Woods revealed Wednesday he has been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ligament in his left knee, and that he suffered a double stress fracture in his left leg two weeks before the U.S. Open.
Ho. Ly. Crap. Now, if you're just a casual observer who thinks golf is a pretend sport played by awkward, half-drunken fat guys on the weekends, well, you're mostly right. But on the pro level, golf requires an inhuman level of focus and precision. There is just no margin for error. The difference between winning and losing a tournament can be one swing that was off by a hundredth of a second three days ago. And still, Woods produces this:
Even in his abbreviated 2008 season, he won five of seven tournaments worldwide. Dating to the discovery of the torn ACL, Woods won nine of 12 tournaments, including two majors, and never finished lower than fifth.
Who is this guy? What is he made of? The more he does this, the more I think his skills are wasted on golf. That kind of otherworldly mental toughness and focus could be better used in some other occupation, like:
-- Commando
-- Bomb disposal technician
-- Any kind of surgical specialty that has to do with the eyeball or the brain
-- Big time grifter (he'd be like Henry Gondorff and Danny Ocean combined!)
-- Secretary of Defense
-- "Deal or No Deal" contestant
-- Parent of triplets (or more)
He's to the point now where not playing tournaments is going to expand his mythology. For the rest of this year, people are going to look at pro golfers the same way we looked at replacement players during the pro football strike: the best of what's left.
On the other hand, here's the coverage from The Onion: "Man Who Used Stick To Roll Ball Into Hole In Ground Praised For His Courage"
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