Friday, April 6, 2012
Tiger Woods at the Masters
Observing the Masters on TV with the usual extensive coverage of Tiger Woods, it's obvious he's changed, at least in physical appearance. In overall demeanor, he seems almost subdued, or at least not so arrogant or cocksure of himself as was once the case. Second, he appears somewhat smaller, less muscular, slighter of build. Years past when the camera followed him down the fairway from behind, he appeared heavily muscular, almost massive, like a serious iron pumper who spends hours in the gym each day. As for the first observation, to many Tiger's aggressive fist pumps, hyper serious demeanor and all business all the time attitude was a little off-putting or maybe just a little too self centered and narcissistic. While the new Tiger is certainly not as fan friendly as, say, Phil Michelson at this point, but he seems to have at least softened the hard edge a bit. This is all to the good since most people prefer the Arnold Palmer, Phil Michelson personality in their golf heroes. As far as the second observation, there are at least two possible explanations. Either he has been working out a lot less these days or he no longer takes body building supplements or substances that have been banned in most sports since the baseball scandals of 20 years ago. As baseball fans know, home run production has fallen off precipitously since the banning of illegal muscle building substances. Where the home run leaders of the past hit maybe 65 to 70 home runs per season, the record nowadays is more like 40 to 50. No matter which it is, Obama now appears to have joined the rest of the field, at least physically. In an on camera interview preceding the third round of the Masters tournament, Nick Faldo made the observation that Tiger's world changed dramatically after his marital problem and its aftermath and that he has to deal with more issues than the old Tiger did. This, according to Faldo, makes Tiger a different person than the old Tiger who cannot be seen in the same light as before since his mindset is now changed. This analysis sounds about right. It remains to be seen if he ever reclaims his dominance as the best player in the world. Somehow that doesn't seem all that likely
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