Walking in the Woods with Tiger - My Favorite Athlete of All Time

We all have our dreams; that favorite star we'd give anything to meet. Usually the person we idolize is older, and we grow up with the vision of one day pressing the flesh with him or her. Like most people I have a short list of stars that I'd just like once to meet; I always wanted to be in the same room with John Wayne for instance, if for no other reason than to see if he was as macho in person as he came across on the screen.

But, the one person I'd give almost anything to get to spend an hour or two with the wunderkind of the links, Tiger Woods . I know he's having a bad patch right now, having dropped from the number one ranking in golf to number seven; problems with relationships with the opposite sex; and, he's no longer the squeaky clean guy people thought he was. None of this matters to me, however; I'd still like to get to know him personally.

I have no interest in his multiple affairs. I figure that's something he has to work out himself. That he has done things that he has publicly said he is ashamed of doesn't take away what he's done for the game of golf. Before Tiger, golf was viewed as basically a game for rich white people; the number of black stars on the PGA tour would hardly fill an SUV. When he turned pro in 1996, two years before I took up the game myself, he changed the complexion of the game forever.

I'd like to meet him on a course. Not a PGA course; I'm not that good yet; but on a public course, preferably near my home in Montgomery County, Maryland. I'd like it to be just the two of us, playing a friendly game, so I could watch him up close. The usual banter between players as they walk to their balls would be about golf and his approach to the game. I'd like to hear him explain, if he can, his amazing powers of concentration. Having been introduced to the game at the age of two, he must have in that brain of his more detail about how to play good golf than a library of golf instruction books.

Raised as a Buddhist, some of his ability to obtain the intense focus he has in tournaments is understandable. Lately, he seems to have lost some of the 'Middle Way' that is characteristic of Buddhism. He has, in fact, attributed to losing track of Buddhism for his personal problems, and that probably also explains his recent poor showings. I'd like to ask him what he's doing to get back to the calm and focus of the Buddha's teachings. As a Buddhist myself, knowing how he's coping with losing some of the faith is important to me as sometimes I also find myself tensing up and forgetting to 'be one' with my environment. Our conversation wouldn't interest the tabloids or those people who want to know all 'the dirt,' but it would mean a lot to me. Tiger Woods, all his troubles aside, is still perhaps the greatest athlete to ever live, and when he gets his form and concentration back, he will do, I predict, even greater things.