I’m lucky enough to be pretty healthy. I don’t have any ailments, other than being a bit overweight…but I’m working on that! What I mean is, I’m healthy all-around. Like all of us, I have days where I may be a little under the weather. But it’s very rare that I actually get “sick.” Rare enough that my boss probably wouldn’t believe me if I was to call out of work for the day. I’ve been with my company for about four years and have yet to take a sick day. Well, that’s not entirely true. I did take one. But I used it to play golf on a Monday. And my boss was well aware. So I can understand him not believing me.
What I don’t understand is why people don’t believe Tiger Woods when he says he’s hurt. He’s the #1 player in the world. It takes work and talent to get there. So when he pulled out of the Honda Classic, why, instead of understanding that he was struggling due to a known back injury, did many people react like he was full of crap? I began seeing all kinds of “Tiger is a baby” comments (along with various other descriptions I won’t say here) popping up on social media right away. Why the animosity?
Is it because he is the worlds #1 ranked player? That could be. I mean, the #1 always has a target on their back. And it seems to be the American way to build someone up only to tear them down. Or maybe it’s because people still hold a grudge against him for the past mistakes in his personal life? I suppose that’s a reason. Because he’s a celebrity, everything he does wrong stands out more and is remembered for a longer period of time. Or maybe it’s simply because people just genuinely think he’s full of crap. They think he genuinely faked an injury because he wasn’t playing well and had no chance. I suppose that’s possible. After all, it’s not like he needs the money. He can walk away from a tournament and it certainly won’t hurt his wallet any.
It seems as though many people have these thoughts in the back of their minds and aren’t taking into consideration that he may actually be hurt. But hurt enough to not finish the last five holes? I don’t know. I’m not even going to form an opinion on it. But I will say this – There’s a difference between being hurt and being injured. You play when you’re hurt. And when you walk away with only five holes remaining after having a bad round…well, you can see how certain opinions can be formed. One can only hope that he’s not using the injury as an excuse for poor play.
Swing ’til you’re happy!