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Bashing Mr. Woods Those who take shots at Tiger simply missing the boat
Don't get famous. Don't get really, really good at anything that people would want to watch. Don't be particularly photogenic, either, with a flashy smile and an easy grace. Don't climb to the pinnacle of your profession and look like you're going to stay there for a long, long time. Don't make millions and millions of dollars and then some. Don't get so quietly confident at what you do that your competition quivers like chickens in front of a KFC. Whatever you do -- whatever you do -- don't wish you had Tiger Woods' life. You know, in the height of his popularity, when he couldn't leave his hotel room for fear of getting mobbed and his image was plastered on everything from underwear to French fries, Michael Jordan never had more people pulling for him to fail. Woods has seen his share of that already. And, already, he must know that he hasn't seen the worst of it. "He is so unbelievably perfect, so unfeasibly clean and tidy. The Tiger adjectival lexicon has become familiar to us all -- poised, fluent, graceful, flawless," wrote a London writer the other day on the eve of the British Open. "It is difficult to believe the gleaming packaging contains a human being." What is it with all these Tiger bashers, huh? They're all over the place, if you look, people who want to rip into Tiger, root against him and get all gleeful when he doesn't win. Maybe it's simply the fickleness of fame: The bigger you are and the richer you are, the more people want to see you fall and all that rot. But this is a young athlete, still not at the top of his game, who is dominating golf like few others ever have. He has become an idol to millions all around the world. He is, in effect, re-inventing the old game. No, he's not perfect. He's told a risqué joke or two. He's been known to curse. He is, by many accounts, fairly cold and calculating when it comes to his career. You want more reasons to bash Tiger? The man seems to be on every commercial across America, for Pete's sake. He is shoved down our throats by Nike, by Wheaties, by you name it. When a new golf magazine launched recently -- well, you know who was on its cover. When any magazine, in fact, gets a chance to put Tiger out front, he's there. Enough of anybody, you know, is enough. But, c'mon. Golf hasn't had someone this dominant since Jack Nicklaus in his heyday. Woods owns the sport. And he's only 24 years old. Twenty-four! How good can this guy be? To watch him unleash an impossibly long drive off the most torqued-up swing you ever saw, to watch him blast out of the rough, to see him stand solidly over a long putt and pump his fist after dropping it -- heck, it can actually get you excited about golf. Even non-golfers have to appreciate the passion and the commitment this young man has for the game. He is huge, the most popular athlete on the planet today, but you know what Woods thinks about? Not drugs and chicks and making a rap album and acting. Not his next contract. Not about getting respect or getting his face on another billboard. He thinks about bettering Nicklaus' record of 18 majors. Sure, people love to bring down the mighty. We love to look for chinks. The problem is, if you spend your time looking for the little imperfections, you end up missing the big stuff. So, as far as nitpicking Tiger goes, as far as trying to find the flaws, it's all really simple. Don't. You'll miss out on all the fun. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
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