This is what I find remarkable.
Resignation. Not something we’re used to hearing in his voice, or from him. I wasn’t there, didn’t hear the comment but just to see it mentioned in print is something Holmes might find instructive. Now, of course, we know in hindsight that he was playing golf while his wife was on the verge of giving birth to their first child. And that his birdie drought, including so many sensitive putts down to the final attempt, could not be charged, surely frustrating enough to wear down even someone of Tiger’s mental fortitude.
There it is, just the same. We will have to wait until Carnoustie to assess the damage and scar tissue. As it stands, Tiger is still running away with the statistical measurements for Player of the Year and the Vardon Trophy.
The following appeared well along in the game story from Newsday’s
Shaun Powell:
“I haven’t gotten it done. Put myself there,” Woods said, his voice lowering, “and haven’t gotten it done.”
HIS VOICE LOWERING? Get out! Tiger’s voice? Unbelievable. When have we heard Tiger appraise his performance with his voice lowering? But, hey, let’s cut an expectant father some slack. He gave himself an opportunity down to the wire and that’s all a golfer can ask.
Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post mentioned it some years ago in a collection of columns, but it surely predates his telling. “Golf doesn’t teach character,” the old saw goes, “it reveals it.”
So it was with mild interest that I came across the adage in another context.
Kerry Wood, the hard luck pitcher, was talking about his first pitching coach in pro baseball,
Oscar Acosta. It’s in
Buzz Bissinger’s piece in the New York Times magazine, Play, June 2007. “The game doesn’t build character; it reveals it,” Acosta told Wood.
Wood continues to reflect on the advice of his coach, who we learn was killed in a spring traffic accident in the Domincan, “more than ever before.” Perhaps this iinherent to all sports played with sincerity, and part of why we find them so compelling and, at times, maddening. -0-
