This probably is the most read, written about, chewed, stretched, and blown out of proportion 
story of 2009. Then why the heck should you read my insignificant views on this? You really shouldn’t! Especially if you are looking to learn something new about the recent, completely uncalled for drama in the life of one Eldrick Tiger Woods; because besides seeing him in person, tear apart the golf course on 3 different occasions, I’ve not had any more exclusive piece of his time than any of you. (And even on those 3 occasions the golf courses resembled more the Laxmi Road in Pune on Ganesh Festival!! :o)) But if you are like me who doesn’t want to miss any word written on Tiger, if you are like me who has seen in him much more than just the athletic brilliance and you are citing his example to your kids then you may go on …!!
On Nov 28th , When my Cell phone buzzed at 3:30 am, from an SMS of Rajiv’s FB update which read “Take care Tiger, hope you aren’t hurt much…” I woke up cursing IBM for keeping Rajiv awake at this hour that he has started sending such strange FB updates. (Because even in my dreams I never thought he was talking about TW) But as the days went on the uncomforting details for TW, his family and his fans like us started emerging from the ‘Black Friday’ in all senses. At first I wasn’t ready to believe any of it, until I saw his own admission on his website!! So thick has been my faith in him. After all he probably is one person, which most mothers on this planets want their son to be like or most wives (especially those who have a good eye for male beauty ;)) want their husbands to be like.
Like million other fathers around the world, inspired by his success of pure talent along with hard work, perseverance and most of all brutal honesty, I’m also showcasing him to my son day in and day out. Not only he embodies great work ethic but also a very responsible citizenship. In fact, once his father had said in one of his interviews “…the best of Tiger would come when he retires from Golf! He really wants to work for kids around the world…”. And when he opened the Tiger Woods Foundation for kids in 2005-06 timeframe he was walking that talk. Little did I know then, that he probably was exchanging tips on something very different… with the person whom he had called for inauguration… the person was the much haunted American president Bill Clinton! :o)
This really has come out as a shocker. And in my mind Mr. Woods you are wrong! Not only because you cheated on your hottie-model-turned-home-maker wife but also betraying the millions of fathers around the world like me. And now you have given more than handful of ammunition to cynics in this world. Cynics who never believed that you embodied those high values. For instance the one I met on a Bloomington Golf Course (a white middle aged - American …umm… should I have mentioned his color? May be I shouldn’t have) who obviously was not happy with your success and was very pissed off that you didn’t pay attention to him in some public function in FL! Or my good friend Kari Hamm who felt you didn’t stand for good values when you denied Payne Stewart a posthumous salute in 2000 US Open, by not wearing his kind of trousers. I firmly believe Mr. Woods that the world in the corner of their heart likes to see their Heroes falter and fail, even when it justifies our Marathi Proverb देवदूताचे पाय मातीचे… that is even the angles of god have earthen feet (are prone to mistakes).
In you, Mr. Woods we had seen that one person who stood tall over others not only in terms of peak performance but in terms of pure character and Integrity. You are never known to be a friendly ‘knuckle-exchanger’ with fans like your fellow golfer-billionaire, Phil Mickleson. We knew that is because, when you are in that zone on the course you don’t want to be disturbed which actually helps you perform so ridiculously consistent. That also means Integrity for us to the sport.
What has come out today Mr. Woods is painfully shattering all of that Integrity like your SUV’s glass. It has now become that much more difficult to me… I will now have to find a different idol to my son for Integrity. Earlier it was a package deal you see… the same guy who embodies peak performance is by the way also the same guy who embodies as lofty value as Integrity. I wish you had not done this… or at least had taken better care to keep that 5 wood out of Elaine’s reach!
story of 2009. Then why the heck should you read my insignificant views on this? You really shouldn’t! Especially if you are looking to learn something new about the recent, completely uncalled for drama in the life of one Eldrick Tiger Woods; because besides seeing him in person, tear apart the golf course on 3 different occasions, I’ve not had any more exclusive piece of his time than any of you. (And even on those 3 occasions the golf courses resembled more the Laxmi Road in Pune on Ganesh Festival!! :o)) But if you are like me who doesn’t want to miss any word written on Tiger, if you are like me who has seen in him much more than just the athletic brilliance and you are citing his example to your kids then you may go on …!!On Nov 28th , When my Cell phone buzzed at 3:30 am, from an SMS of Rajiv’s FB update which read “Take care Tiger, hope you aren’t hurt much…” I woke up cursing IBM for keeping Rajiv awake at this hour that he has started sending such strange FB updates. (Because even in my dreams I never thought he was talking about TW) But as the days went on the uncomforting details for TW, his family and his fans like us started emerging from the ‘Black Friday’ in all senses. At first I wasn’t ready to believe any of it, until I saw his own admission on his website!! So thick has been my faith in him. After all he probably is one person, which most mothers on this planets want their son to be like or most wives (especially those who have a good eye for male beauty ;)) want their husbands to be like.
