Another milestone for Woods: Heart matches talent
Daddy's girl was waiting on the 18th green, toddling along in the grass near her mother and grandmother, arms extended.
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| Tiger Woods will have a lot of time to spend with Sam this summer. (AP) |
And wait, and wait.
Sam Woods, who would celebrate her first birthday two days later, relished being squeezed by her not-so-old man. As Woods tried to hand her back to his wife so that he could coddle his latest major-championship trophy, Sam extended her arms again, looking for another hug. He popped a pacifier in her mouth and whispered into her ear. It was all captured on NBC and beamed worldwide.
Baby says da-da and crowd goes ga-ga.
Truly, sentiment had begun to swing toward Woods long before the spontaneous, unscripted celebration with his family and friends. Wednesday's news that Woods played the entire week at Torrey Pines with stress fractures and ligament damage in his trashed left knee not only cemented his persona, but heightened it.
Woods, the unapologetic assassin who stomped on his opponents' necks with a spiked cleat, has morphed into a sympathetic, vulnerable human. For that, he'll be embraced even more tightly.
Jack Youngblood played in the Super Bowl on a broken leg and landed in the Hall of Fame. Willis Reed hobbled through the NBA Finals on one leg, becoming a New York legend. There's no tackling or contact in golf, but this might trump all for impact.
Woods hobbled around for five-plus rounds in the toughest test in golf with two stress fractures in his tibia and a frayed anterior cruciate ligament. He knew it, kept it to himself and soldiered onward before announcing that he'd have season-ending surgery to clean up the mess.
"The fact that he needs additional surgery only makes his performance and victory at last week's U.S. Open all the more impressive," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said, doubtlessly before diving off the tallest building in Jacksonville, a plummet that will likely match the TV ratings the rest of the year.
Woods' talent has never been questioned; now he proved he has the heart and stones to match. Forever admired for his a capella ability to make the golf ball sing an aria, Woods just ratcheted up his public-approval rating to an orchestral crescendo.
If there's anything we love more than a good underdog, like Rocco Mediate's bid to unseat Woods, it's the comeback story of a somewhat fallen, fragile or aging hero.
He certainly fits the first two descriptions. Reading his body language, and what he was and wasn't saying, many of us in San Diego suspected Woods' injury was far more serious than he'd disclosed. Those folks who suggested he was milking the moment, including competitors like Retief Goosen -- who has since backtracked -- must feel pretty small about now.
