A lot of people seem to get a great deal of pleasure from a thing called ‘golf’. English people in their millions play it, Americans in their zillions do it. The difference being that between a noun and a verb. But we won’t get pedantic here. Whether you chose to ‘play golf’ or whether you ‘golfed’ is a minor difference between those who know how to speak English and a bunch of foreigners who have abused, misused and hi-jacked a beautiful language to make it expedient and ugly. I make no judgments…

The fact of the matter is that, noun or verb, both leave me equally cold. I just can’t see the point. Much as (TOTALLY IGNORANT) people reduce football to a pointless exercise involving an inflated bladder (at one time), thus golf to me is only ever seen from the reductionist standpoint. I miss the ‘big picture’. You hit a ball with a stick. Big (faarkin) deal. I honestly do appreciate the amazing skill involved, the choice of bats, the amount of power, the line of the greens, I really do. But, like snooker or darts, its just a skill, not a sport. In my definition of a ‘sport’ you have to sweat properly. Not just because Pringle have sponsored you and thus you can’t take off your sweater even though its 97 degrees out there.

And on tv, golf must be the biggest of viewed sports. Everyone seems to watch it. Sky give about 5 of their sports channels over to the big events and won’t give me a penny back if I don’t watch them. I can’t.

But even I had to look in amazement at the incredible personal achievement of Tiger Woods. The Comeback King. Who yesterday won the Masters Tournament in Augusta. America. Somewhere. Somewhere sunny. And stormy.

Tiger last won the Masters 14 years ago, age 29 at what we’ll now call ‘the end of his first peak’. He won everything back in the day. Then came the downfall. The drink, the drugs, in fact all the good things that you can afford and have the time to enjoy them when you’re rich as George Soros at 25. He slumped further into decay as his wife attacked him with (what else?) a golf club after she’d found he’d been looking for balls in someone else’s bunker.

And four major back surgeries. And golf is a very ‘backy’ game. So to come back, looking so amazingly fit and strong, is somewhere way beyond merely ‘remarkable’.

Mohammed Ali had his comeback after being in prison for refusing to fight in Vietnam. Nicky Lauda had a miraculous comeback after nearly dying in his crashed racing car, burning half his face off in the process. Harry Kane came back after six weeks from an ankle sprain and scored a goal at Bournemouth.

But Tiger Woods really beats them all. Shame its golf he plays and not something good or interesting. But there ya go.

Happy Monday

A xxxx