Ramblings Post #366
Sometimes you get it back. You know what I mean. You don't know when you lost it, or where you lost it, you don't know how you lost it, but you know you don't have it right now. So you stop take a deep breath and re-assess yourself. Then you buckle your chinstrap, wipe away the sweat and go back in and finish that damned cheese log. That really is not the best sports metaphor.
I still have the Tiger Woods branded golf game for the PS3. I still have a PS3. I also still have about ten or fifteen courses I've still not played from that game's DLC I purchased (as much as I dislike DLC, it isn't ALL bad). But, I have played the version of Augusta National carried on that version. To say that course is hard, well, I couldn't even win there with the game on the easy mode. Bobby Jones was either a master of the game or a diabolical genius. And while the rise of Tiger in his youth didn't get me interested in golf (The neighborhood I grew up in was golf course adjacent and there was this Sega PGA game in early nineties) it did bring my attention back to this headache of game.
If all goes well, my new Saturday mornings will happen at this driving range not too far from the house and include a big bucket of balls. But that's been a plan.
I can honestly say I was one of those who did not think that Tiger could get back to this level. Retirement as suggested by many seemed a bit extreme, but the idea of his once vaunted domination returning seemed a low probability idea. Even after the surgeries he could still play - much better than me - an so I was of the opinion that if he could play average golf for four days and then be able to pull off four or five old school Tiger moments he would be competitive. At his prime he was so much better than everyone else that even at 75% he was dangerous. No domination, but able to make people sweat a bit. This I did not expect.
The mark of true champion is finding new ways to win when the old ways are no longer available. Like a quarterback who no longer has a deep threat arm or a great scramble and turns into fantastic game manager, so too did Tiger have to figure out a new path to victory. Since the incident that lead to his downfall, the subsequent depression and the injuries from what he had been putting his body through to get his peak, he hadn't been the same. And now the raw power isn't there any more after the spinal fusion surgery to fix his ailing back. So many suggested that he just retire with dignity - head to the booth, design some courses. But playing is what drives him. So he had to "figure out his angles." Which he did, which is extremely impressive in as unforgiving a game as golf. Going from winning by 21 to winning by 1 matters only to the bettors, a win is still a win. And to do it at Augusta, on one of the hardest of courses against some of the best in the game? Remarkable.
Sport is funny. We love winners and great comeback stories. We let things go for the feeling of triumph.
Barkeep, get that man a beer. And since he's a member of the club and I'm not, put it on his tab.
Sometimes you get it back. You know what I mean. You don't know when you lost it, or where you lost it, you don't know how you lost it, but you know you don't have it right now. So you stop take a deep breath and re-assess yourself. Then you buckle your chinstrap, wipe away the sweat and go back in and finish that damned cheese log. That really is not the best sports metaphor.
I still have the Tiger Woods branded golf game for the PS3. I still have a PS3. I also still have about ten or fifteen courses I've still not played from that game's DLC I purchased (as much as I dislike DLC, it isn't ALL bad). But, I have played the version of Augusta National carried on that version. To say that course is hard, well, I couldn't even win there with the game on the easy mode. Bobby Jones was either a master of the game or a diabolical genius. And while the rise of Tiger in his youth didn't get me interested in golf (The neighborhood I grew up in was golf course adjacent and there was this Sega PGA game in early nineties) it did bring my attention back to this headache of game.
If all goes well, my new Saturday mornings will happen at this driving range not too far from the house and include a big bucket of balls. But that's been a plan.
I can honestly say I was one of those who did not think that Tiger could get back to this level. Retirement as suggested by many seemed a bit extreme, but the idea of his once vaunted domination returning seemed a low probability idea. Even after the surgeries he could still play - much better than me - an so I was of the opinion that if he could play average golf for four days and then be able to pull off four or five old school Tiger moments he would be competitive. At his prime he was so much better than everyone else that even at 75% he was dangerous. No domination, but able to make people sweat a bit. This I did not expect.
The mark of true champion is finding new ways to win when the old ways are no longer available. Like a quarterback who no longer has a deep threat arm or a great scramble and turns into fantastic game manager, so too did Tiger have to figure out a new path to victory. Since the incident that lead to his downfall, the subsequent depression and the injuries from what he had been putting his body through to get his peak, he hadn't been the same. And now the raw power isn't there any more after the spinal fusion surgery to fix his ailing back. So many suggested that he just retire with dignity - head to the booth, design some courses. But playing is what drives him. So he had to "figure out his angles." Which he did, which is extremely impressive in as unforgiving a game as golf. Going from winning by 21 to winning by 1 matters only to the bettors, a win is still a win. And to do it at Augusta, on one of the hardest of courses against some of the best in the game? Remarkable.
Sport is funny. We love winners and great comeback stories. We let things go for the feeling of triumph.
Barkeep, get that man a beer. And since he's a member of the club and I'm not, put it on his tab.
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