Tiger Woods: A Control Freak Who Lost Control

A sports entry? A SPORTS entry? Your talk of Popular Athletics might scare away the more light sensitive of our kind. But, yes, nerdom, I am writing a sports blog because, guess what? I watch sports and I even participate in sporting events in between my nerd books, writing and popular media.

Last Sunday I watched the final round of the 2010 U.S. Open. It was a uneventful affair in which none of the top players could mount a charge and an Irishman sobered up just long enough to capture the title. While I must admit I enjoyed watching the lower ranked golfers compete in the rain and wind swept California Central Coast. It was equally enjoyable to watch Tiger Woods slide from his once loft perch. While almost everyone thinks that Tiger losing his family is the reason for his bad play, the real reason is his lost of control. Tiger is a control freak but he has lost all control of his life and I think this mental hurdle he cannot overcome.

The fact that Tiger is a control freak is not that surprising. There are a lot of control freaks out there. However, these people all eventually come to a point where they realize they can't control everything. While they initially have difficulty dealing with this realization, they eventually come to the realization of what they can and can't control and then move on with their lives.

Tiger is not your typical control freak in that until just recently, he never had to comprehend the idea that he could not control everything. As he became more and more successful he was able to completely control his life. He controlled his competitors on the golf course. He controlled his agents and sponsors. He controlled his wife and children and he even controlled his secret life full of strippers, porn stars, cougars and Perkins Waitresses. All these lives came crashing down on Thanksgiving Day Night because, according to sources, his wife found some text messages.

We all know the story from this point; he crashed his car, his wife left him, he went into "sex rehab", quite golf and made a ridiculous public apology. As we all know he did returned to golf and has played, by his standards, horrible. His best performance so far was his first tournament back, The Masters and that was the beginning of the end of his comeback. Now, if he would have won The Masters, his first tournament out, his comeback would have been complete. He would have shown the world that no matter what happens to him he is still the master of his universe and nothing can stop him. In other words, he would still be in control.

But of course he didn't win the masters. He was not in control of his world anymore and with every successive non-winning performance the notion that he could once again control his world slipped a little further away. Its now in his head. He can no longer control the entire world. He can't even control his world and he can't comprehend how to go forward from this point.

The invincible Tiger Woods is gone. He can't control his world and because of this his mental game, which was always the strongest part of his game, has gone to hell. The other players on the tour are no longer afraid of him because he is now human. I know this might sound a bit premature, but Jack Nicklaus can now sleep a little better because his record for the most Major Championships is safe for at least another generation.