The Return of Tiger Woods ... and Golf

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↵Has there ever been such an eagerly awaited return to the fray by an athlete as Tiger Woods’ 2 PM tee-time today in the Accenture Match Play Championships? Has a sport ever so needed the return of a single player as much golf needs the return of Tiger right now?↵↵There is, I think, only one near parallel in recent memory -- Michael Jordan’s return to basketball in March of 1995 after his first, ill-advised baseball adventure. And even that momentous occasion pales in comparison somehow, for while the overall media anticipation may have been even greater for MJ’s comeback to the court than it is for Tiger’s return to the links, a Jordan-less NBA was not quite such a rudderless ship as is a Tiger-less PGA. ↵

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↵↵Much like Tiger, however, Gretzky ushered the NHL into a new era of television ratings and revenue, and he did it by the force of his own unprecedented dominance. With his bombshell trade from Edmonton to L.A. in 1988, The Great One essentially brought big-time hockey to the U.S., as the sport enjoyed a wave of popularity here in the States that would not outlive those feverish years of Gretzky-mania.↵

↵↵Prior to The Great One, there were a few other notable variations on the one-man sport, he-owns-the-bank type situations. It could be argued that boxing would have begun its long slow slide into the fringes of the American sports mainstream much earlier than it did were it not for the appearance and perseverance of Muhammad Ali. George Mikan so defined the nascent NBA in the early 1950’s that a game between the Minneapolis Lakers and the Knicks at Madison Square Garden famously was billed on the Garden marquee as “GEO MIKAN VS KNICKS.”↵

↵↵And then, of course, there was the holy trinity of the Jazz Age -- Ruth, Dempsey and Jones -- the giants of baseball, boxing and golf who not only symbolized their sports in and of themselves but also changed the national idea of just how gigantic an athletic star could be, both in terms of cultural obsession and financial remuneration. The seeds of Tiger’s media empire were sown by the Babe’s long-ball largesse, Dempsey and Tex Rickard’s million-dollar gates, and the effortless golf-swing of Bobby Jones that mesmerized a nation.↵

↵↵This is the mantle that Tiger has inherited, and this is why his round today is anticipated as much more than just a great golfer getting back on the links after a long recovery from injury. Because, let’s face it, this is not so much the return of Tiger we’re anticipating here as it is the return of golf, in the same way that Jordan’s comeback from the void of minor-league baseball felt like the return of basketball, and even more so in the way that Ali’s return from his Vietnam exile felt like the return of boxing. ↵

↵↵Tiger’s opponent today is Australian Brendan Jones, currently ranked 64th in the world and a former used-car salesman. One wonders what runs through Jones’ head today as he prepares to play a most unlikely role in a moment of such grandiose sports-historical significance. Ali’s first opponent in 1970 after his three-and-a-half year forced vacation was the Bellflower Belter, Irish Jerry Quarry. Much like Tiger today, many wondered then if Ali would be rusty after such a long layoff, if he could ever recapture the breathtaking style of his mid-60’s apex.↵

↵↵And then … Ali stopped Quarry in three. Which sounds about right for today’s donnybrook at Dove Mountain. If our Aussie Brendan is still in it at the turn, well, he’ll have given quite a good account of himself. Me, I see him hitting the canvas long before then. Because something tells me that, with that brand new knee, Tiger’s gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.↵

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