Imrem: Tiger deserves respect for playing by the Jordan Rules
"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
- Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods tees off today in the PGA Championship and figures to fail again in this latest attempt to win another major title.
As futile as the quest has become, it just might be that Woods deserves more respect than he's receiving.
Woods used to win majors just by falling out of bed. Now he looks like his game is sleepwalking on the course.
The former No. 1 golfer in the world has regressed from being the biggest name in all of sports to his name being a punchline.
Like him or not, it's almost painful to watch Woods hack around a golf course like your next-door neighbor.
Or, even worse, like yourself.
Or, worst of all, like me.
Much of Woods' decline is self-imposed. At the top of his game, he began leading a reckless personal lifestyle that cost him his marriage and sabotaged his career.
Now Woods' world ranking is somewhere between a joke and a pity.
Personally, I'm pretty sure I want Woods to contend for titles again, but not so sure I want him to win any.
For certain, I want him to keep on keeping on.
The world of sports is better with Tiger Woods, just as it is with other polarizing entities like Notre Dame and the New York Yankees.
Woods appears intent on continuing to feed our curiosity over him.
"It's fun to compete," he said this week. "It's fun to try to get better every day."
"Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen."
- Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods, 39, has been characterized as working hard to regain his championship form, though he might be better off practicing less and playing more.
"I enjoy working," Woods said.
We'll take his word for it even though he lived a lie for so long and now sounds delusional when discussing his golf game.
Woods is listening to this person and implementing that tip and, as often as not, getting worse instead of better.
But let's give Woods a little credit for continuing to risk looking foolish while chasing what appears to be an impossible dream.
It can't be easy to still be Tiger Woods but not be TIGER WOODS anymore. Would Rembrandt have kept painting if he was splashing paint all over a canvas and himself?
Baseball fans at once giggled and grimaced at Willie Mays floundering around center field late in his career. Football fans did the same as Joe Namath limped toward the finish line.
Finally, nobody wanted them and they had no choice but to retire.
Golfers are independent contractors with nobody but themselves to determine when it's time to be give it up.
In that respect, Woods is more Frank Sinatra than Willie Mays or Joe Namath, failing to hit the high notes but continuing to perform for the love of it or for whatever other reason.
Even Jordan, a Woods life mentor at one time for better or worse, looks less than Jordanesque running a team now but he keeps at it the way Woods has been.
There's something admirable about that, isn't there?
So, yes, Tiger Woods deserves a measure of respect, if not love, for trying, trying and trying some more.
"I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."
- Michael Jordan
mimrem@dailyherald.com