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Picture Tiger Woods on a 320 yard par-4, striding up to the tee to assess the situation. Where is the pin? What trouble surrounds the green? Where is the best entry point? What kind of lay-up would it be? How do I stand in the tournament? What are the risks and what are the rewards? What is the consequence of failure? Is it worth it to try?
All of this happens in about 30 seconds or less. He then walks over to the bag and pulls out a club. It may be the driver, or it may be a 5-iron. No matter what club he chooses, rest assured that he has made his decision and the decision making part is over. Now it is time to focus on the shot. There will be no regrets over poor execution, no remorse over whatever the decision is. It is now all about the execution. Once the shot is over with, the exact same process will occur again on the very next shot. From the first tee to final holed putt, this is how Tiger plays, and for all we knew about him, it seemed to be the way he lived his life.
Whoops! Now what are we supposed to think? Now that 5 women have come out and claimed (with increasing believability) to have been his recent mistresses? Could this coldly calculating, supremely focused and confident superstar have possibly screwed up this badly? What could have possessed him to act in such a manner? Well, let me hazard a guess.
Men who fight in wars and survive often voluntarily go straight back into harm’s way. Everyone who knows them thinks they are crazy to put their life on the line when they don’t have to, but respect them for the urge to serve. These men, in my view, have a particular sensibility peculiar to warriors down through the ages. Their idea, thought, world-view, is that nothing bad can happen to them. The bullet is destined to miss them and hit the guy next to them. They are not afraid of consequences, because they absolutely know that they are not destined to be harmed. There is, of course, no logic to this inner belief. On the contrary, it is completely illogical and downright nutty. What it does for those that possess it, however, is that it allows them to do things that other, clearer thinking people would never do. It allows them to be heroes, and to stand out above other warriors and be recognized as special. It allows them to be essentially fearless.
I believe that Tiger exists in this mindset. Here is a guy who has never known anything but success beyond the imagination of almost anyone on the planet. When asked if he thought he could have a perfect season, to win every tournament he played in for a year, he replied, “Sure I can. In fact, I already did that. When I was 11 I played in 36 tournaments and won them all”. All his life he has been able to do anything he wanted, and he was always successful. He was sleeping with these women because he wanted to. He enjoyed it, he figured he deserved it, and he never thought about the consequences because he figured he would never get caught. Just like the soldier who runs into fire because he knows he won’t get hit, Tiger figured he was safe, that he would be protected, and that there would be no day of reckoning. The fact that his actions were reprehensible and were bound to cause massive pain and anguish to his family serve to let us know that our characterization of him as an upstanding moral individual was ultimately wrong. And while the soldier’s motives may be of the highest level, while Tiger’s of the lowest, it remains that what allows them both to be so reckless is the basic idea that nothing bad will happen to me, that I am impervious to failure.
The soldier receives his comeuppance through injury or death. Tiger is receiving his every time he looks into the face of his wife, his children, and all those who revered him and looked to him to represent a model of excellence and achievement whose values and lifestyle were worth emulating. Tiger will continue to win golf tournaments. He will more than likely wind up with more majors than Nicklaus, and will ultimately be regarded as the greatest player of all time. But all of this will now be more difficult, as his fellow competitors realize that he is not a god, he is not infallible, and that they do not need to feel intimidated by his presence. In fact, any man who has not cheated on his wife in spite of the temptations present while traveling the Tour can now actually feel superior to Tiger, and they would be right in doing so.