Tiger and a game for life...

I have been playing, or should I say attempting to play, the game of golf for around 15 years. I remember watching golf in passing as a child, vaguely remembering Jack and Arnold, Seve and the Walrus. I became a fan of the game watching Payne Stewart in his nickers win the US Open and seeing a brash left-handed amateur named Phil Mickelson win in the desert. But no one has influenced my love of the game like Tiger Woods. I know it has become cliche to say we as fans are watching the greatest player ever to play the game in his prime. I respect the history and I still love to watch Tiger sweep up majors like they were Saturday afternoon Pro-Ams. But to me, Tiger Woods means significantly more to the game of golf. He is a tie between my generation and the next.

My son knows who Tiger Woods is. To Michael he is a mythical figure - the guy in the video game and the character that can do anything with a golf club. Seeing Tiger on the golf course and watching his character in the XBox led Michael to ask to go to the driving range. Now, once on the range, golf did its job and Michael loves to hit balls because of the game. But I have to think that Tiger has brought the same curiosity to thousands of kids around the world and I have to believe that he will be the player that Michael's generation watches break records while my generation sits back and tells stories about seeing Tiger join the tour and master Augusta in 1997.

Yesterday, Michael and I went to the driving range to hit some balls in the early afternoon sun. Michael pounded through his bucket, then came over to watch me finish up, picking targets and telling me which flags to swing for. Then, he did one of those things that tugs at every dad's heart strings. He looked up and asked if he could have a golf glove like mine because he wanted to be able to hit golf balls like his dad. Every father wants his son to want to be just like him, at least like the good characteristics. I smiled and gave him a little hug and said "Sure you can."

So here I sit in my recliner watching Tiger once again rewrite history at the 2006 PGA Championship, making impossible birdies from the rough and giving me the desire to get up and go hit some balls so I can be a little more like Tiger. And when Michael gets home from his friend's house this afternoon, I will be waiting at the door of his room with a junior golf glove I picked up this afternoon, a present I happily purchased so Michael can be a little more like his dad.