Tiger Woods: Playing Through the Pain

I was saddened to learn yesterday that Tiger Woods suffered a season-ending injury to his knee and will have to undergo surgery to repair that and some stress fractures in his leg. This news came after his valiant U. S. Open victory held at Torrey Pines this weekend.

My husband, who is a rabid golf fan, sat glued to the TV for the entire tournament, while I read a book and glanced up to catch the highlights in between word chunks. I watched with growing concern as Tiger grimaced in noticeable pain after each drive, and the mom in me was thinking that he wasn't ready for tournament play, at least, not yet. Still, he persevered and managed to pull off the win after a grueling duel with opponent, Rocco Mediate.

I golf, though admittedly not very well. I'm not at all athletic, but golf is a game where any old duffer who can barely walk would have the same chance of making a flawless shot just as same as a youngster with an amazing swing conjured out of thin air. It's also a game where you don't have to play against anyone except yourself.

Tiger is the reason this family even took up the sport. Back in the mid-1990s, the fresh-faced Tiger Woods was beginning to draw a lot of young fans with his boyish good looks, even and courteous demeanor and outstanding skill. Before then, the general consensus was that golf was a game for old, fat, cigar-smoking white men who belonged to snobby and exclusive clubs. Tiger Woods was the antithesis of all that. For one thing, he's extremely athletic. For another, he was born of mixed race (being Asian myself, I like to think of him as being such), cutting a new pathway on the fairways for the extraordinary. Novel, but with considerable substance, Tiger was solely responsible for opening golf's door to the Everyman.

Back then, we arranged for my young son, who has the same willowy body shape as Tiger, to have golf lessons. It wasn't long before my husband followed suit. I, on the other hand, hacked my way through several years' worth of golf courses as I picked up tips from my family members. There are so many lessons that can be learned from the game of golf, many of which have nothing to do with hitting a small ball with a club. For me, these include etiquette, sportsmanship, and communing with nature.

In the meantime, we've watched as Tiger matured, given back to the community, lost his father, started his own family, and all with an astounding amount of grace.

If watching Tiger on TV is a thrill, seeing him in person is like being in the presence of God. We've "chased the Tiger" during several Buick Opens, and it's been an electrifying experience each time.

For me, the astonishing thing about this weekend's performance was not that Tiger Woods won the tournament, but that he continued to play even though he was injured. A truly dedicated athlete will always choose to weather the storm of his/her body to complete the task at hand.

How easy it is for us in our mundane "real" lives to give up when the going gets tough.

We could all take a page from Tiger and play through the pain.