The Jock Strap
with Brian Bruce
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tiger Woods.......Does anyone need any more proof?
As you know, Tiger Woods locked up his 14th career major with an epic victory at Torrey Pines in San Diego on Monday (6/16), defeating Rocco Mediate on the 91st hole of competition in a sudden-death playoff that followed that day's 18-hole playoff between the two men.
Tiger, only 32 years of age, now owns just four fewer major championships than Jack Nicklaus, who won his 18th and final major, The Masters, at the age of 45 in 1986. With the U.S. Open win on Monday, Woods also joined Jack as the only men to ever win the career Grand Slam three times over (Grand Slam includes all four majors......U.S. Open, Masters, PGA Championship, and British Open). Just to hammer that point home, Tiger and Jack each have at least three titles at each of the four separate events. Just incredible.
And, while Jack Nicklaus' brilliant career was highlighted by six wins at The Masters at Augusta National, Tiger's win at Torrey Pines was his seventh on the famed public course in the San Diego area, including not only this U.S. Open, but five Buick Invitationals and one Junior World Championship won when he was a teenager. Again, seven wins on the same course, another all-time record.
Now, all of this being said, Tiger Woods recently let it be known that the evident knee pain he suffered from at Torrey Pines, while walking 91 holes to finally earn the victory, was actually a very serious ACL tear in his left knee that will now require season-ending surgery. Meanwhile, he was also playing with a double stress fracture in his tibia. He has come out recently and admitted that a few weeks ago, when a doctor told him to take 6 weeks off for the stress fractures to heal properly, he looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm playing in the U.S. Open, and I'm going to win." So, ignoring doctor's orders and a severe amount of pain that limited his game, he still beat the best in the world and won our nation's golf championship, for the third time.
Anybody have any more questions or doubts about Tiger Woods? Care to question his talent, his ability, his heart, his toughness, his singleness of purpose? Care to question his desire to become the greatest golfer of all time? I would love to field a comment from someone who questions any of those things.
And, above and beyond everything just mentioned, I believe the one attribute that makes him truly special is his ability to live in the moment, and nowhere but in the moment. Just like Michael Jordan had the ability to do, Tiger has an almost superhuman ability to slow things down, purely focus on what he's trying to do, and seemingly get things done by sheer will. To me, he has more control on the outcome of whatever he's involved in than any other sportsman ever has. He ALWAYS comes up with the exact thing he needs at the exact time in which he needs it. A perfect drive on the 18th hole when he must birdie to keep the competition alive, a 15-foot putt on the 18th green for a tie and a forced playoff, a 65-foot eagle putt earlier in the round and a 35-foot double-breaking eagle putt on the 18th hole Saturday to take the overnight lead, and these were all things he just did in this last tournament, let alone all of the highlights we could come up with for his career. Oh yeah, by the way, I forgot the birdie chip-in he made this past Saturday at Torrey Pines as well. Just thought I'd throw that in.
Tiger Woods cannot be considered the greatest golfer of all time until he eclipses Jack Nicklaus' major championship record of 18 or Sam Snead's all-time tournament wins record of 82 (which he's quickly approaching with a current total of 65......Jack has 73), but I think it's pretty clear that you are watching the greatest golfer who's ever picked up a club. It's really not even much of a stretch to make that claim at this very point in time.
My words to you......Take in every moment, watch him as much as you can, enjoy the moments and cherish the memories as much as possible, because individuals like this come around once and once only.
"The Bruce"
Tiger, only 32 years of age, now owns just four fewer major championships than Jack Nicklaus, who won his 18th and final major, The Masters, at the age of 45 in 1986. With the U.S. Open win on Monday, Woods also joined Jack as the only men to ever win the career Grand Slam three times over (Grand Slam includes all four majors......U.S. Open, Masters, PGA Championship, and British Open). Just to hammer that point home, Tiger and Jack each have at least three titles at each of the four separate events. Just incredible.
And, while Jack Nicklaus' brilliant career was highlighted by six wins at The Masters at Augusta National, Tiger's win at Torrey Pines was his seventh on the famed public course in the San Diego area, including not only this U.S. Open, but five Buick Invitationals and one Junior World Championship won when he was a teenager. Again, seven wins on the same course, another all-time record.
Now, all of this being said, Tiger Woods recently let it be known that the evident knee pain he suffered from at Torrey Pines, while walking 91 holes to finally earn the victory, was actually a very serious ACL tear in his left knee that will now require season-ending surgery. Meanwhile, he was also playing with a double stress fracture in his tibia. He has come out recently and admitted that a few weeks ago, when a doctor told him to take 6 weeks off for the stress fractures to heal properly, he looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm playing in the U.S. Open, and I'm going to win." So, ignoring doctor's orders and a severe amount of pain that limited his game, he still beat the best in the world and won our nation's golf championship, for the third time.
Anybody have any more questions or doubts about Tiger Woods? Care to question his talent, his ability, his heart, his toughness, his singleness of purpose? Care to question his desire to become the greatest golfer of all time? I would love to field a comment from someone who questions any of those things.
And, above and beyond everything just mentioned, I believe the one attribute that makes him truly special is his ability to live in the moment, and nowhere but in the moment. Just like Michael Jordan had the ability to do, Tiger has an almost superhuman ability to slow things down, purely focus on what he's trying to do, and seemingly get things done by sheer will. To me, he has more control on the outcome of whatever he's involved in than any other sportsman ever has. He ALWAYS comes up with the exact thing he needs at the exact time in which he needs it. A perfect drive on the 18th hole when he must birdie to keep the competition alive, a 15-foot putt on the 18th green for a tie and a forced playoff, a 65-foot eagle putt earlier in the round and a 35-foot double-breaking eagle putt on the 18th hole Saturday to take the overnight lead, and these were all things he just did in this last tournament, let alone all of the highlights we could come up with for his career. Oh yeah, by the way, I forgot the birdie chip-in he made this past Saturday at Torrey Pines as well. Just thought I'd throw that in.
Tiger Woods cannot be considered the greatest golfer of all time until he eclipses Jack Nicklaus' major championship record of 18 or Sam Snead's all-time tournament wins record of 82 (which he's quickly approaching with a current total of 65......Jack has 73), but I think it's pretty clear that you are watching the greatest golfer who's ever picked up a club. It's really not even much of a stretch to make that claim at this very point in time.
My words to you......Take in every moment, watch him as much as you can, enjoy the moments and cherish the memories as much as possible, because individuals like this come around once and once only.
"The Bruce"
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