Paradigm Shift...Tiger Woods Changing The Perception Of Golf

Tiger Woods is driving the change in the perception of golf to that of an athletic sport and will be known as the player that influenced an evolutionary change in how the game is learned and played forever more.

For centuries the game of golf has been considered a game   in which the royal, the elite, and the privileged participated   in a leisure fashion. Then came advances in golf course   design, and golf equipment, which increased the demands   for more skill and brought out the likes of Snead, Hogan,   Player, Palmer and Nicklaus.   These were probably the first signs that golf changed from   more of a game to a sport, but it wasn’t until this past   decade in which Tiger Woods’ influence and domination,   forced a real and permanent change in the way   professionals train and the way the golf public will learn,   practice and play in the future
A New Paradign For Professional Golf It was evident from the TV accounts that we have all seen of him as a toddler, that Tiger was born with a passion for golf and was destined to be the greatest player that has ever lived. The movie The Natural was released way prematurely. Woods was the Natural long before Robert Redford. There are athletes who changed their sport in ways that are almost indefinable. For example, Babe Ruth turned baseball from a bunt and run game into a power game that led to today’s more athletic era. Johnny Unitas changed the NFL from a slight diversion from college football to the biggest sport on America’s part of the planet. Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan both changed basketball in their own ways, Wilt through sheer, awesome power and Michael through grace and determination, as well, Wayne Gretzky changed hockey into a game more fit for magicians on ice than toothless goons. So where does Tiger fit in when it comes to changing golf? His swing is not as smooth as Hogan’s. He doesn’t putt like Crenshaw. He doesn’t drive like Nicklaus if you compare the equipment. He simply changed the game unlike any icon in sports. He’s one of the few athletes that the public identifies with on a first-name basis (OK, Tiger’s real name is Eldrick). He’s become a corporate icon making more money than his accountants can count and he’s changed the game of golf. He won a U.S. Open on one leg and he’s gone from a scrawny kid who won the U.S. Amateur three times to a muscle-bound hulk who pays attention to his nutritional intake and does yoga and weightlifting in the same day. Forget his legendary eight-hour practice sessions; he does almost as much at the gym as he does on the driving range. Does anyone say golfers aren’t athletes anymore? That used to be a common stigma. Golfers were like bowlers or fishermen playing a game. Very skilled, but “not athletes” was the standard critique. Tiger changed all of that. Tiger is definitely an athlete, as are the top players now on the PGA Tour, not to mentionthe LPGA and Champions Tour. Since the start of Tiger’s ascendance to the top of the PGA Tour, other golfers have followed his model. Tiger went to the gym; started working on continuing his string of major champions, up to 14 as of July 4, and most everyone else took note. When Retief Goosen won the Transitions Championship in Palm Harbor, Fla., in March, he credited his conditioning along with Woods as the reason. “I was looking at myself in the mirror and thinking, ‘I look a bit out of shape,’’Goosen said after winning The Transitions. “I started working hard in the gym and I figured instead of being totally out of shape and struggling I might as well be totally in shape and struggling. I feel better about myself and a lot of it has to do with what Tiger has brought to the Tour. I feel better about myself now and am a lot more consistent. I think the whole Tour has learned a lesson from Tiger.’’ Padraig Harrington won the last two majors of the 2008 season – The British Open and the PGA Championship – and he said at Bay Hill this year that Tiger inspired him to work even harder. Harrington doesn’t work out the conventional way; he plays rugby and boxing. “I don’t know that Tiger had anything to do with my success but he makes me work harder,’’ Harrington said. “I hope it keeps going that way. Tiger has a lot of wins and there’s a huge gap between my two (majors) and his however many, but he’s made it a different game. We have to be in shape to compete with a guy who wins on one leg.’’ Woods himself just laughs and shrugs off any implication that he works harder at fitness than anyone else. To Woods, it’s just part of the game, part of the game that involves eight hours of practice every day and a few more hours at the gym. None of that interferes with trying to be a father of two young children. It comes natural to Woods who has won on one leg, battled allergies throughout his career, not to mention cameramen and galleries that rival those of Hannah Montana. “It felt good and it was because of hard work,’’ Woods said during the Arnold Palmer Invitational after sinking a long putt on the 72nd hole for his second straight win at Arnie’s big event. “You do what you have to do and you put the work in and it pays off. I was hurt last year but I don’t feel like I ever left.’’ Does it ever get boring, the same workout, the same routine, day after day when you have accomplished so many goals and made enough money to last several life times? “If you put the work in and that means on the range and in the fitness room, it pays off,’’ Woods said. “When you stop working at it, that’s when you lose your edge. It’s as important what you do on the course as what you do off the course.’’ Sean O’Hair, who won the Quail Hollow Championship and finished second to Woods at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, could only marvel at Woods’ achievements after the knee injury. “He won (the U.S. Open) on one leg,’’ O’Hair said in March at The Transitions. “He works harder than everyone and just has that talent. He’s an example of what hard work and fitness can do.’’ Speaking of the 2008 U.S. Open, Rocco Mediate knew he was playing with someone who could barely walk his way around Torrey Pines that Monday when Woods won on the 91st hole. Mediate himself had missed a large chunk of his career to back injuries and had nothing but kind words to say about Woods and what his fitness meant to one of golf ’s epic championships. Mediate has been suffering from his knee injury throughout the early part of the 2009 season. He’s had a meniscus tear since 2007 but has soldiered on ever since. He said Tiger’s strength was a source of inspiration on that final day at Torrey Pines. “It was more of a pain but it had to be done,’’ Mediate said. “Tiger went through his injuries and we all go through them. I wish I was in the shape he is in now. He works hard and you can tell. Tiger still isn’t the Tiger we all know. When he starts making putts he will be the Tiger we all know and that will be the end of that.’’ When it comes to golf fitness, no one is better versed than Gary Player. The South African was one of the Big 3, along with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, throughout most of the 1960s and early 1970s. While “Fat Jack’’ and “The King’’ were both known for their girth, it was Player who brought fitness to the game of golf and is what he feels gave him a competitive edge to challenge the world’s best players. Even today, at 73, he counts 9 majors and 24 wins on the regular Tour, 19 wins on the Champions Tour and over 120 others from around the globe, and has a body that would put to shame many of the young guns on the PGA Tour.
Player has said that there is little doubt that Tiger has revolutionized the game, even more than the hi-tech equipment changes and the “Tiger-proofing’’ of some of America’s most beloved courses.” So has the game changed since Player was battling Palmer and Nicklaus? “Yes, no doubt,’’ Player said. “Many of the older guys are not as in shape, but the younger ones are seeing the success of those like Tiger and beginning to take notice that it takes both mental and physical strength to win a tournament. We are seeing more players bringing trainers along with them to tournaments.’’ ’It isn’t just the PGA fitness trailer,” Player said. “Woods has influenced the way golfers are looking at the game in other ways.” “On the other hand, many of the Tour players have poor eating habits. I believe you are what you eat and with the amount of travel we do, unless they select wisely what they put into their bodies, it may not matter how athletic they are. Some foods are literally poisons.’’ Player admits that Tiger’s success has been noticed by the rest of the Tour and is making a big impact on how the game is perceived. “He raised the bar for those on Tour,’’ Player said about Woods. Brad Brewer, who owns and runs the Brad Brewer Golf Academy in Orlando, Fl., and is an award winning teaching professional and author, gives his perspective on what Tiger has done. “Tiger Woods has changed competitive golf in quantum leap, greater than any gap I’ve seen in sports history. This also follows the second greatest performance increase that we witnessed by Michael Jordan in the NBA. In the eyes of all athletes, golf has become a ‘real sport’ and the majority of its performers have evolved into conditioned athletes. Prior to Tiger, we had our unique stand out, like Player, Palmer, Norman and Faldo that maintained a strong presence. But nothing like Tiger.”
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