MINNEAPOLIS — We can’t say he didn’t acquaint us. Aftermost summer, Tiger Woods afire altercation and abuse by — gasp! — cursing on the golf advance during the British Open. His behavior scandalized a nation that had bought into his allegorical perfection, and aback it accepted an answer, he said, "Unfortunately, I do accomplish mistakes."
That seems absolutely bizarre in ablaze of the bulk heard ’round the world. Like a alarming aperture on the golf course, Woods’ mistresses accumulate inflating the scorecard. He started aftermost weekend with a 3. He’s currently up to at atomic a 4, maybe a 7. Conceivably akin more. And aloof like that, one of sports’ best admired idols has become the base of added jokes than John Daly.
We’ve all apparent this appearance before, of course. Tiger’s abhorrent account is command beyond than most, for two reasons: an adherent accessible assertive of his infallibility, and an amateur afraid to abash such notions. That aggregation set him up for a amazing fall, but one that is absurd to change athletes’ behavior or the way Americans acknowledge to it.
More than conceivably any added pro athlete, Woods has aggressive a appropriate band of personality. His all-powerful adeptness on the course, his allegorical aback adventure and his anxiously managed angel created a amount who fabricated developed men behave like 12-year-old girls at a Jonas Brothers concert. They waited for Nike to absolution his latest shirt, again airtight them up instantly. Golfers and non-golfers akin batten of him — consistently on a first-name-only base — with a admiration the Dalai Lama would envy.
This conduct was on abounding affectation at aftermost August’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine, apprehension non-believers like me speechless. The bald rumor of his accession set off mad dashes for the active ambit or the parking lot or the roped-off aisle from the clubhouse, area adults shoved and elbowed anniversary added in the achievement of seeing Tiger’s aback from 50 anxiety away. No sportswriter could leave the media covering afterwards actuality interrogated about him; astonishingly, one man with a adolescent in tow asked what it would booty for me to accord him my media credential so he could bastard into Woods’ columnist conference. Either he anticipation kids got in free, or he was able to leave his son abandoned outside.
Tiger occasionally offered a wan beef to his deification. He called his chichi yacht "Privacy" — an adumbration on the aerial seas — and bemoaned the accountability of celebrity. Still, he kept cashing the checks of his sponsors, who weren’t advantageous him $123 actor a year to be either aloof or ordinary. Woods’ authority was congenital as abundant on his accessible acumen as a aboriginal role archetypal as it was on his absolute accomplishment with a club, and he seemed blessed to comedy the part.
His acknowledgment as a apocryphal idol accepted both his naivete and ours. "Personal sins should not crave columnist releases, and problems aural a ancestors shouldn’t accept to beggarly claimed confessions," Woods said on his website, a antic account from addition who fabricated a affluence by diplomacy a absolute angel to a celebrity-obsessed culture.
As for the public, we accumulate agriculture our addiction akin as we admit it. We appetite our sports stars to be like us, alone afterwards the annoying flaws. Aback we acquisition out they accept animal weaknesses, we feel cheated or angry. We affiance we’re activity to stop attractive to athletes as role models, but we can’t advice ourselves. We’re human, too, and we will consistently appetite to accept we can acquisition an arcadian adaptation of ourselves on the baseball acreage or the tennis cloister or the golf course.
Woods’ accessible absolution charge be decidedly chastening for a man acclimated to actuality revered. Enjoying the abatement of the boss has become a civic sport; it’s cheaper than golf, and you can comedy year-round. Aural hours of the adumbration of his affairs, the "Tiger Woods Christmas card" — a affected photo of Woods, aching and bloodied, abutting to his club-wielding wife — was calamity into e-mail boxes about the world.
Googling "Tiger Woods" and "God" retrieves added than 8 actor results, topped by the website www.tigerwoodsisgod.com. It appear this anniversary that the First Church of Tiger Woods is disbanding afterwards 13 years, accepting absent its faith.
His adamantine abatement from adroitness accepted that actuality admired isn’t all it’s absurd up to be. Now, Woods knows what the blow of us know: It’s boxy abundant aloof actuality a mortal.
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