By Mason Smith ’11
THE ROUNDUP

Everyone remembers the day after Thanksgiving in 2009 as the day the “Tiger scandal” appeared on television.

He had hit a fire hydrant with the front bumper of his car, and from then on it just kept getting worse for then the world’s No. 1 golfer.

It came out that he had been cheating on his wife with not just one, but multiple mistresses.

Woods, who has won 82 professional golf tournaments (14 of those being majors) and had held the world No. 1 ranking for 623 weeks fell from that spot in early November when Lee Westwood of England took over.

The stress and stamina of a typical PGA Professional is excruciatingly high, and then when you add the pressure of being the No. 1 player, the media, the scandal and much more, how would you deal with that pressure?

When Woods came out and confessed his scandal on ESPN he kind of sounded like a robot, reading his script word for word and with not a whole lot of emotion.

But you know what? That’s fine, he isn’t a professional speaker, he’s a professional golfer who has a target on his back every week he competes.

Even with that going on, he was able to perform at a high level.

Even though he didn’t win an event this year for the first time of his career, he finished in the top 10 in the Masters tournament and the US Open at Pebble Beach.

People might view Woods differently because of what he did to his wife, but let’s all remember one thing—we are all human and make mistakes.

Through all of this he realized his mistakes as a person and sought out counseling and treatment to help with his problem.

He isn’t some sort of God that can do everything perfectly; he is a human being who is just trying to find his place in life again.

Woods’ last tournament of 2010 will be at the Chevron World Challenge, an event that he had to drop out of last year because of the scandal. Graeme McDowell took his place and would eventually go on to win the 2010 US Open.