I’m not talking, necessarily, about his near-flawless final round of 67 to wrap up the British Open. It was what happened immediately afterwards that I’ll remember.
If you were lucky enough to be watching, here’s what you saw: Tiger taps in for birdie, then hugs his caddie Steve Williams. Williams is ready to release the hug, but Tiger’s just getting started. He begins sobbing uncontrollably into Stevie’s shoulder, and can’t stop. Eventually, he lets go, finds his wife, and cries some more. And not just a few tears; it’s deep, belly crying. The emotion is just pouring from him.
And then two minutes later, he’s doing an interview with ABC, and it’s the same old Tiger. Calm and cool as ever, just perfectly normal, his voice didn’t waver a bit. He went back onto the green, remembered Chris DiMarco’s mother, talked about his own father, and not another tear came. Not one.
It was like, “Click, boom, emotions are now shut off.” When all was clear, he allowed himself a moment of vulnerability, and then it was immediately back to Tiger mode. I don’t know how he goes from heavy sobbing one minute, to not even look like he had cried the next.
I was amazed by this. Absolutely amazed. And I don’t think it’s at all coincidental to why Tiger Woods is so great at what he does. He is in control of himself, perhaps more than anyone else in sports. Both Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger expressed amazement about how Tiger was able to keep it together during the Claret Jug presentation.
It makes me believe that if he can keep it together through that situation, something so extremely emotional, that there is no chance in hell that any competitor, golf course, or situation that he faces will ever make him lose focus. Mentally, he’s damn near invincible.
rob Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 1:44 am
mornin’ mjd … fyi, this is up on YouTube.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx73nPLt_fg
Yes sir … incredible.
fobtech Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 2:01 am
i missed the whole danm british open coz i was getting grilled in this godamn heat
Andrew Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 7:04 am
So Tiger Woods defeated Chris DiMarco in the Dead Parents open: good times!
DookieStyle Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 8:35 am
I’ve been a Tiger hater for quite some time now. That was all erased yesterday. What an amazing performance, on all levels.
Mr. Bojangles Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
The dickbags in the media were belly sobbing at the same time, as all of their “hero must fall” articles about how Tiger’s “lost his touch” since his father’s death were collectively flushed down the crapper with that crazy performance. Christ, with that emotional outpouring, I’m wondering if Tiger had started to believe them, and was relieved to see he hadn’t.
New York Sports Page Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Mr. Bojangles: He *did* lose his touch, and it did happen after his father’s death.
Then he got it back through sheer determination. That’s what made this weekend’s performance so impressive. Tiger overcoming the media would not be such a notable nor interesting thing.
HuangKong Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
think adam morrison is thinking: “copycat”?
Jimmy Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
He was able to turn the emotion on and off because he’s really Robo Tiger.
“The golf course, looks good. My golf swing, feels good. I like, my, chances.”
RisingSunofNihon Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
I happened to have the TV on at the time, and I have to agree that Tiger’s performance on the course and the subsequent outpouring of emotions afterwards was one of the better things I’ve seen in sports recently.
Socraticsilence Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
So is Tiger a cyborg cause good god when MJ won the title and did his “cry because my fathers dead thign” at least he seemed effected in the Postgame Press conference, I’m seriously starting to be afraid here what if he’s been sent back from the future to save the world (and to bang hot swedish chicks).
Elm Tree Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Dookie Style
How can you so enjoy the contrived product that coach K generates to the point where Duke is in your screen name, and hate tiger. Is it a Stanford/Duke thing? Because I would assume that Tigers arrogence and dominance would be just your cup of tea.
Old School Says:
July 24th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
I saw him lose it at the end there, and all I could think about was that pic MJD ran when Tiger’s dad passed away, of Earl Woods lying on the couch with a faraway, “What am I gonna do with this baby?” look in his eyes, and nestled atop his ample belly, gently steadied with a free hand, was a sleeping, few-months-old baby Tiger Woods.
Homey was a mess for a few minutes there, then got it together–Mickelson was a mess for four days, and proceeded to b*tch like a stage mom about the “difficulty of the course”, and never got it together. Man…truly a case of the agony, the ecstasy, and the idiocy.
Dave Kaufman - Techlife Says:
November 2nd, 2006 at 1:07 pm
I recently included a short mention of this site and this post in an article I wrote on blogging for a Chicago area paper. A copy of the article is here: http://www.dkworldwide.com/techlife/archives/2006/11/01/passion-publishing-get-paid/trackback/