What should I do? I have been a critic of Tiger Woods from the beginning of his professional career. I saw through his fake façade instantly. He started out his professional career by saying “hello world” and everybody thought it was insightful. Then, two days later, Nike runs an add with that slogan plastered all over the screen. Nike made that ad months before Tiger’s first professional tournament.
Tiger could not even come up with an original thought to start his career with. Back then he was already programmed like a robot with no human emotion or thought. The only emotion we would ever see from him was anger on the golf course. He was either slamming clubs or cursing at a wayward shot. Yet, he was immediately popular not only with golfers but with what seemed like everybody.
As more and more stories of how Tiger Woods acted like a jerk surfaced somehow his popularity continued to rise. Several people who came in contact with him called him cheap. He refused to take a stand on any issue, ever.
I love America. Love it! I root hard for all of our athletes at every Olympics or World Cup or any international sporting event. I am the guy that gets chills hearing the Star Spangled Banner before each game he sees live. I want the U.S. to destroy Europe in the Ryder Cup this weekend. The problem is, for the U.S. to do so Tiger Woods is going to have to play like the old Tiger Woods. That means I am going to have to root for Tiger to play well. I will not be able to root against him like I do in all the other tournaments.
I use to take grief from my golfing friends that I was a Vijay Singh fan. They could not believe it. Nobody was a Vijay Singh fan. I liked him. I liked him for speaking his mind. I liked him for standing up to Tiger Woods. I liked him for becoming the number 1 ranked golfer in the world at a time when no one else could. I liked him for doing a lot to grow the game of golf in his native Fiji. I liked how he never cursed on the golf course. I liked how he stayed even keeled all the time. I liked that his caddie wrote “Tiger who?” on the back of his hat. There is no Vijay to pull for this weekend, only the United States of America.
Everyone, including me, will be rooting for you.
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