Crouching Tiger, Not-So-Hidden Fall From Greatness
Tiger Woods - Commentator David Steele says Tiger Woods was the least likely person ever to elevate the exclusionary, country-club world of golf. Now, his decision to take an "indefinite hiatus" from the sport is making us aware of how much pull he had. (Koichi Kamoshida / Getty Images)
Sometimes, you have to step back from the eye of the hurricane that has become Tiger Woods' life and public image lately, and remember: He's a golfer.
If you know everything that's going on with Woods these days, yet you barely know that the thing he swings at the ball is called a "club," then you are a testament to the reach and scope of a person who, by all the standards that preceded him, should never have held a second of our attention.
Yet the torrent of bad news landing on him keeps showing how much his arrival on the scene has shaken up perceptions many never knew they even held. No news is as jarring as his decision to take what he calls an "indefinite hiatus'" from playing to get his personal life back together.
Golf fans are crushed, and that's no small problem, with so many more golf fans now than when he first entered our consciousness. The domino effect across the rest of the world Tiger affected will go on for a long time and cover a lot of territory.
His gravitational pull might have been taken for granted in recent years, but the black hole that his absence now creates makes us all sharply attuned to exactly how much pull he had.
Historically, he was the least likely person ever to elevate the exclusionary, country-club world of golf to an unimaginable pinnacle. Now, he represents golf, and to millions of others, he represents far more than that. If he didn't, he would not be capable of sinking an entire industry just by walking away, and there would not be multitudes engaging in his story around the world every hour of every day, with no end in sight.
The very list of endorsers who are either slowly backing away or running away as if he's on fire is proof of what his presence means. If you knew before today, for example, that Accenture was an international technology and consulting firm, you knew because of Tiger's ads, which it is now taking down. Gatorade has had legendary athletes shill for it for decades, but where it once asked us to "Be Like Mike," it now asked us to actually drink Tiger — his name and image was on his own brand, until it was discontinued last weekend.
Gillette's even pulling back, and in terms of getting big-name athletes to hawk their goods, shaving companies were the Gatorade of their day. Yet Tiger out-hawked them all. A golfer. And one who, in another era, might not have been allowed on the course without carrying someone's clubs or a water hose.
However, Nike and Tag Heuer are sticking with him, which means Woods is still trusted to be the face of the company once fronted by Michael Jordan, and to sell watches that cost as much as a house note.
With all that said, should we care that much that the world's top-ranked golfer is taking a leave of absence from playing? That's a rhetorical question. We do, even as we protest long and loud about how we don't. Three stories will end up defining 2009 in popular culture: Barack Obama's inauguration, Michael Jackson's death and Tiger Woods' "transgressions."
That's an unprecedented climb, and a long, hard fall.
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