Phil Mickelson won the Masters Sunday at Augusta National, and was brilliant doing so. The victory will make Phil even more popular than he already was. But you simply could not watch without being drawn to the drama that envelopes Tiger Woods. The ironies that played out on the final Sunday would make Shakespeare blush. It’s the audacity of real life that it can be so much more fanciful and ridiculous than any fiction writer would deem credible to put down on paper. And in this case, the ridiculous farce actually did produce a happy ending. And justice was also served, which was refreshing to say the least.
But let’s not kid ourselves into believing that some changing of the guard is taking place here. For Tiger Woods to shoot a three under 69 while hitting the ball all over Augusta just shows that the force of his will is often far greater than the accumulation of his skills. Phil was magnificent, shooting 67 with no bogeys on the card. Tiger was ridiculous, shooting 69 with five bogeys on the card! That included a three putt bogey on 14 that looked more like a high school JV golf team qualifier than someone deeply in the hunt on the last day of a major. It was an inexcusable breach of focus for anyone in that position.
Still, it was what happened after the rounds were complete that offered the windows to the soul, that strips each man bare and asks him to be honest with his own true self. When Tiger finished, his brilliance evident to all despite his finish, he was asked what he would take away from this event, his first back after the five month scandal-ridden layoff. He bluntly and defiantly stated that he had finished 4th, and that was essentially unacceptable because he enters to win. All well and good, except that wasn’t the question. Peter Kostis, who asked the question, was giving Tiger a chance to answer the real question posed by Earl Woods in the Nike commercial that aired this week, “What did you learn?” Instead of answering the Kostis question, Tiger decided the question was “How did you play?”
When Phil finished, his first move off the course was to his wife Amy, who as everyone knows is attempting to recover from breast cancer. For Phil, the entire day, the entire scene, the entire reason to be, was wrapped up in family. The contrast between Phil and Tiger is simply unavoidable. Phil should wear nothing but white hats for the rest of his career. He is clearly the good guy in this real life drama.
In many dramas of this type we embrace the guy in the black hat like a teenage girl who can’t stay away from the biker-dude. After all, the bad guy has his force of will that drives him to succeed. The bad guy has skills and charisma that is undeniable. We are drawn to the fact that if the bad guy decided that he wanted to be the good guy, he could be the best hero and we would worship him. In this case, until five months ago, we did worship him!
Yet I still find myself inexorably drawn to the character in this play that we never see. I just cannot help observe each act, and wonder, ‘Man! What must Elin think of that?’ When the Nike commercial came out, with its black and white chiaroscuro heightening the sense that a good guy/bad guy drama was about to unfold and the creepy overtones of Tiger’s dead father intoning his impending judgment day for effect, how could she watch that and not be wondering “Who did I marry, who is this guy?’. Let’s face the fact that there is not much about that commercial that says that Tiger is all about repairing his relationship with his wife. It says he needs to live up to the legacy impressed upon him by his father. That seems to be heading back to familiar territory.
When Kostis asked Tiger what he took away from the Masters, Tiger passed on the chance to say it was great to back on the course, but what he was really looking forward to was getting back to his family. Tiger had a chance right then to reset the agenda of his career. Instead he steered it right back onto the highway that he has already crashed on. You have to think Elin was watching. How could she not be disappointed in that answer? It would seem to me that in the post script to the commercial, she must have sunk a little deeper.
Finally, when Phil won and wrapped up with his wife and family, sharing the joy of victory with everything that was meaningful for him, that must have been a dagger. How could Elin watch that, and not think about what Amy has that she does not? The irony of it all was overwhelming.
I could be wrong. Elin could easily be a Tiger acolyte. There has been more than one wife who has participated in enabling the aberrant behavior of their husband. Clearly there were thousands of Masters patrons willing to embrace that role. But in the end, the guy who wears the black hat does so for a reason. He does so, because he is not borne of a Shakespearean tragedy. He wears it because he comes from my favorite of Aesop’s fables, ‘The Scorpion and the Frog’. He does so because it’s his nature.
When I was growing up, my older brother had a plaque in his room that had three words on it. It said ‘I am Third’. When I asked him what it meant, he explained that it was meant to remind him that God is first, my family comes second, and I am third in the equation of life. When looked at in that context, Tiger’s closing statement that “I finished fourth’ rings loud and true.
Read all of our great stories on by TheAPosition.com writers as we cover The Masters.
