profile, went to counseling, rehabbed his injuries and then, just a year or so ago, began to play golf on the PGA tour again. And he won a few tournaments. He played the Masters, but was not a factor.
Then last summer he was in the lead at the Open Championship (the British Open to most of us) and was competitive at the PGA Championship as well. And he ended a pretty good year by winning the season-ending Tour Championship, which is probably one of the biggest non-majors that a pro can win.
So when this year's Masters rolled around, I wondered, along with many others, whether Tiger still had enough fire and had continued to improve enough physically to compete.
I suppose now that we know the answer to this.
He said that everything he had done with regard to golf was in preparation for this week, and it showed.
Like him or not, golf is a better sport if one of its dominant players is still able to compete at a high level. And now that he's won major championship #15, he needs three more to catch Jack Nicklaus to tie him for the most career majors. Jack says he thinks he can do it.
I wouldn't put it past him.
Are you a sports fan? Even a casual one? Then you most likely know that Tiger Woods completed something that was so improbable not long ago by winning the 2019 Masters golf tournament yesterday.
Yes, he made mistakes, and, yes, he had some help by having some of his fellow competitors run into problems. If you watch the Masters annually as I generally do, you know that most of the time the player who wins is the one who avoids problems. Tiger Woods was that player yesterday.
But if you've forgotten or never knew this, Woods has had a pretty large amount of adversity to deal with, and some of it was pretty severe.
Woods kept his distance from his fellow golf pros for a long time, having only a few friendships among the player ranks. Now, he's friendly with a lot of them, including many of the younger players whom he inspired when he himself was a young pro.
He used to train extensively to maintain his physical endurance and strength, and said that he was among a small number of players who used to work out. Now they all do.
His body betrayed him over and over again, requiring multiple knee surgeries and repair of a stress fracture that did not prevent him from winning the U.S. Open in 2008, his last major championship.
His athletic swing took its toll on his health, as he had a total of four back surgeries, including a spinal fusion that disabled him for many months. He reported at the Masters' annual champions dinner just two springs ago that he probably would never play golf again, at least not competitively.
And his personal life unraveled during one of his recovery periods, as it came out that he had been conducting multiple affairs with women other than his wife.
He lowered his profile, went to counseling, rehabbed his injuries and then, just a year or so ago, began to play golf on the PGA tour again. And he won a few tournaments. He played the Masters, but was not a factor.
Then last summer he was in the lead at the Open Championship (the British Open to most of us) and was competitive at the PGA Championship as well. And he ended a pretty good year by winning the season-ending Tour Championship, which is probably one of the biggest non-majors that a pro can win.
So when this year's Masters rolled around, I wondered, along with many others, whether Tiger still had enough fire and had continued to improve enough physically to compete.
I suppose now that we know the answer to this.
He said that everything he had done with regard to golf was in preparation for this week, and it showed.
Like him or not, golf is a better sport if one of its dominant players is still able to compete at a high level. And now that he's won major championship #15, he needs three more to catch Jack Nicklaus to tie him for the most career majors. Jack says he thinks he can do it.
I wouldn't put it past him.
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