I have no problem stating it thus and saying it so.  I have been a Tiger Woods fan, pretty much since the “go” went back to “wo.”

His Golf game was automatic.  An Australian Rugby Player, John Eales was given the nick-name, “Nobody,” because “Nobody’s Perfect,” and while these have referential significance only on the sporting field, on the Golf Course, Tiger took “Nobody” and made him “Somebody,” as he was set-apart in a golfing sense.

I first saw him make golf balls curse, when a multitude of holes behind at the US amateur matchplay, Woods was able to play with mesmeric control, as the opponent was stunned into submission, hole after hole after hole, as Tiger’s bullish intensity turned the heat up, making the result seem somewhat perfunctory.  However, this was not the first vision of the Tiger, as, when he was just another small boy with God-given potential, he would glimpse the world’s eye, when just out of nappies, for a fleeting moment, Potential would meet Hope, as Bob, a golfing man himself, would interact with Father Earl, and the boy acting Golf as a man.  Innocent in experience if not in intent, Woods would appear more Tigger, than what would be his golfing alter ego in decades to come…

embedded by Embedded Video

YouTube Embedded Video Plugin

Looking into that young face for a moment, which seems so full of life, is almost surreal, as I reflect on the face of the man at the Masters that looked like an individual trying to find Home!

Many moons would pass from then to now, when the golfing “Not Yet,” would become the, “Already,” where centre would be his stage…

At such times, and on such occasions, I have watched him Golf and the others play, I have seen him rise and I have seen them fall.  When the moment was crucial, he made what was critical, when the heat of the moment melted the majority, he stayed cool and became the winning minority.  When was the shot was needed, he was available, when the most were definitive, he was demonstrative, and when leading in the fourth round in a Major, while the rest were hopeful, he was… automatic!

If life was lived on the Golf Course, then Tiger’s world would be near mythical, but while television zoom encourage the world to lens in, look on and believe, man is not forged for the fight of life in such contexts, these are extensions of our life project that are based on the substance of our life, behind closed doors.

However, those closed doors, in the fullness of time would open, and what was whispered in the shadows, would be screamed out from the rooftops, and what the world would very rarely see on the Golf Course, we all would view in the cold hard light of day… Tiger would be beaten, with the privacy of his life becoming an endangered species, with a domino of depravity awaiting the highest offer, ready to offer up their poison, more than willing to tell its tale.

If only Solomon had been the one you had been spending your time with Tiger… IF only, If only, if only… instead of another ancient who can’t speak as he’s been silenced in stone!

That first time I saw Tiger Woods on TV, Hope had found him in a person, in the flesh, and the last time I saw Tiger, it was transparent in the windows of the soul that he was in need of Hope, cosmically still.

Again Tiger Woods needs Hope to find him, and find him in the flesh!

In this day when Tiger seems to be only hearing his bad news about things he has done, he needs to hear Good News about what Hope has done.  At this time when Tiger has been seeking to make war with his flesh that has driven him to despair, he needs to make peace through Hope’s Flesh that will carry him to his knees.  Only then, with his Father’s shadow encapsulating his puny frame, echoing an image from days youth, will the life of the Tiger return to his hearth!

Tiger, when you see Hope’s beauty, He will make a Green jacket look decidedly grey!

May each walk up the 18th be another step in the Damascus Road of Your Life

For the Fame of His Name

Man of Spin

This serves as the introductory piece to what will, God willing, be a series on the life and times of Tiger Woods, but should this be our reality, this will have to wait for another post!