Monday, February 4, 2008

African American Golfer Tiger Woods on a Major Tear


Tiger Woods was unstoppable....again. In a dramatic come from behind win, Woods won the Dubai Desert Classic this week by one stroke. This is the 7th win in his last 8 starts, something almost no golfer in history has ever done before.....except Woods.

Last week, Woods crushed the field at the Buick Invitational by 8 strokes, a huge margin of victory in professional golf. He has won both of his tournaments this year, and says that he is playing better than he did during his 2000 season, during which he broke records that were set before golf even became a sport in the United States.

The win this week was even more amazing after Woods revealed that his equipment was faulty. On the first day of competition, Woods broke his driver and had to use his backup to defeat the competition.

"I broke my driver and had to use my backup which I don't like very much," he said. "I spun it too much, It was fine on Thursday because the wind didn't blow, but as soon as the wind started blowing, I had a hard time controlling the driver because it kept spinning too much.

"I was on the periphery most of the day and somehow got into it late in the back nine."

Tiger Woods started the final round of the tournament four strokes behind Ernie Els, the closest thing he has to a rival in professional golf. However, this isn't much of a rivalry, as Woods has defeated Els time and time again. This event was no different, as Woods caught Els and the rest of the field with birdies on 5 of the last 6 holes. One of the birdies was a 25-foot downhill putt that had Woods pumping his fist, leading the crowd into a frenzy.

Tiger Woods, the only African-American golfer in most tournaments in which he participates, has been nothing short of phenomenal. His world golf ranking score is 20.43, which is astounding, since no other golfer in the world has a score above 10. Only the top 10 golfers in the world have a score above 5. In 2000, Woods World Golf Ranking score almost reached 30, a feat considered impossible before Woods came onto the scene.

The late Earl Woods, Tiger's father, once bragged that his black teenage son would become the "Muhammad Ali of golf". Considered insane by sports journalists who believed that domination of professional golf would be impossible, Earl Woods and Tiger Woods proved the American sports media wrong. Woods has also transcended the sport by increasing the involvement of African-Americans and other people of color. He also became the first black golfer to win a major. Currently, he is on pace to eclipse all major golf records and has broken many of them already.

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