About Tiger

Although I have been writing about Tiger for nearly twenty years, I have refrained from commenting in writing on the whole Tiger situation.  Much of the Tiger commentary on goldengolf.com was made between 1990 and 2004. This was a time when the world experienced an paradigm shift in the nature of the game. Tiger took golf to level that even experienced tour veterans rarely enjoyed. During the years of Tiger's coming up, I was fascinated that he seemed to embody the militaristic discipline of his Vietnam veteran father, and the humble influence of his Buddhist mother. He seemed to me to be the perfect example of sentient detachment. At the time, I believed that the more we can detach from sentient entanglement the better we could step into the moment and hit pure golf shots. I still believe this. However, now I have a different perspective. It is not the state of your moral condition that determines the level of your play; it is your ability to detach from the implications of your off course actions, the conflicting thoughts that accompany those actions, and the hints of doubt that such thoughts might evoke. In a way, it's a disappointment. For once upon a time I thought that by reducing moral conflicts, one would reduce the need for such detachment. Such is not the case.

In respect to moral turpitude, golf may in fact may be a safe harbor ... a place where one can escape from the pernicious thoughts of personal shortcomings and failings. This may explain why Tiger is on his best start ever in the Masters.

I think the conflict for Tiger is not the fact of his infidelity, but his attempt to have a foot in both worlds.




Obviously he wanted to have children in world where a wealthy man can be afforded a stable of quality concubines. I know this sounds sexist ... too bad. Here is a guy in the prime of his life, boyishly handsome, and sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars. Finding girls that want to shag you won't be a problem.

If he wanted to have both worlds, he should have just payed someone to bear his children and put all the cards on the table. He should have said to the future mother of his children, "Look, here's one hundred million dollars to have my children. I'll be the dad, but don't try to control my behavior. I am not a monogamous man. I have a mountain of cash and there are hundreds of supermodel women that want to sleep with me. Don't expect me to ever be faithful."

He may have received criticism from the press and social rejection. But he wouldn't have to be trying to work payoff deals with his paramours through a staff of attorneys.