Like million other fathers around the world, inspired by his success of pure talent along with hard work, perseverance and most of all brutal honesty, I’m also showcasing him to my son day in and day out. Not only he embodies great work ethic but also a very responsible citizenship. In fact, once his father had said in one of his interviews “…the best of Tiger would come when he retires from Golf! He really wants to work for kids around the world…”. And when he opened the Tiger Woods Foundation for kids in 2005-06 timeframe he was walking that talk. Little did I know then, that he probably was exchanging tips on something very different… with the person whom he had called for inauguration… the person was the much haunted American president Bill Clinton! :o)
This really has come out as a shocker. And in my mind Mr. Woods you are wrong! Not only because you cheated on your hottie-model-turned-home-maker wife but also betraying the millions of fathers around the world like me. And now you have given more than handful of ammunition to cynics in this world. Cynics who never believed that you embodied those high values. For instance the one I met on a Bloomington Golf Course (a white middle aged - American …umm… should I have mentioned his color? May be I shouldn’t have) who obviously was not happy with your success and was very pissed off that you didn’t pay attention to him in some public function in FL! Or my good friend Kari Hamm who felt you didn’t stand for good values when you denied Payne Stewart a posthumous salute in 2000 US Open, by not wearing his kind of trousers. I firmly believe Mr. Woods that the world in the corner of their heart likes to see their Heroes falter and fail, even when it justifies our Marathi Proverb देवदूताचे पाय मातीचे… that is even the angles of god have earthen feet (are prone to mistakes).
In you, Mr. Woods we had seen that one person who stood tall over others not only in terms of peak performance but in terms of pure character and Integrity. You are never known to be a friendly ‘knuckle-exchanger’ with fans like your fellow golfer-billionaire, Phil Mickleson. We knew that is because, when you are in that zone on the course you don’t want to be disturbed which actually helps you perform so ridiculously consistent. That also means Integrity for us to the sport.What has come out today Mr. Woods is painfully shattering all of that Integrity like your SUV’s glass. It has now become that much more difficult to me… I will now have to find a different idol to my son for Integrity. Earlier it was a package deal you see… the same guy who embodies peak performance is by the way also the same guy who embodies as lofty value as Integrity. I wish you had not done this… or at least had taken better care to keep that 5 wood out of Elaine’s reach!
But… But… But…
Having said all of this I still think it doesn’t take anything away from your unbelievable achievements. It can’t change the fact that you single handedly have transformed this wonderful game from the exclusively elites to the game of commons. It doesn’t reduce your ridiculous margin of 15 strokes in the world’s most challenging event and arguably most testing conditions. It still doesn’t take away any of your 3 back to back US Armature titles. Neither does it make any less heroic to win the US Open playing 91 holes on virtually one leg! It still doesn’t change the fact by a bit that you are the most successful athlete of our times.
What you probably have just proved is that you are not the package deal that we thought you
were. You are just an equally vulnerable human being like many of us who fall prey to our vices. You are not that ultimate athlete who also is a person with ultimate integrity with his family values. No I’m not sarcastic… may be I’m just trying to console my somewhat hurt mind. Because to be honest with you Mr. Woods you are NOT the first celebrity to have fallen prey to this vulnerability and I promise you, you won’t be the last. When you had married a calendar girl you had already made your preferences very clear :o)
In fact this is what I will tell my son is that being a celebrity (and especially such a dominant and filthy rich one like you) you are prone to much higher temptations than those come in our mundane straight forward lives. And makes it even tougher when you are away from the family, for more than half of the time. To be able to stand your ground against those temptations one needs a very strong mind and ultimate belief in one’s family values. Which you had made us believe that you possess.
I think the only way to make us and YOU forget all this would be to get back to what you do the best, win tournaments!! Transcend supremacy and personify peak performance. I know it will be all the tougher every time you step on that first tee. You will have a lot ‘awoken cynics’ shouting things at you, It will also bring in your mind all the bitter memories of the hell that you are currently going through… but if we know you right… putting distractions behind is what you do best. Your father’s ‘distracting technique’ has helped you overcome those in the past… time will tell us if it has stood the test of time…!
For now, I think I’m glad that my son isn’t that old enough to understand what cheating is :o)! Hopefully by the time he grows up, this would have been put behind and you would have crossed the magical figures of 18 majors!
Good luck Mr. Woods…!!
Having said all of this I still think it doesn’t take anything away from your unbelievable achievements. It can’t change the fact that you single handedly have transformed this wonderful game from the exclusively elites to the game of commons. It doesn’t reduce your ridiculous margin of 15 strokes in the world’s most challenging event and arguably most testing conditions. It still doesn’t take away any of your 3 back to back US Armature titles. Neither does it make any less heroic to win the US Open playing 91 holes on virtually one leg! It still doesn’t change the fact by a bit that you are the most successful athlete of our times.
What you probably have just proved is that you are not the package deal that we thought you
were. You are just an equally vulnerable human being like many of us who fall prey to our vices. You are not that ultimate athlete who also is a person with ultimate integrity with his family values. No I’m not sarcastic… may be I’m just trying to console my somewhat hurt mind. Because to be honest with you Mr. Woods you are NOT the first celebrity to have fallen prey to this vulnerability and I promise you, you won’t be the last. When you had married a calendar girl you had already made your preferences very clear :o)In fact this is what I will tell my son is that being a celebrity (and especially such a dominant and filthy rich one like you) you are prone to much higher temptations than those come in our mundane straight forward lives. And makes it even tougher when you are away from the family, for more than half of the time. To be able to stand your ground against those temptations one needs a very strong mind and ultimate belief in one’s family values. Which you had made us believe that you possess.
I think the only way to make us and YOU forget all this would be to get back to what you do the best, win tournaments!! Transcend supremacy and personify peak performance. I know it will be all the tougher every time you step on that first tee. You will have a lot ‘awoken cynics’ shouting things at you, It will also bring in your mind all the bitter memories of the hell that you are currently going through… but if we know you right… putting distractions behind is what you do best. Your father’s ‘distracting technique’ has helped you overcome those in the past… time will tell us if it has stood the test of time…!
For now, I think I’m glad that my son isn’t that old enough to understand what cheating is :o)! Hopefully by the time he grows up, this would have been put behind and you would have crossed the magical figures of 18 majors!
Good luck Mr. Woods…!!
