He’s No. 2!
In May of 2005, or exactly five years and five months ago, a little-known Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama passed his first ever piece of federal legislation, the “Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act” co-sponsored by a certain Senator John McCain.
Things have changed a wee bit since then, but one thing has remained the same. Since then, or for the past 281 weeks, Tiger Woods has been ranked the No.1 golfer in the world.
Until this past Monday. Now Lee Westwood owns that moniker.
Amazingly it took an entire year off from winning golf, due to a self-inflicted career wound, for Woods to give up his lofty perch and Woods was typically ambiguous about the recent drop:
“I’m not ranked No 1 in the world,” … “In order to do that you have to win and I didn’t win this year. As far as the emotions go, it is what it is.”
And what is that exactly?
Is he indifferent? Pissed off? Embarrassed? Contrite?
It’s probably pretty easy to figure out. If it had happened, say in the spring, when he was in full defence mode about his text messaging antics and porn star addiction it would have probably been a welcome relief to talk about, as in an actual golf topic. It would be a distraction from an ongoing humiliation.
The problem for his was he was so far ahead in the rankings – at its peak, the separation between himself and the 2nd ranked player in the world was the same as the separation between that No.2 guy and the 1600th ranked guy– it took this long for it to finally come to pass.
Now things are different. He’s divorced – his ex-wife Elin is putting all the jewellery he ever bought for her up for auction this week – and all anyone has got left to talk about when it comes to Tiger Woods is golf.
So when he’s saying “it is what it is,” what he’s really saying is, Lee had better not get too comfortable wearing the crown. This week the new No.1 and 2 go toe-to-toe at the Sheshan International Club near Shanghai at the HSBC Champions event.
The last time they faced one another in battle Westwood handed Woods and Steve Stricker a 6&5 drubbing in the foursomes at the Ryder Cup just four weeks ago. The next day Woods went nuts going 9-under in just 15 holes to take out Italian Francesco Molinari with ease.
He’s been working on his game ever since and is sounding not just confident, but almost Tiger-esque.
At the newser for his own year ending the tournament in December last week, he said, “I hope I can have two more W’s before I get here.”
Considering he’s only playing two other tournaments all year he essentially announced that he intends to win both in Shanghai and next week at the Australian Masters.
If he wins this weekend Westwood will tie the record for the shortest reign as No.1 with Tom Lehman who reached the summit in 1997 for all of seven days.
There are the other guys in this rodeo as well. The top of golf is so crowded six players — Westwood, Woods, PGA champion Martin Kaymer and Masters champion Phil Mickelson – could get to No. 1 this week without even winning. And if Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk had come over to China for this World Golf Championship, they also could have had a shot. It’s so close its possible that the highest finisher among Westwood, Woods and Kaymer will go to No. 1, provided they’re all in the top 20.
Yet with all that going on, what this upcoming Asian swing marks the beginning of the end of the myth that was Tiger Woods.
His carefully crafted corporate image went kerflooey after the National Enquirer published the story about Woods staying at the same Melbourne hotel as Rachel Uchitel, the nightclub manager who went on to kiss-and-tell for cash that culminated in the most famous fender bender in sports history.
No matter what happens on the course, no matter if he regains his No.1 spot, the lesson Woods best exemplifies is how tentative any perch is in sports.
Now we all get to see if perhaps the greatest golfer who ever lived can climb back up there.
Cheers – Gavin McDougald – AKA Couch