Tiger and Joe: Don't Know When to Quit
Two old men are being urged to hang it up. One is 81, the other 48. Each thinks he can still contend and win on the biggest stage. Both are considered delusional. One loses his train of thought. The other can’t make a cut. Each has a halting gait that gives the impression every step hurts or a fall is imminent.
In the case of Tiger Woods, the numbers don’t lie. Two embarrassing rounds at Troon had him going home early. In an interview with The Times of London Colin Montgomerie, who never won a major championship, but threw a couple away in his prime, said “I hope people remember Tiger as Tiger was, the passion and the charismatic aura around him. There is none of that now. At Pinehurst he did not seem to enjoy a single shot and you think, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ He’s coming to Troon and he won’t enjoy it there either.” (he didn’t)
Woods claims he will quit when he is no longer competitive. But who will be the judge of that? Perhaps like Joe Biden he’s waiting for God Almighty to tell him to quit. Monty, not exactly God, but virtually unbeatable in Ryder Cup singles in his day, told the Times, “Aren’t we there? I’d have thought we were past there. There is a time for all sportsmen to say goodbye, but it’s very difficult to tell Tiger it’s time to go. Obviously, he still feels he can win. We are more realistic.”
Tiger responded to Monty by pointing out that as a past champion he’s exempt from qualifying until he’s 60 and has the luxury of making the decision whether to play, unlike Monty who never won the Open and doesn’t have that automatic spot. He would have to qualify.
Joe, similarly, has all the delegates to be the Democratic nominee and therefore it’s his decision whether to run or quit.
Maureen Dowd writes, “It makes me sad that Biden doesn’t see what’s inescapable: If he doesn’t walk away gracefully right now, he will likely go down as a pariah and ruin his legacy.”
Monty, using similar words, spoke of the new generation of golf fans seeing Tiger tarnish his legacy. “These guys only know Tiger Woods missing the cut and he’s better than that, the best we’ve ever seen.”
Ms. Dowd continued in her column from Milwaukie, “The race for the Oval today is between two delusional, selfish, stubborn old guys, and that’s a depressing state of affairs.” Their first debate devolved into an argument about their respective golf handicaps and length off the tee. Trump claimed he’s won two club championships, Joe claimed he was a 6 handicap, or an 8 when he was Vice President.
Tiger turned down the opportunity to captain the United States Ryder Cup team because he says he doesn’t have the time. “I barely had enough time to do what I'm doing right now, and add in the TGL starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup. You add all that together and then with our negotiations with the PIF [of Saudi Arabia], all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there's only so many hours in the day,” he told SI.com.
