Tiger Woods claims he hasn’t lost
focus on winning golf tournaments and after all the torrid events in his life
in the past year he is a better person for it. The aloof, cold veneer has been
torn away. He is human after all!
It will certainly be interesting to
see if he can recapture the form that made him virtually unbeatable for 12
years, but like I said in this column at the start of the year, he is unlikely
to dominate the sport as before. Only 34 but with creaking knees, forever
tweaking a previously perfect swing and an already fragile ego shot to pieces
by divorce and poor form, he now admits that getting more masters titles have
higher priority than being top of the world rankings again.
He’s won 14 and is eyeing the
record 18 set by Jack Nicklaus. It was a forgone conclusion that Woods would
summarily surpass that record as he blazed a trail in his early career, but
personal crisis, injury and the recent stuttering performances makes it less
certain. Hope he does it though. His personal life shouldn’t negate what a
totally dedicated athlete Woods is who has raised overall golf standards to an
unprecedented level.
Meanwhile, Manny Pacquiao is given
demi-god status in the Philippines. And it’s not just for his boxing ability.
Pound-for-pound king in the ring, he is also a brilliant congressman in his
home town of Sarangani and doing a wonderful job there. A genuine people’s
champ, he hopes one day to be president and improve the lot of his impoverished
compatriots in a similar way that Nelson Mandela so admirably tried to do.
Assuming he wins next week against Antonio Margarito to become a world champ at
an unprecedented eighth weight division, Pacman should start picking up the
global sportsman of the year awards so lavishly handed out to other great sportsmen
but who have nevertheless not accomplished a fraction of what the Filipino king
has.
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