By Scott Allison and George Goethals
No human being has ever been better groomed to be a sports hero — and to remain one — than Eldrick Tont Woods, better known as Tiger Woods. Tiger’s dad, Earl Woods, went to great lengths to prepare his son for greatness. If Earl could have given his son a golf club in the womb, he would have. Tiger was playing by age two, competing against Bob Hope on TV at age three, and winning golf tournaments at age eight.
Although Tiger was prepared to achieve greatness on the golf course, he was far less prepared to live life under the media microscope. Tiger has always fiercely guarded his privacy and has shown a heightened sensitivity to criticism from both the media and his fellow golf competitors on the PGA Tour. He has a thin skin and a fragility about him that belies his formidability as a golfer. No wonder, then, that the exposure of his marital infidelities, and the media circus that followed, absolutely devastated him. Tiger clearly hit a personal rock-bottom.
When Tiger had his car accident on Thanksgiving night, he experienced a "trigger event" — a traumatic period in a person's life when he must choose a dramatic new life direction, or continue down his road of ruin. Trigger events are typically disastrous occurrences that cause us to take stock about what is fundamentally important to us. These events bring our values into sharp relief, lead us to change the way we live, and motivate us to become honest with ourselves about what really matters. Tiger Woods' trigger event caused him to realize that he had reached a dangerous bottoming of his life.
For Tiger, amidst all the messiness of this past winter, there is a silver lining. Yes, he and his family have experienced a lot of pain, and there is no doubt much healing to be done. But the good news is that Tiger has shown a self-awareness of his personal weaknesses. He acknowledged his need to work on becoming a better person, and he is doing something about it. We believe he can use this low point in his life to reach even greater heights as a hero.
How is this possible? It's simple: People love redemption. And it turns out that heroes can redeem themselves in different ways: (1) they can become a morally better person; (2) they can achieve new levels of competence; or (3) they can do both. Tiger can follow Kobe Bryant's lead and redeem himself by dominating his sport again. But Tiger can go beyond the Kobe blueprint for redemption by softening his personality and proving himself a morally changed man. If he can do these things, the public will embrace him as never before. A Tiger Woods who is a humbled and changed man off the golf course, and still dominant on the golf course, will be placed on a much higher heroic pedestal than he was previously.
As painful as the winter of 2009-2010 has been for Tiger, he can use his adversity as grist for the redemptive mill. People have always respected Tiger. His trigger event may be just what he needed to become a humbled, healthier person that the world loves as well as respects. No golfer has ever shown more grit and determination on the golf course than Tiger Woods. If he can now show these same qualities off the course, he can propel himself to an entirely new level of heroism.
We're rooting for him. After all, we love heroes as much as anyone else.