Meggisi

Just to be clear, I am not a golf fan. Also, just to be clear, I have never been a fan of Tiger Woods. I have always thought him to be a smug, arrogant, self-interested pseudo-athlete. Oh yes, I deem golfers pseudo-athletes, like Tina Fey’s character “Ashlyn St. Cloud” in last night’s episode of SNL, who said that golf wasn’t a real sport:

I am willing to admit that – like in any activity requiring coordination and at times strength – golfers need to remain relatively fit. But not to the extent of athleticism required to compete in football, baseball, basketball, soccer, or hockey. Don’t get me wrong here…I am not trying to demean golf. It is an interesting game which requires a LOT of skill. But not athleticism.

So today, when the final round is played at 2:40 EDT, Tiger tees off within reach of the win. Everyone is keyed up on the real possibility of him making “the greatest comeback in sports history.” (Just run the search string “greatest comeback tiger woods” through Google and see what I mean.) The anticipation is so hyped up that the PGA estimates that the number of viewers could eclipse every past PGA television record today, even saying that they will attract more than 1/2 the viewership of the SuperBowl.

If he does win, I think we will truly know how much of a hype-driven sport golf truly is. We have already seen it in the Nike ad that has been showing this week during Masters coverage. It seems that in order to right his wrongs, Woods’ spin machine wants people to forget quickly that he has a real problem. How should he gain redemption? Win a major golf tournament? When? Now? A year from now? Should he be allowed to golf in the PGA anymore? How much is this different from Michael Vick (who is a true athlete, BTW)? When can we forgive you, Tiger?

It doesn’t matter. The forgiveness is window dressing at this point. The real message to society that Woods is sending is, “repentance is just a comeback away.”