Although a lot of the early news on Tiger Woods and his personal life happened in 2009, the Associated Press has named the Tiger drama the story of the year in sports, beating out the Saints winning the Super Bowl and LeBron James becoming the least popular person ever.
What does this mean? Well, first, it shouldn't surprise you. This is the story of 2010, no matter if you like it or not, which is sad. We are talking about sports stories, and the top one of the entire 12 months has little to do with actual sport. It has more to do with an image, a perception, and how all that was broken because of a wrong turn with a Cadillac.
Tiger dominated the news in 2010, and we wrote about anything he did, but as a sportsman, he wasn't much of anything. He never won, he hardly competed after the Masters and U.S. Open, and if not for the Chevron World Challenge, and exhibition event by most standards, we would have barely caught a glimpse of the famed red shirt that Tiger rocks on Sundays.
What was the most telling moment of Tiger's 2010, in my opinion? That came on Saturday at Pebble Beach, when Woods was roaring up the leaderboard, something we were used to seeing in the past but not so much this season. Tiger birdied 16 and 17, and stood in the fairway on the famed 18th with a wood in hand. Tiger smashed it, started walking after it, screaming at the ball to be right. It was, and Tiger had an eagle putt for 65. As you remember, he didn't make it, posting a 66, and then fading on Sunday with a disappointing 75. To me, that was his season. He was there, and at times he was really there, but it wasn't Tiger Woods golfing, it was a being that looked like him, and swung like him, but just wasn't him.
His story was the most popular, I'd agree with that, but it wasn't anything about his game. It would be nice if he could change that a little when the season kicks off next month.
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