SOBAN FAISAL
Special to The Leader
Tiger Woods’ dominance has lasted over two decades.
He is the most influential golfer of this century, arguably the best to ever play.
Five Masters, four PGA Championships, three U.S. Open Championships and three British Open Championships.
His style and athleticism brought new younger fans to golf like never before.
Woods is a legend to our generation.
On Feb. 23, though, everything came to a halt.
Woods was in a gruesome car accident where his lower legs had been crushed.
With how much of an inspiration Woods is, his injury has shaken the sports world.
Tyler Kostelny is a junior at Fredonia who plays golf recreationally. Kostelny said the only golfing highlights he’ll pull up online are of Tiger Woods, so news of the accident has hit him hard.
“We’ve seen in the last couple of years with all these random actors and athletes, just, you know, passing away is something that makes you feel uneasy at that moment when you see something like that. Yeah, you are checking your phone every like 10 minutes [to] get an update on it,” he said.
Indeed the past 14 months have been tragic; thankfully, the universe did not add Woods to the fatality list.
Alex Brown, a senior and one of Kostelny’s golfing buddies, thinks the golfing world will take a massive hit from this injury.
Brown does not believe Woods will be able to play competitive golf again. He thinks that Woods will most likely only play recreationally, which is an enormous disappointment because Woods had another 10 good years in him.
Brown said, “Woods has specialty clubs for him with his branding on it, so you know, if I was getting clubs, I’d consider getting the apparel too. You have hats and clothes with his logo on it so if you want to look the part you… buy his apparel.”
Just as people tried to copy Allen Iverson’s swagger or practice shooting from deep like Steph Curry, a whole generation of golfers want to be like Woods.
Even if the closest thing to playing an actual golf course was Pier 25 Mini Golf, then Woods has still been some part of your life.
Laura Johnston has never played golf before, yet she remembers the first time hearing of Woods at the young age of 12.
Knowing little about golf, she still knew one thing regular golfers would: “He’s an inspiration [to golfers], but if you’re good at a sport that’s not that popular and everyone still knows you… I guess that would be an inspiration [to everyone].”
Golf is stereotypically an “older person’s game,” but Woods has brought a flair that not even Happy Gilmore could capture.