When you get "older" ( a relative thing, to be sure), your body doesn't react the same way it did before, and if you are smart and mentally flexible, you modify your "game" to be successful with your new limitations.
A pitcher who can no longer throw the ball 95mph, develops other pitches, stops trying to strike people out, and so on.
Golf is a very forgiving sport. When you lose some distance from your drives, you can still sharpen the rest of your game, and get equal results by chipping and putting better, driving the ball more accurately, and playing smarter ("course management").
Tiger Woods is apparently not willing to make these slight concessions to age. He is a perfectly healthy 40-year-old, in a sport where people play competitively well into their 60's, but he is telling his fans and followers that he is not in good enough shape to return to the PGA Tour.
It is a puzzlement.
One can only conclude that his "normal" swing places such a strain on his back and knees that he is afraid of re-injuring himself if he returns to full-competitive mode. Most mortals would be content to get out there and perform at 90% just to get back into the swing of it (play on words intended). But no...
It is a vanity thing, I suspect. Unless he is convinced that he can again be The Best, right away, he won't go out and "embarrass himself."
But it ain't happening. The level of competition has risen a great deal since he was dominant.
But we are still watching him while he does essentially nothing, aren't we? Says a lot about his impact to the world of entertainment and sports.
A pitcher who can no longer throw the ball 95mph, develops other pitches, stops trying to strike people out, and so on.
Golf is a very forgiving sport. When you lose some distance from your drives, you can still sharpen the rest of your game, and get equal results by chipping and putting better, driving the ball more accurately, and playing smarter ("course management").
Tiger Woods is apparently not willing to make these slight concessions to age. He is a perfectly healthy 40-year-old, in a sport where people play competitively well into their 60's, but he is telling his fans and followers that he is not in good enough shape to return to the PGA Tour.
It is a puzzlement.
One can only conclude that his "normal" swing places such a strain on his back and knees that he is afraid of re-injuring himself if he returns to full-competitive mode. Most mortals would be content to get out there and perform at 90% just to get back into the swing of it (play on words intended). But no...
It is a vanity thing, I suspect. Unless he is convinced that he can again be The Best, right away, he won't go out and "embarrass himself."
But it ain't happening. The level of competition has risen a great deal since he was dominant.
But we are still watching him while he does essentially nothing, aren't we? Says a lot about his impact to the world of entertainment and sports.
