Tiger Woods is not human

I spent the better part of my day in front of the t.v. After driving to Racine to meet my parents for church, we went to the country club where my parents are members and had lunch. While we were there we watched the basketball tournament and the golf tournament on two different t.v.'s. It's no secret to anybody who has read my past blogs that I am a big basketball fan, but I found myself watching Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational more than the upset of Louisville and even the UNC v. Oklahoma game (even though I was wearing a North Carolina Polo today). The only reason for my infatuation with the game of gentlemen was Tiger Woods.
He started the day 5 strokes back from Sean O'Hair who was at -7 through 3 days. Tiger on the other hand was only 2 under par and had bogeyed 2 of the last 5 holes the previous day. This lead would be relatively safe for Sean O'Hair a month ago, but Tiger was back on the prowl. I even believe that the lead would have been safe if Tiger was not in the last group with O'Hair and it would have been a much less dramatic round.
The first thing that became apparent to me today was that Sunday Tiger might just be a mythical demigod. This half-man half-god with a magical rod of power (the driver) and the all too familiar armor (red Nike shirt) instills a fear in people that he is matched up against. It was very obvious as through 8 holes Tiger was 2 under for the day and O'Hair was 2 over. The one stroke difference was enough to keep the tension up the rest of the round. O'Hair looked like he would get seperation with a birdie on 9, but countered it with a bogey on 10 to get back to a one stroke lead. Tiger then went Tiger and sank a beautiful birdie putt to tie O'Hair at -5 on the 15th hole. O'Hair cracked under the pressure and put his 2nd shot into the water and bogeyed 16 to give Tiger a one stroke lead with two holes to play. At this point I had no doubt Tiger would par out and win by one stroke, but he put his tee shot on the par 3 17th into the lip of a bunker and gave himself a nearly impossible shot to get close to the pin. He managed to get out of the bunker and onto the green, but left himself with a distant putt and 2 putted to a bogey. All of a sudden I started to contemplate whether Tiger is really a human and his miraculous U.S. Open win on one leg might have been the curtain call for a man who wouldn't regain his greatness after the surgery. Or maybe he wanted to roar his way back into the PGA with a dramatic win on the 72nd hole of the tournament. Tiger hit a beautiful tee shot on 18 and had a nice approach to get within 15 feet of the pin. O'Hair missed his 19 foot birdie attempt (that nobody in the gallery or watching on tv really thought he would make) and it set up an epic Tiger moment. Tiger lined his putt up and even before he hit it the club pro who was watching with us simply said "it's in". Sure enough the putt was true and Tiger gave the famous fist pump and celebrated.
Maybe it's not that impressive that he won at Bay Hill where he has won often before. But let's examine it. It's only his second four day tournament after being out of the game for a year, and only his third competitive situation. More impressive though is that he overcame his largest Sunday deficit ever to win this tournament. This is scary, could he really be stronger and better than he ever was before (which he claims he is). He's already 3rd all time in career wins and 2nd in majors won. Only difference is his pro career has been only 13 years while Sam Snead (all time wins leader) played 30 years and Jack Nicklaus (all time major winner) played 25 years. Today proved to me that Tiger will crush both marks and be remembered not only as the greatest golfer ever, but the greatest athlete ever. You better watch out Jordan you're about to be replaced.