Give Earl Thanks

Thanks Earl!!

I love the game of golf. A couple years ago I would play 4 –5 times per week. With all that practice, I should be able to hit the ball well?? I am a terrible golfer! It is fair to say that I am the worst golfer on this side of the Mississippi. If I can make it through an entire round without losing 10 or more balls I feel like I should get a green jacket. One time I took a swing and the ball went behind me. The 8yr old kids watching began to chuckle. It was okay though, I was apart of the revolution.

A long long time ago I used to think that golf was only for white people. I grew up watching the game every now and then, but saw it as only a game for Caucasians, how archaic. My only care for golf was watching Bill Murray try to blow up the gopher in “Caddyshack.” I remember a kid down the street from us who would always go and play golf with his dad. We had a single golf club at our house, for some reason, that I used to hit balls every now and then. Until I graduated high school I still believed that golf had no room for a black man. Then the Tiger revolution began.

In 1996 Tiger Woods exploded onto the golf scene. He attracted new sponsors but more importantly he showed that the game could and should be played by anyone. Jackie Robinson did the same a few generations ago for baseball. Was Tiger the first black golfer? No, but, he was the first to cross the lines with such substance that it made it impossible to ignore? Absolutely. Woods’ impact on golf will be felt for generations and possibly centuries to come. Just as a baseball field now if filled with players from all over the world, the golf spectrum will also spread across cultural lines that have existed for hundreds of years.

Woods is a product of a interracial marriage which is even more of a credit to who he is and what he represents. Woods is a renaissance man. He is by far the most dominant athlete in his sport right now. Off the court he is also a savvy businessman who charmed the world with his infectious smile and intense fist pumps. His wife is also super uber hot!! Really hot!! He is the envy of every man. Tiger has transcended the game of golf to a prime time sport. What was once a sport for the aristocracy of this country has now become a cultural phenomenon.
I wish I started playing as kid just as Tiger did with his dad Earl. The videos of them playing golf as Tiger was just able to walk is amazing. The vision of the father has now become a reality for the son. It is remarkable to think his father saw his son’s potential as just a child. It is unfortunate that Woods the senior will never get the opportunity to understand the impact that he has had on the world as much as his son. Tiger gives credit to his father for everything he is. What a lasting tribute to a man who the world may never know but only through Tiger his son. This is a metaphor in so many ways.