The ire of the Tiger

Published on Saturday 5 December 2009 20:51

EARL WOODS was giving his boy some media training, some pearls of wisdom for the challenges that lay ahead. "Where were you born, Tiger," the old man asked. "I was born on December 30, 1975, in Long Beach, California," the son replied. "No, Tiger, only answer the question you were asked. It's important to prepare yourself for this. Try again." Tiger answered: "I was born in Long Beach, California." Good, said Earl. That's better.

Tiger Woods was three years old at the time. He'd already appeared on the Mike Douglas Show by then. Two years later, at the age of five, he was a guest on ABC's That's Incredible, a programme dedicated to the freaks of America, like the woman who kept her dead husband embalmed in her bath for years, the man who almost had his brains blown out catching a bullet in his teeth and the little boy who could swing a golf club like a pro. Wholesome.

All his young life, Woods was told he was destined for greatness. His mother took his astrological chart to Buddhist temples in Los Angeles and Bangkok and was told by monks in both places that her boy had extraordinary gifts. "He can hold everyone together," she said. "He is the Universal Child." His father, famously, went further than that. "Please forgive me, but sometimes I get very emotional when I talk about my son," he said in 1996, before Woods had even turned professional. "My heart fills with so much joy when I realise that this young man is going to be able to help so many people. He will transcend this game and bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before. The world will be a better place to live in by virtue of his existence and his presence. I acknowledge only a small part in that, in that I know that I was personally selected by God himself to nurture this young man and bring him to the point where he can make his contribution to humanity."

The brilliant American sportswriter, Gary Smith, quizzed Earl about his claims, asked him if he really meant that young Tiger would have a bigger impact on the world than Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Buddha. "Yes," said Earl, "because he has a larger forum than any of them. Because he's playing a sport that's international. Because he's qualified through his ethnicity to accomplish miracles. He's the bridge between the East and the West. There is no limit because he has the guidance. I don't know yet exactly what form this will take. But he is the Chosen One. He'll have the power to impact nations. Not people. Nations. The world is just getting a taste of his power."

If you want to understand why Tiger thought he was invincible, you start with his parents. The notion that he was special was bred into him from day one and barely a single person in his life has since told him otherwise. Not anybody who was allowed to hang with him for long, that is. He won major upon major and million upon million, he did things none of us had ever seen a golfer do before. He had the perfect game, the perfect wife, the perfect kids. He had an aura. He was untouchable.

When he swore and threw his golf clubs in anger, nothing much was said, because he was Tiger and you didn't criticise. When he was rude and arrogant and a poor role model, didn't matter, because he was Tiger and few people had the guts to put these things to him. When an American magazine heard talk of his philandering two years ago they didn't report it. Instead they did a deal with Woods for an exclusive photo shoot in exchange for their discretion.

His world, see. Everybody danced to his tune. He was the Chosen One, just like his father said. So he slept around and didn't ever think he'd get caught. He was so secure in fortress Tiger that he couldn't see how anybody could get to him. Fame and wealth were his ramparts. He sure as hell never saw himself as a prisoner in his own castle, with a betrayed wife for company and a street full of television trucks outside his door beaming pictures to a world speculating about his marriage and his career and whether either can recover from his treachery.

What will be, will be in his marriage. Only two people know for sure if it's got a chance of surviving, so everything else we hear is conjecture and lies, the work of the scandal mags and Tiger's floozies who won't stop spewing lines like "Tiger was terrible in bed" until the public appetite – the voyeurs to give them their proper title – ceases, which isn't going to be anytime soon.

We're hearing also that Woods's reputation will never recover from this. It's nonsense. If marital fidelity was a pre-requisite in determining the legacy of sportsmen then Muhammad Ali's reputation would be in the gutter instead of in the Gods. It was Ali's good fortune that he never had to contend with TMZ.com when he was putting it about in his prime. But, still, the shameful treatment of some women in his earlier life is no secret. He was a champion philanderer, so bare-faced that when he went to the Philippines to fight George Foreman in the Thrilla in Manila in 1974 he travelled with his year-long mistress, Veronica Porsche, and left his wife, Belinda, at home with the kids.

But something else about the fighter's life dismantles the argument that Woods won't emerge from this a forgiven man. When Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali in 1964 he immediately became one of the most hated men in America. As a member of the Nation of Islam, he refused to go to war in Vietnam and was thrown out of boxing for almost four years. Nobody at the time saw Ali recovering. He hadn't betrayed a woman at that stage, he'd betrayed a country. His story gives the lie to the idea of Woods remaining in purgatory.

A different era, you might say. A more forgiving age. But there are many other examples of a more recent vintage, within sport and without. Nobody cares about Michael Jordan's womanising and gambling anymore. Kobe Bryant is now selling more basketball jerseys than any of his peers despite being charged with rape, and crying in front of the cameras, before being acquitted. Nick Faldo has just been made a Sir. Not that long ago his ex-girlfriend – the one he left his wife for – was smashing up his car for cheating on her with another woman. David Beckham is the ambassador for England's World Cup bid where a couple of years ago he was getting slaughtered for his alleged affair with Rebecca Loos.

Woods is still the most talented and most ferociously driven golfer out there, by a distance. Because of this crisis, he is also more interesting. That's not to downplay his unfaithfulness to his wife and children, but many of the most fascinating sportsmen have been flawed geniuses. George Best and Joe DiMaggio, Diego Maradona and Ben Hogan, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. All of them and more have had to deal with facets of their personality that could have destroyed them. Woods is now in the same territory.

Now that his previously secretive world has been blown wide open it's been suggested that a new, more human, slightly chastened Tiger will emerge, but the opposite could well be the case. It could be a clam-fest from here to eternity.

The mortification, and remorse, he is feeling right now will only be matched by his anger towards the media for exposing his life to such scrutiny and such ridicule. He has only himself to blame, that's obvious, but will the mind of the "Chosen One" see it that way? He will want to get back on the golf course as soon as is decently possible, and he will want to win – more than ever. His hunger for major championships was always focused on bettering Jack Nicklaus's record. Now his obsession has an extra dimension – retribution.

In the past, Woods has taken umbrage at even the slightest, almost imperceptible, suggestion by a fellow pro that he is not as invincible as he once was. He has taken these comments personally and has used them as motivation. You can only imagine what wrath he has been storing away this past week.

He will win a major in 2010 and the fortress around his family life will be reassembled to some extent. The aura may never be the same again but that will be a good thing. From the age of two, Woods has been listening to bullshit from his parents about his pre-ordained power to change the world. That's the bubble he's been living in for more than 30 years. Well, the bubble just burst.