Tiger Woods ..The Evolution of Golf ..Next Stage is in the hands of the Fans!!

Without Earl Woods the world would have been minus our beloved Tiger. After all, it was Earl Woods that told his son that he was going to be the greatest player there ever was and he told the world as well. Mr. Woods was right and I am sure he never had a doubt in his mind about how right he was.

In the late 70's all the local golfers in California were aware of a little guy named Tiger Woods, By the late 80's all the junior golfers knew who Tiger was and then folks we get to the late 90' and the whole world knew who Tiger Woods was.

There is no doubt the 97 Masters win for Tiger is the very moment that started the modern day evolution of the game of Golf. The world stands as witness to the transition of this ancient and sacred game to a mega billion dollar industry that produced sports 1st billion dollar athlete.

From all corners of the globe a startling effect took hold of us all. We would plan our days, our lives and our events around when and where Tiger was playing. Network TV could could count on viewership to quadruple when Tiger was in the mix and the sponsors had to stand in line just for the opportunity for the meet and greet.

The image of out of shape men (the one exception Gary Player) with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths that Golf dragged around for years had vanished in an instant. New players appeared that were true athletes, chiseled and with powerful swings that were generated from muscle and not from the extra body weight attached to the mid-section. These new players had talent and most of all desire, the desire to follow in Tigers footsteps. To do what Tiger has done you have to work and work hard. That is what these new guys are doing and it is obvisious. One day at a PGA tour event and you will see a group of men that are at the pinnacle of fitness. For this, we say "Thank you Tiger".

The game of golf started to grow like never before, golf courses were being developed with the same velocity as fast food restaurants, corporations waiting in line to sponsor a PGA tour event and millions of people dragged out the credit cards to buy billions of dollars of the latest and greatest golf equipment. And for this, we say "Thank you Tiger" .

In this 10 year Tigerthon that has loomed over the planet earth like a rainbow, we have grown to love the picture that had been painted for us. Tiger emerged as a man with talent like no other man, who could achieve at a record breaking pace, marries one of the most beautiful women on earth and is blessed with two perfectly healthy children. This is a perfect picture, we believed it, we loved it and most of all we wanted all to be true. And for those 10 years, we say "Thank You Tiger"

But, now it is over and what is looming on the horizon is all the fans that are mad as hell after the real picture of Tiger has emerged.

Golf has always been a civilized sport and requires no fan parcipatation, only cooperation in the matter of maintaining the silent barrier between the fan and the professional golfer. Anybody that plays golf knows that to practice good etiquette on the golf course you need to lose the loose lips during a backswing.

Could this be the final stage of the Tiger induced evolution of golf, where the once quiet. and patient golf fans become the golfing fans from hell that know no boundaries and blurt randomly their minds revenge only during a backswing.

Will golf fans take on the football fan base mentality and start painting their faces, bringing signs and worst case scenario bring a bag of stuff to throw... If Tiger had cheated once, I would say so what, but we have a dozen or so two legged beauties that suddenly have one thing in common, a stay in the rough with the worlds best golfer. Seemingly shocking since a mere 20 days ago we were all still talking about the worlds best man, "Tiger Woods".

My Advice to Tiger is to go back to his lesson book to the times when his dad would make noise and rattle change on the putting green, multiply that noise by a 1000 and go to work. It might be a good idea as well to enlist some of the co-conspirators to stand around him as he practices and yell things like "Cheater, Son of a Bitch, Low Life, Scum Bag and Are you a Racist?"

Well these are just some of the things I have heard people call him but who knows what the dedicated golf mom is going to yell at him as he walks down the farewell ( to the good ole days) fairway for the first time in January at Torrey Pines.

So once again, Tiger, come out, come out wherever you are and face your fans before your fans want to face off with you !!!