BY MARK HALPERN
Tiger Woods won’t be driving any golf ball or automobiles for the time being. For the second time in a decade Eldrid “Tiger” Woods flipped his car while driving home heavily impaired by opioid pain medication that, was not only found on his person but also in his system. Woods, who was once the pinnacle of the sport, now has the sport wanting to be distanced from him. But has the sport passed him by?
Woods the holder of 82 individual wins including Masters, U.S and British Open Championships, Ryder Cup wins and PGA Championship. Woods entered the Tour in late 1996 and winning two tournaments (One being The Las Vegas Classic). He took the sport by storm in 1997 at 21 years old, a feat that has yet to be broken. Woods, did for golf what Jordan did for Basketball and that was revive the sport. The Sport has been played since its first recorded match in 1553 (Yes over 5 centuries and I am not old enough to remember it) Golf has had many ambassadors such as Bobby Jones, Walter Hagan, Sam Snead, Jack Nickalus, Arnold Palmer (Such a great drink) and more recent Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and of Course Woods. Woods didn’t just change Golf, he changed sports as a whole. Woods, was something to watch at his young age hitting fairway after fairway and then effortless shots to put him with in his own length for a putt. Woods in his prime already was the best and if you were paired up with him it should have been an honor. Woods hasn’t won a major since the 2019 Masters, and at times has struggled to make the cut.
Over the past decade Woods has had several surgeries and unfortunately got hooked on the “Pain Killer” Vicodin AKA Hydrocodone. For People who suffer severe pain from everything from arthritis to bone breaks this classification of drugs has been shunned because of how easy it is to become addicted to the medicine and very hard to get away from it. Some other Major athletes have gotten hooked on this medicine. According to NHLPA, hockey is the sport that this drug is most provided for. This shocked me as I thought it would be the NFL but, you learn thing you wish you didn’t by doing some research.
Woods will be taking a very long “Sabbatical” from the sport to get himself clean. The area for concern is what effect is this going to do for his children, including his son who is already got heads turning at his young age of 17 (2 years shy of when his dad broke in) and with his last name he will hear the mummers. This will be hard on the Woods family (just like it is for any Family with a member with this addiction) to recover from financially and I say this “IN MY OWN OPINION.” For Tiger Woods now a days it is legacy, face and signature that was bringing in the money. There has been no news of Woods’ three biggest sponsors Nike and Upper Deck Authenticated and Rolex about them cutting ties or even have him take a break from them as no sponsor wants to see one of their top names be severely tarnished and look bad by splitting instead of helping.
Tiger Woods needs to forget about what he has done and now needs to what he needs to do and that’s be a father to his kids. Charlie, we know will be making the tour sooner than later and it would be great to have someone like his father to be there for him for the support that his sone and family will be giving him now. Tiger Woods captivated us with his play and to watch this fall is really sad. Hopefully Tiger can get himself right, but his Golf career is probably done.
The Sports Insanity Network 