For 264 weeks (August 1999 to September 2004), he was a top-ranked golfer in the world. Also, from June 2005 to October 2010 (281 weeks), he reigned on the list of top ten in the world.
The following decade didn’t come without its challenges as he went on a break from professional golf from December 2009 to early April 2010 to try to settle his marital issues with Elin. Eventually, they divorced; the upsurge in his life battles had him swim through troubled waters as various women called him out revealing he had affairs with them. He dropped in rankings to number 58 in the world in November 2011 and once again reached the No.1 ranking between March 2013 and May 2014.
After going through four back surgeries in 2014, 2015 and 2017, it was a major set-back for him as he was only able to compete in only one tournament between August 2015 and January 2018 and as such dropped out of the world’s top golfers.
What a loss you would say right? However, making a return to regular competition, Woods never gave up, he gradually made it to the top of the game, winning his first tournament in five years at the Tour Championship in September 2018 and after 11 years, he has just won his fifth Masters title and 15th major tournament, his name is Tiger Woods!
Watching him see the video that went viral, where different people had negative things to say about him and his chances of ever coming back looking like a zero, brought tears to my eyes. He was videoed watching them one after the other saying derogatory words about him, he looked at the camera and tears welled up in his eyes even as he managed a smile.
It was indeed an emotional moment and everyone who watched that particular video that I have spoken to, felt the same way.
It is sad how easily people give up on those who ere and are temporarily down, how quick we are to condemn and criticise, easily so because everything about the person isn’t looking like the tale of a champion but in the midst of it all, he persevered, it must have been a painful period…11 years? Now that was a long time but through it all, he never gave up. Someone said his win was not for redemption but revenge. He had a message for the nay sayers, he was down temporarily but not out completely.
Interestingly, one of the people who always encouraged him was President Donald Trump. In February, Trump tweeted a picture of himself with Woods and Nicklaus at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. And the next day, Trump wrote on Twitter, “Tiger is back and will be winning Majors again!”
Again, after Wood’s win, Trump tweeted “…because of his incredible success and comeback in sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE, I will be presenting him with the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honour, and is awarded to those who make outstanding contributions to national security or national interest, world peace, culture or other public or private endeavors.
So I am here wondering how those who publicly wrote him off are feeling right now. This is obviously a lesson to everyone. No matter how bad a situation is, no matter how long it lingers, there can be a turnaround, there can be a brighter day, there can be a testimony, you can rise again!
Kemi Ajumobi
