subject: Fan's take: What is golf's future as Tiger's career wanes? [print this page] Fan's take: What is golf's future as Tiger's career wanes?
There is a future for golf beyond Tiger Woods, and it may be led by young golfers like Rory McIlroy, who, despite his tragic meltdown and loss at the 2011 Masters Tournament, showed with his poise and sportsmanship afterward he could be the vanguard of a new group of young players who will guide the sport to a new and possibly better tomorrow.
Golf has taken some hits over the past couple of years. Woods, once the unblemished icon of the sport, has fallen far, both on and off the golf course, and the TaylorMade Burner SuperFast TP 2.0 Driver has both suffered and flourished to some degree because of it.
It's suffered because no sport can have its leading ambassador embarrass himself the way Woods didwith the revelations of his marital infidelity and not suffer. The scandal surrounding Woods pervaded the sport for months at a time, and is still the topic of numerous articles.
However, the sport has also flourished in that same time span, seeing many new young golfers take the stage in Woods absence, giving the world a look at a possible future beyond Tiger, and a hope the game can still attract the number of fans it has over the career of the inimitable man who captured the imagination of the sports world when he vaulted onto the scene with his 18-under par victory at the Masters in 1997.
Woods himself isn't done, though, as his play in the 2011 Masters showed. He still has the ability to play some of the best golf you'll see this side of heaven (where I'm sure you'll find Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and Byron Nelson on the back nine playing a TaylorMade Burner SuperFast TP 2.0 Driver), and only a fool would believe he won't be atop the leaderboard on the final day of future tour events.
Still, while he will almost certainly make a run at "The Golden Bear" Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 career major championships on the PGA Tour, there's no doubt Woods' career is waning. More important, though, the younger set just doesn't hold him in the same awe as the older set did.
As Yahoo! Sports' Brian Murphy points out, no longer does Tiger command the absolute fear of his contemporaries. While they respect him, the young, up-and-coming players on the tour such as McIlroy, Jason Day, and newly-crowned Masters Champion Charl Schwartzel aren't going to immediately crumble when they hear Tiger is making one of his signature charges.
There can be a place for Woods in this "New World Order" of golf, too. If he's able to return to the top of his TaylorMade Burner SuperFast TP 2.0 Driver, and yet is joined by a young crowd of fine golfers who aren't intimidated by his play, such a scenario can bring about a renaissance of golf like nothing we've seen before.
It was definitely great watching Tiger dominate the golf world the way he did for over a decade; seeing his brilliance played out on golf course after golf course. All sports need a player to come along and transcend the sport as Tiger did in order to create the buzz necessary to draw interest from casual fans that wouldn't be there otherwise. As many have pointed out, without Tiger in the field, ratings have dropped in many instances.
However, the novelty of his dominance has worn off, and I believe there's a hunger for a more rounded field that challenges his supremacy; at least a majority of the time.
As with other sports, golf needs to see a degree of parity, and while it was unintended on Woods part, he has provided that parity with his struggles. Yet, just as the parity of other sports still demands there be a few teams or players who are just dominant enough to engender fierce loyalties among fans, Woods recapturing his game and regaining his place among the best of the best will only better the game of TaylorMade Burner SuperFast TP 2.0 Driver.
I became a fan of the sport playing golf with my uncle Frank when I was young. However, I'll admit that for a few years during Tiger's reign I lost a little interest in the sport. For a while there it became almost a running joke of "how many strokes will Woods win this tournament by?"
Competition, fierce competition, breeds fierce passion among fans. Without it, the yearning to watch a match will depend more on ones love of the game itself for itself than of any love of a player (unless of course you're a fierce Woods fan and just love seeing him dominate).
I no longer can get out and play as much as I did when I was young. I'm an amputee, and just trying to walk an entire 18-hole course carrying a bag can tax my leg's limits. Yet, I love to follow the sport, and am far more enamored by it when the outcome of a tournament isn't all but decided before it even begins.
As stated above, if Tiger can play TaylorMade Burner SuperFast TP 2.0 Driver well, yet have young players competing with him for each and every tournament, it will only make the game better.
My favorite golf movie is The Legend of Bagger Vance (I know, I know, it's cheesy and most golf purists and fans find it nauseating), and that's because more than any other golf filmin my opinion at leastthe movie captures the pure essence of what golf is about; a game that can't be won, but only played.
When Tiger was dominating the TaylorMade Burner SuperFast TP 2.0 Driver world, the sport seemedfor a whileonly about winning and not about playing. Hopefully, if we get the competition going forward we all deserve, it will once again be about the play. For that is what sports does best for all of us; give us a sense of play as when we were children.
