Tiger Woods Influence on Golf’s Image.
With instant access to mass media, the public’s hunger for news about their favourite sports heroes can be fed 24/7. Being followed on Twitter, Facebook and blogs, these larger than life figures need to watch their step, lest they trip and fall, shattering their own image along with the image of the sport they represent. As much as an adoring public loves to follow a professional athlete’s every move, these same doting fans also relish in an athlete’s downfall with a certain sadistic glee. The media world caught a glimpse of this phenomenon again recently as everyone raced to follow posts and tweets about the trials and tribulations of golf’s pristine poster boy, Tiger Woods.
Fallen sports heroes tarnishing their game’s reputation is nothing new. Whether it’s concealed weapons in professional basketball or the steroids scandal in baseball, an entire sport can be tainted by the bad decisions of a few individuals. One has to now wonder if the seemingly untouchable image of professional golf has suffered at the hands of Tiger’s transgressions.
Golf’s Image
Professional golf has always had the reputation as being a gentlemen’s sport. With country clubs traditionally priced out of the reach of the ordinary man’s wallet, only the sons of rich families could afford to hone their skills to one day turn pro. A gentlemanly code of conduct went along with being a gentlemen’s game, and through the decades most professional golfers followed the code with few exceptions for eccentric fashion. Although the image of golf has gradually shifted through the past half-century as the game became more affordable to the middle classes, the professional ranks still followed a more traditional golfing etiquette. Holding onto these traditional values of gallantry and sportsmanship has allowed professional golf to keep its clean-cut image while bad boys seem to take over the rest of professional sport.
Tiger Woods Image
Tiger’s image was no exception to the professional golfing norm, and was carefully cultivated to do so. From a very early age, Tiger was encouraged by his father to perfect his talent as a golfer as well as create a persona as the boy who is every mother’s dream. Even in grainy images of a tiny Tiger Woods on the Bob Hope Show, you can see how the young tot carried himself like a professional. When Tiger turned pro and burned up the PGA with his undeniable prowess, sponsors jumped at the opportunity to have such a clean-cut African-American as their sponsor. It wasn’t just Tiger’s golfing reputation the sponsors were after, but everything he represented as well. This leaning by sponsors on Tiger’s image became very apparent as they dropped him from their payrolls soon after the news of his infidelities began to leak out. Tiger was no longer who he had claimed to be, and the credibility of his image had been tarnished for good.
Tiger Woods Public Perception
Even people who didn’t follow golf know who Tiger is, as well as his reputation for being the boy-next-door. It’s not surprising then that most people were shocked by the revelations that came spilling out as the Tiger drama unfolded through December 2009. Many began greeting the news of each new mistress with a smirk and a shrug. Perhaps even a few wondered out loud how many other golfers on the tour fell prey to the same temptations, but the conversation quickly moved on. Although those who follow golf with a passion lamented Tiger’s decision to take some time away from the game, they still check-up on the leader board whenever they get the chance. To even the casual observer, golf is still the sport of gentlemen, and Tiger’s time off just levels the playing field. When Tiger does come back, the incident will be forgotten with his first masterful chip shot.
At the end of the day, whether or not an athlete’s actions leave a stain on their sport’s reputation id directly linked to whether or not what they did had a direct impact on how the game was played. In other words, did the athlete sin to gain an unfair advantage? When it comes to performance enhancing drugs, not only an athlete’s reputation but that of the entire sport can be ruined for ever; just look at how professional cycling seems incapable of crawling out from under the cloud caused by allegations around Tour de France winners Ullrich, Landis and Armstrong. Also, for a sport’s reputation to be tarnished in the eyes of the broader public there would have to be an amplifier effect. Did other athletes fall to the same temptation? When it comes to personal transgressions such as Tiger’s, however, a shocked public seems able to separate the athlete from the sport. Although Tiger will definitely remain a topic of conversation at the 19th Hole for a long time to come, it won’t be to talk about how he caused the downfall of professional golf.
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