Mac Engel: Writer Wright Thompson cuts to the heart of golf's Tiger Woods problem

FORT WORTH, Texas — The sport's biggest star is a 50-year-old man who during its biggest week is currently overseas recovering from his latest off-the-course incident involving the police. Golf desperately needs to move away from the Tiger Woods era, but that may not happen for another 20 years. "Golf is so rooted in nostalgia. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were the most popular players at Augusta National long after they couldn't compete. To me, without Tiger Woods, the PGA Tour is sort of like MLS. It's not even starting over," best-selling and prize-winning sports writer Wright Thompson said this week. Thompson was in Fort Worth this week to speak at TCU, before he headed to Augusta to attend the Masters. Along with Chuck Klosterman, Thompson is one of the writers who can write about anything from food to true crime to golf. All of it is good. Wright has written many words about Tiger, including a piece titled, "The Secret History of Tiger Woods," published in 2016 that is the standard on the most popular golfer in the world. "Tiger was the thing that made golf into F1. He turned the majors into the Super Bowl. And the zeitgeist," Thompson said. "I don't think modern golf needs to move on from Tiger Woods. Modern golf is Tiger Woods, and whatever is going to replace this will have to form organically on its own. I think that scares a lot of people." No sport is more reliant on one figure than golf is with this broken down, busted man who has been devoured by fame. Tiger is not in Georgia, but he's all over Augusta National The focus during this Master's week at Augusta National should be on Scottie Scheffler and the top players playing the world's most famous tournament, but instead the camera wants to be on the guy who recently flipped his SUV for the second time. All of the world's greatest golfers combined are boring compared to Tiger and his now Elvis-like descent. Watching a prodigy embarrass the world over 72 holes was riveting; equally captivating is following the same person be exposed by life, hubris and ego. On March 27 in Jupiter, Fla., Tiger rolled his SUV, was charged with a DUI. That's his second. He also wrecked his SUV in Feb. 2021. He's lucky he's not dead. He's lucky he didn't kill someone. You're Tiger Woods. You can afford Uber Black. Or a driver. Rather than play Augusta in an attempt to add to his green jacket closet, Tiger announced that he is "stepping away." A judge allowed Tiger to leave the country to enter a treatment facility where he can have privacy. Nearly all of the players present at Augusta National have been asked about Tiger, and their thoughts range from sympathy and support, to anger that he would again drive impaired. Their opinions about Tiger are more interesting than anything they will do on Amen corner. Tiger continues to follow Hogan's path Tiger is determined to emulate one of the best golfers who ever lived, former Fort Worth resident and renowned isolationist, Mr. Ben Hogan. In 1949, Hogan was famously involved in a near-fatal car crash with a bus near El Paso. Hogan suffered a broken rib, broken collarbone, a broken ankle and a double fracture of the pelvis. Sixteen months after the accident, he won the U.S. Open at Merion near Philadelphia. Woods has come back to play despite countless surgeries, including several to his right leg that is likely permanently damaged, and now deals with a back that may be bad for the rest of his life. While Hogan could retreat to his preferred anonymity in west Fort Worth, Tiger has no luxuries. "I feel incredibly sorry for him, and anybody who has a family member who has ever had serious back pain, or somebody who has had it themselves, understands that every day is a very delicate balance between being under-medicated and in so much pain that you can't go about your day," Thompson said. "It's a daily thing. He has torn himself to shreds trying to be Tiger Woods, and is trying to forever pick up the pieces and put them back together again." Even if he was healthy, at 50, Tiger's best golfing days are behind him. He's eligible for the PGA Tour's Champion's Tour, which is a soft way to say Tiger is old. He will come back again, because golf is what he knows how to do. It's all he's done. Some athletes are better at moving on to their next phase, while countless others are lost when their bodies can no longer do the activity that gave him their identity, and their purpose. We should have seen this coming; Tiger was raised to do one task, and he was better at it than anyone who has ever played the game. He was trained to play golf, not life. Caught in this scenario is his sport that still needs him, busted parts and all, but would love nothing more than for the focus to be on the great players who are playing its most famous tournament. As long as Tiger can walk, or even if he can't, that's where the camera wants to go. And it may be that way for the next 20 years.