The baffling, tragic life of Tiger Woods

Tuesday's car crash only makes it harder to figure

Tiger Woods is a walking contradiction. He has been since his “Hello world,” debut in 1996.

He’s a mystery and a puzzle. An incredibly gifted and successful athlete, he seems unable to avoid dangerous, possible career-ending breakdowns, both mental and physical.

We saw it again early this week, when his high-speed, single-car accident in Los Angeles County sent him to the hospital and turned media content to all-Tiger, all-day.

There’s no doubting he’s an international superstar. Tiger is the greatest golfer of his generation. At one time he seemed certain to be the greatest ever. He stared down opponents on the golf course and the world’s best golfers wilted like hot house flowers.

He’s tied for the most wins ever on tour with 82. His 15 majors are second-best ever, only three short of Jack Nicklaus, golf’s gold standard.

And yet . . .

For the man who has everything, he’s surprisingly fragile.

You wouldn’t wish his medical history on your worst enemy. He’s had five back surgeries, one of them a spinal fusion. His knees have been cut and repaired over and over, including ACL rebuilds. Who knows how he comes out of surgery on his legs after this crash?

And, it has to be said, he’s battled drug problems too. In 2009, he had his famous collision with a fire hydrant at the bottom of his driveway after an argument with his then-wife about extra-marital affairs. (which he later admitted) He was found unconscious and was taken away in an ambulance.

Subsequently, he entered a re-hab facility in Hattiesburg, Miss.

And then, in 2017, two months after the back fusion surgery, Woods was found asleep at the wheel at the side of a Florida road at 3 a.m. He was in a car with two flat tires and evidence of collisions. Asked where he was, Woods told officers he was in “L.A.”

There was no alcohol in Woods’ system, but there was the presence of five different drugs, including two potent pain killers, a sleep aid and an anti-anxiety medication. The police mug shot from that incident looks horrible: bleary-eyed, bloated and wasted.

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This phenomenal, transcendent athlete is now 45. He’s divorced, still has serious physical issues (he just had another back surgery) and, after the drug and sex scandals, his star has dimmed. He’s even lost some sponsors.

Now there is this, a multiple rollover single-car crash at high speed. Authorities said there was “no evidence of impairment,” but they also said the car traveled “hundreds of feet” after it hit the median in the middle of the street.

So you have to wonder. Is this how it ends for Tiger? Not with a bang, or a whimper, but with another serious car accident?

South African Ernie Els said it years ago, when Tiger was just showing up on Tour.

“He’s 24,” Els said. “When he’s 40 he’ll probably be bigger than Elvis.”

It was not a bad call.

The golf world is full of players who catch a magic swing-thought one week, play out of their heads and win a major. A U.S. Open, for example, is life-changing. Some of them get caught in the swirl of fame and money, and just put it on cruise. They may win here and there, but that one shining moment was it.

Woods was never that guy. He was going for the win, every time. And on the final day, if you were paired with him, don’t expect much conversation. His face was a mask of concentration. At times it seemed like he never blinked. It was intimidating.

And then he just hit shot after clutch shot. He won a lot of tournament, but the rest of the field lost a lot of them too. They just couldn’t keep up with the relentless shot-making. Sooner or later they’d hit a loose drive or flub a chip, and Tiger’s lead would grow.

Lot of Tiger talk today. Below are a couple of little snippets of stories from personal experience. Maybe you’d like to share them? Be my guest. Here’s a link.

The frustrating thing, as a reporter, was that you could see there was an engaging guy in there somewhere. He just kept it walled in.

A couple of minor personal stories:

On year he was at the AT&T at Pebble Beach and a small group of about five of us reporters were standing on the tee box. There was a long wait (which is why Tiger quit playing the AT&T. Too slow) and to our surprise he strolled over to chat.

He was with his Stanford buddy and golfer, Notah Begay. Somebody made a comment about so-and-so going back to school to get a masters degree.

“I have a masters,” Woods said. He gave it a beat to see if we caught on.

It took a minute, but we got it. He has a masters because he won the Masters at Augusta National. OK, it isn’t standup comedy, but it still made us smile.

And the second comes, I think, from 1997, which was the first year he played the AT&T. Another gaggle of reporters were following Woods. We’d all heard about him since his ‘96 debut, but this was a chance to see him up close. Let’s just see how good the kid really is.

Playing Spyglass, he pulled a drive left. It ended up behind a big tree, directly on his line to the green. Worse, the ball was down a short slope, below his feet.

To hit the green Woods was going to have to hit a draw — a ball that curves right to left — around the tree. But, as golfers can tell you, if the ball is below your feet, it wants to force the ball to slice — bend left to right— which would put Woods in the woods.

So his task was to force the ball to bend left, around a tree and hit the green. Oh, and the ball was sitting on a nest of pine needles.

Woods took his stance, swung and caught the ball clean. It started right, bent back to the left and floated over a sand trap and onto to the green. The spectators lost their minds.

At the time Woods’ caddy was Mike (Fluff) Cowan, a 20-veteran with an iconic walrus mustache. As Woods did a quick club twirl and walked away, Fluff looked back at us.

“The best I’ve ever seen,” he said, although we hadn’t asked.

That was Tiger Woods. The rest is a mystery.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Compliments and suggestions gladly accepted. Complaints not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius