My wife said something over dinner recently that struck me as probably one of the more insightful things I’ve heard in quite a while. She said, “Without Tiger, do you really think we’d have Obama?” She’s on to something there. Since the late 1990s, Tiger has been exerting a profoundly positive influence on sports, popular culture, and the way we view race and place in America.
Tiger did something on a grand and unprecedented scale (aside from being the first billionaire athlete). Tiger burst into the spotlight like a company of U.S. Marines on an unsuspecting beach. He brought with him qualities that are quintessentially old-school American, and universally admired: strength, effectiveness, humility, sportsmanship, and grace under pressure. He took the sport of golf to a new level in both competition and public reach, and generally did it with a matter-of-fact, down-to-business attitude. Golf, an old and reputable game known for its genteel nature and the ladies & gentlemen who have played it, welcomed Tiger happily and graciously, reaffirming its aforementioned character and demonstrating to an often skeptical world that America truly is the meritocracy it professes to be. Tiger, in turn, played on, steadily winning and always accepting his accolades with a slightly embarrassed smile, a nod to luck & the game, and kind words for his fellow players. He stayed out of the off-course limelight, and away from controversy. Tiger’s tearful embrace of his father after his 1997 Masters victory is one of the most memorable images of the decade. As a model for us in our sporting lives and daily personal conduct, what more could we ask?
I believe Tiger’s pervasive presence in golf, our most prestigious of sports, made America – already on well its way to being less rigidly stratified in race and class – even more comfortable with the idea of someone of diverse parentage being at the very pinnacle of achievement where an “old guard” had reigned longer than anyone’s memory. The fact that he mixed a natural excellence with a usually easy & gentlemanly conduct undoubtedly bolstered the better parts of us that eschewed the more unfortunate preconceptions of race. Personally, as I reflect back upon my own attitudes during the fall of 2008, I suppose it wasn’t any longer such a stretch to envision a black man as president. After all, if he can wear the green jacket, and moreover can graciously help another into his own green jacket from the comfortable chairs of the club’s champions, why can’t he move effectively within and among any other of our most elite circles?
All the more distressing, therefore, is the revelation of Tiger’s long list of dubious pursuits, for this simple truth: he seemed to be the best of us. Tiger possessed that rare and estimable ability to lead the sporting field, and to inspire with few words but skillful actions; he has been a steady hand at the game in an unsteady decade in our country’s history. He was someone we could count on – an ideal to be held up in front of young athletes everywhere, as well as us old guys who occasionally want to snap a five iron in half.
It would be disingenuous and wrong to expect Tiger to be wholly without personal failings – we all have them – but being Tiger, and occupying the Olympian pedestals of sports and fame that he does, I expect most of us had hoped he would heed his added responsibility to maintain a doubly high standard of personal behavior and ethics. Sadly, history will likely remember him as yet another extremely talented but flawed man, leaving us to resume our search for the modern day Clark Kent… incorruptible, unwavering, and unstoppable. Perhaps Tiger will resume his own pursuit. We should all wish him well in that.
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