{"id":572458,"date":"2026-03-31T07:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572458\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:58:11","slug":"tiger-woodss-never-ending-shadow-will-smother-golf-until-he-leaves-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572458\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger Woods\u2019s never-ending shadow will smother golf until he leaves the game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Tiger Woods’s recent car roll and arrest dominated golf’s headlines over the weekend, overshadowing Gary Woodland’s heartwarming win at the Houston Open on Sunday.Reinhold Matay\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Kudos to Tiger Woods for working almost single-handed to maintain the rich niche of celebrity mugshots. It used to be that you couldn\u2019t seriously admire any cultural figure unless he (and occasionally she) had a few low-impact felonies on their jacket. <\/p>\n

Woods\u2019s modern wrinkle to this is that as the alleged crimes become sadder, and the resulting pictures even more so, his relevance increases. Never before has an athlete who did less athletics had more profile. <\/p>\n

After getting arrested for another DUI a couple of days ago, there was a run on the polo Woods was wearing as he was booked. Give him this much \u2013 Woods rarely golfs any more, but he always looks as if he is about to golf. He may sleep in cleats. <\/p>\n

He was still wearing the same powder blue number when he was released. Often, famous people have some vassal bring them a change of clothes before they get out in front of cameras again. Not this guy. He\u2019s long past trying to spin these setbacks. At this point, the setbacks are the spin. <\/p>\n

You can\u2019t buy that shirt any more. It\u2019s sold out. It\u2019s from Woods\u2019s newish personal apparel brand, Sun Day Red.<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods released on bail after arrest at crash scene on suspicion of DUI<\/a><\/p>\n

The tagline of Sun Day Red is \u201cFrom the Vision of Tiger Woods \u2013 Performance apparel for those who share Tiger\u2019s passion for competing, on & off the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

No wonder no one watches comedies any more. Like Peter Cook once said, real life is so much funnier. <\/p>\n

In any case, Woods is the only person in the world for whom rolling their car on a random workday afternoon is a business opportunity. <\/p>\n

At the Houston Open this past weekend, golf was reasserting itself as a safe space for bros who just want to be themselves out in public. A number of Fulbright scholars were photographed walking the course in #FreeTiger t-shirts, complete with mugshot. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Woods’s mugshot became a meme, while the shirt he wore sold out on his clothing brand’s site. Fans showed up at the Houston Open to support Woods, who commands the attention of sports fans with every move, positive or negative, he makes.Mike Mulholland\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Golf devotes a lot of energy these days to wondering why people don\u2019t like it as much as they used to, back when Woods was in his ascendancy. It\u2019s not the quality of play or the lowered wattage of current stars. It\u2019s that golf is the official sport of the guy you hated in high school. <\/p>\n

Which is too bad because at that same tournament, golf provided the \u2018Awwww\u2019 sports story of the year so far. <\/p>\n

Gary Woodland won this year\u2019s Houston Open. Woodland isn\u2019t famous for his game, but he was known for having had brain surgery<\/a> to remove a lesion. <\/p>\n

As it turned out, things got worse from there. Woodland developed PTSD and became erratic. He\u2019s only just started telling people about his troubles. Now he\u2019s won a significant tournament and a bunch of money. <\/p>\n

He should be the big deal going into the Masters in just over a week\u2019s time. As we speak, the people at CBS Sports are holding hands and saying a prayer. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary Woodland, seen here with his wife, Gabby Woodland, put together one of the best sports stories of the year with his win at the Houston Open on Sunday.Erik Williams\/Reuters<\/p>\n

But you know in your bones that it won\u2019t be Woodland people want to know more about. It\u2019ll be Woods. Unless he goes away and stays away, it will always be Woods.<\/p>\n

It could only work this way in golf. If Roger Federer suddenly takes a turn into darkness, it\u2019s a one-off story. Because however great Federer was, he is no longer viable as a tennis player. Were he to try coming back now, he would more than likely embarrass himself (which should be a warning to Serena Williams, who continues to play public footsie with the idea of a return). <\/p>\n

Federer, like every aging pro in every other sport, has been ejected from the tribe. There\u2019s no returning. <\/p>\n

But not golf. Golfers don\u2019t fade away, they die. Fifty, 60 years old, it\u2019s still theoretically possible that they could have one great weekend. A long series of terrible weekends doesn\u2019t change that. <\/p>\n

Why do you think the likes of Mike Weir, 55, keep showing up at the Masters? You think he thinks it\u2019s going to go poorly (which it always does)? <\/p>\n

No, some secret part of him \u2013 the part that allowed him to win the Masters nearly 25 years ago \u2013 thinks he\u2019s going to win it. That he\u2019s going to shock everyone. <\/p>\n

The only cure for that level of self-belief is fear of humiliation. Hockey players are born with it. Golfers aren\u2019t. Even the best of them are accustomed to losing, and often losing badly. <\/p>\n

This is why Woods won\u2019t go away. As best the rest of us can tell, he\u2019s only done one thing really well his whole life. Everything else is a shambles.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s slowly swapping every bone and joint in his body out for a titanium replacement. He\u2019s waded through the most humbling sex scandal of modern times. He\u2019s survived car crashes and legal implosions. <\/p>\n

In the midst of all that, he won another Masters and is still selling out shirts. You\u2019d think you were superhuman, too. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, pro golf can\u2019t bring itself to be shot of him. He\u2019s the guy who steadied them during that brief time when it looked like the Saudis were making inroads. He\u2019s the face of their weird indoor league. He is still apparently the most authoritative voice in the room when it comes to where the game is headed. And until a few hours ago, he was going to make another comeback in Augusta. <\/p>\n

Unlike any athlete before, Woods has passed into whatever lies beyond celebrity based on performance or heat or anything at all positive. He is permanently fixed at the top of the game. Every time he wants attention, good or bad, he can have it. Whatever he produces, sells. Whatever he says is listened to. <\/p>\n

How would that warp your self-perception? And having been formed by years of that treatment, who could give it up?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d feel sorry for the guy if I didn\u2019t know the only cure for whatever ails him is leaving. Feeling sorry for him is what keeps him coming back. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s no longer a question of what golf needs, more Tiger Woods or more Gary Woodlands. It\u2019s what golf is \u2013 a place where once you have reached a certain level, you never need leave, even if that\u2019s what would be best for all concerned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Tiger Woods’s recent car roll and arrest dominated golf’s headlines over the weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,2922,82,8023],"class_list":{"0":"post-572458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-topstory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}