The Three Faces of Eldrick

This is an observation of a journey, not yet complete of Eldrick Woods. You may know of him as "Tiger" Woods, previously known as the world's greatest golfer before he presently became the world's most notorious and reckless philanderer. Over the years, Eldrick has morphed into more shapes and personalities than Eve Black in the 1957 movie "Three Faces of Eve" starring Joanne Woodward as a woman possessed by "disassociative identity disorder." Let me digress...

In a broad context, I have attempted to develop the Eve story above with a contemporary title of "The Three Faces of Eldrick." In the beginning, there was the early face, where Eldrick was a nerd with thick glasses, flood pants, skinny limbs, high pitched voice and a loud cackle laugh punctuated with a snort not too unlike his moniker given to him at Stanford "Urkel" of Steve Urkel fame in the TV hit Family Matters. Next came the "Tiger" face complete with a full body and attitude change highlighted by 71 PGA Pro victories, 14 Major Championships, 10 PGA Player of Year awards, and about $1BILLION in winnings and endorsements. He was the dream for Madison Avenue and had it ALL: successful, talented, photogenic, wealthy, a man of mixed ethnicities, universal appeal, married to a gorgeous woman who bore him two beautiful healthy kids, beyond reproach or so we thought. Now, there is the present face which is the most troubling. Gone is the magic smile, the adoring public, the millions in endorsements, the beautiful wife and children, all because of Eldrick's over-active libido, enabling handlers and his over the top hubris. His self-destruction reminds me vaguely of Wilbur Mills, a powerful Democratic Member of the House of Representatives from Arkansas, who had a similar fall from grace. Wilbur at one time owned Washington DC and was arguably, the most powerful man in DC. He was Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and held it longer than anyone in history. However, like Eldrick, Wilbur had a dark side. He loved to drink and carouse with loose women. His downfall came at a most inopportune time when he was running for the Presidentcy. In 1974, Wilbur, in two separate drunken incidents, with an Argentinian stripper named, Fanne Foxe, were found cavorting in the Tidal Basin in DC at night and the other time Wilbur gave a press conference from Fanne's burlesque house in Boston...obviously drunk and emboldened with a sense that he could do no wrong. Wilbur was run out of DC shortly thereafter and died in disgrace in Arkansas.

What does this all mean? A couple of things. Eldrick, the composite of all three faces, became lost through his own "disassociative disorder." Personally, I lost a hero. Sure I'm 57 years old but that doesn't mean I can't have heroes. I'm not that hardened, I guess. Eldrick was a hero of mine. That's why this hurts so much. Heroes typically endure life bravely and succeed with grace beyond their own mortality as a symbol for all of us. They give us hope, joy, a reason to participate. However, at times their own humanity upsets our unreal expectations of them. In a way, I have lost my innocence once again at age 57. But, we all love redemption stories, maybe Eldrick will redeem his own life which is more important than redeeming our hero association with him.