I was never a big fan of golf when I was growing up. I remember my father really getting into the sport and kinda wondering what it was all about, but I was content playing street hockey, football and soccer at the park or basketball at the neighbour’s house. While I did play a few rounds, everything changed in April, 1997.
On a tiny television I watched as he, Tiger of course, massacred the field with a sizzling -18, smashing many Master’s records. I was in awe…and I was hooked.
For the next few years I played quite often, and watched even more on television. I went from someone only mildly interested in the game to someone completely enamored.
In the past few years my interest has dwindled. Perhaps it’s because I now have a family and other commitments that have become priority…for the price of some greens fees I could feed a small village in a developing country for a month (really, I chid not). No, that’s not it. Maybe I realized I just wasn’t very good and thought of keeping to sports which I was better at. Nope, again.
As I sit looking at the Deutschebank leaderboard, I just am not really hooked in the same way I was in the “Tiger Era” (has that officially ended?). Is it the players? Do we not have a “Tiger” (or Nicklaus, Snead, Palmer, etc)?
There are many great golfers around who are really fantastic players and people. Luke Donald and Lee Westwood of course (being #’s one and two in world rankings…also coincidentally both being from merry ole England), Stricker, Johnson, Kaymer and McIlroy round out the top six. Really, aside from the press McIlroy has been getting, and rightfully so, is there any really storylines there? Maybe I’m too far removed, or perhaps too uninterested to dig deep, but I just can’t rally behind anyone in particular. Okay, McIlroy maybe, but only because I’m searching for something and will grasp at anything at this point.
Note to PGA: Find me another Tiger! Someone to dominate and revolutionize, so I can become interested again.
And that is the last word.
