I’m glad I’ve opened up to golf in time to witness and enjoy Tiger Woods. I didn’t grow up playing golf, still don’t, and I never really watched or followed it growing up. Make that at all. It wasn’t until recently for work purposes that I started following golf much closer, even watching events. So while I always knew the big names just from watching SportsCenter enough, I really couldn’t, and probably still can’t have much of a historical debate on the subject. But I do know this much: it’s not too late for me to be up-to-date on Tiger Woods.
Coming off the knee surgery, playing through pain on Saturday, Woods was incredible. You could see him grimace when he took his shots. You could see his body tweaking and not properly rotating because of the knee. It clearly was hindering his game and he clearly was playing through pain. And I’m not talking about John Daly sacking it up after a night of tequila shots — I’m talking about real, authentic, I have to grit this out because my knee is killing me pain. And what Tiger did, the eagle putt on 13, the birdie on 17, and then the other eagle put on 18, was simply incredible. I didn’t think he even had a shot at sinking either of his putts on 13 or 18, yet he did, and he climbed up the leaderboard.
Could anyone else overshoot their chip shot and have it land in the cup on one bounce? That’s just how things work when you’re Tiger Woods. By the time things are done on Sunday, Tiger will probably have his 14th major and third U.S. Open title. If not, no big deal — nothing can top what he did in the third round on Saturday to take the lead. Only three golfers are under par for the tournament. The course is eating alive the world’s best players. Yet here’s Tiger, on the shelf for six weeks because of knee surgery, atop the leaderboard. He makes you want to work harder and be better at whatever it is that you do. And if he doesn’t, well, then you need to check your pulse.
