The Person Who Could Save Tiger

Alan Shipnuck does not dance around the Tiger Woods news. He calls it a very melancholy feeling, and then he gets honest.

Tiger Woods enriched all of our lives as sports fans, Shipnuck says. He delivered thrills, unforgettable moments, the peak of human performance, and it was an incredible thing to watch up close. Now it has been going on two decades of sad disillusionment, of his life, his public image, his legacy. Shipnuck has empathy for the addiction piece. Most people have someone in their lives who has fought that battle, and the battle never really ends. But it is also okay, he says, to be frustrated that Tiger keeps doing this to himself, to the golf world, to his family. And he is lucky he has not killed anybody on the road.

Rich agrees. That is the line. You can sit here and talk about the damage Tiger is doing to himself and the people who love him, but thank God he has not done something to someone he has never met. That is what the decisions put at risk. Rich then asks the real question. Is there anybody left in Tiger's life who can tell him that and be heard, or does the wake up call have to come from inside.

Shipnuck calls the current behavior wildly irresponsible. The problem, in his read, is that Tiger is surrounded by yes men and enablers. Earl Woods was the one person who could speak truth to power and keep Tiger in line. It is not an accident, Shipnuck says, that everything has gone sideways since Earl died.

Then he floats a name. Rory McIlroy. The one person who might actually fill that role. They are co equals. Part of an exclusive club of Grand Slam winners, only four on Earth right now. Tiger measures worth by trophies, and Rory has earned that station. Rory treated Tiger as his role model, his hero, and has real love and respect for him. They are business partners through TGL, the Tomorrow Golf League. Tiger respects how Rory has lived his life. And Rory, Shipnuck says, can walk anywhere in the world and be welcomed. He spreads goodwill. Tiger has become this sad figure in the game.

Shipnuck frames it plainly. How many incidents is it now. The DUI in 2017. The rollover in 2021. The most recent rollover. How many times does Tiger need to catch the hint. His belief is that the people currently close to Tiger cannot do it. It is going to take an intervention, a powerful outside voice. Rory, in Shipnuck's view, could be that guy, if he wants the burden.

The segment is not a pile on. It is concern, stated clearly, with a specific name attached to a possible path forward.