I'm definitely NOT Tiger Woods...

I feel privileged to be able to watch Tiger Woods play.

I missed out on the Bobby Jones era, and although I was old enough to have watched Ben Hogan's last tournament win, a six-year old would have a tough time grasping the intricacies of golf. I have seen the likes of Snead, Nelson, Player, Trevino, Nicklaus, and Palmer: all are champions, and all were sensational, even genius golfers.

But then there's Tiger Woods.

I wonder if golfers playing alongside those greats felt somehow slighted that they lived and competed in a time that included such excellent players, and I wonder if golfers now playing alongside Tiger feel something similar, something akin to, "Oh no, not again," or silently breath with relief when they see Tiger is not in a tournament.

I'm only a decent golfer, with maybe a 14 handicap on a good day, but I love golf; I love its elegance and its precision; I love how civilized the sport is and how it requires players to be just as civilized. But I do see the irony in this game. I see how weird it is that in all other sports involving a ball, players have to negotiate that ball as it's moving, and in some cases, moving really fast. But with golf, the ball just sits and waits patiently to be struck: in fact, if the ball moves at all between shots, the golfer could be penalized for it. (And don't even get me started on the clothing choices.)

I also realize that, to many, watching golf is akin to watching lawn furniture, watching clouds, the very paragon of slowness, of sleep-inducing dullness. I get this. But were people simply to watch Tiger for one round, watch what we golfers see, they'd be hooked.

His excellence goes beyond the game, beyond the superlatives reserved for those who went before him. His work ethic is now legendary. He's the Jerry Rice of his field, because to me, at least, Jerry was the essential competitor in his time. Tiger's competitive nature is perhaps captured best in his often-repeated statement, "I just want to beat you." He doesn't give up and he doesn't give in. There is no surrender in him.

Some people think he's too machine-like, that he doesn't smile enough. He smiles. He smiles when he has a reason to smile. When Tiger is on a tournament golf course, he's at work. Would that everyone took their jobs even half as seriously.

He'll probably be the first billion-dollar athlete, which will probably cause many to be repulsed, to roll their eyes, to sigh and say, "Athletes make too much money." Perhaps, but in between the gasps, in between the eye-rolls, if they'd just watch one of Tiger's laser-beam 7-irons, or one of his escapes from a rough-edge jungle with an insanely struck 3-wood, or one of his 25-foot flop shots for which he takes a courageously full swing only to have the ball land like a butterfly with broken legs, or one of his triple-breaking, snake-like putts that roll for 40 feet then hit the cup dead center. Again, and again, and again.

I love when people talk smack about him, and this list is growing: Austin, Sabbatini, Ames, Poulter. I also love watching the result of this smack, which is usually a complete smack-down. But don't get me wrong. He's vulnerable. He sometimes sprays his driver like he's watering flowers, but he always seems to escape, to keep his mistake to one shot. Mike Weir took him down most recently and several others almost have, with the most recent being J. B. Holmes who played well against a struggling Tiger on the first 13 holes, but not well enough against a Tiger who had found his stride in the last five.

This is a rare time indeed, and I would argue that we'll never again see the likes of Tiger Woods, so we need to appreciate what we have while it's here. Sure, someone might come along in the future, some other Tiger-like player might dominate his time, but for now, I'm content seeing Tiger as unique and being thrilled by what I see him do and how he does it: with pure strength, pure determination, and elegant dignity, of which his Dad was so proud.
Like I said, I feel privileged to be able to watch Tiger Woods play.