I spend three or four afternoons a week this time of year coaching a local high school golf team. The following words emerge from a part of that work and the community of adults who explore Jesus together with me every other week at an area country club. At the core of this piece is the one thing God has been impressing on me most deeply since the day I officiated a funeral this winter for the father of one of my players: that we must keep wrestling with Him.

THE NAME OF GOD'S PEOPLE

The man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” (Genesis 32:28, NIV)

I’ve been working with a player whose short game has no variety.

This entry is about Tiger Woods and the fact that according to Jim Nance (the head broadcaster at the Masters this past weekend) about 80% of the gallery (or fans in attendance) cheered for him from the start to the finish in a wellspring of support. 

But, before I get there, I have to confess that I love the Masters. I am an average golfer and don’t follow the tour closely, but if you like golf at all or have ever thought about thinking about liking golf, you know that the Masters is without a doubt the greatest weekend in Golf and perhaps one of the great American sporting traditions.  

This is partly due to the irrefutable fact that the golf tournament is played on -- and in -- Golf Heaven.  I have never played Augusta National (founded by Bobby Jones in 1931, designed by the great Alister MacKenzie, and perhaps the most exclusive course in the world with about 300 members), but it is considered by almost all golf aficionados to be THE golf course on earth alongside St. Andrews which is widely believed to have been designed and created by nature (or God – depending on which Scott you ask) and the birth place of golf in the 1570’s.  

You don't have to be a golf fan to appreciate what happened at the Masters on Sunday. You just have to be a fan of the twists and turns of human nature. There in the final round on the storied Augusta National golf course, two titanic golfers were pitted against each other. On one side you had Tiger Woods, the world's number one golfer, working through difficult circumstances created by his own woeful behavior. On the other side you had Phil Michelson, the world's second best golfer, dealing with difficult circumstances outside his control.

Throughout the four-day golf tournament, Tiger thought he was in control, but he wasn’t. He played well for a guy who's been off for four months, but his shots were erratic. And his occasional verbal outbursts belied his stated intentions to be a different kind of golfer. As the afternoon shadows lengthened and he slipped further from contention, Tiger seemed to get smaller and less significant. 

***UPDATE*** Tiger releases statement: "I have let my family down & I regret those transgressions w/ all of my heart ... I will strive to be a better person and the husband and father that my family deserves. For all of those who have supported me over the years, I offer my profound apology."  

There is a Thanksgiving hangover and it involves the media’s indulgence over Tiger Woods. I’ve never seen so much speculation and infatuation over a driveway accident. Sadly, the media frenzy has only just begun.

Every gossip site is milking this story for every ounce of traffic it can attain, and although most respectable news sites are holding off from making it A-1 material, one can’t imagine a cage made of human interest holding off a Tiger-sized story.

Several sites have claimed that Tiger has had a long affair with a former waitress, who allegedly has a voicemail and some texts to prove it. A Chinese news report even featured an animated re-enactment of the Tiger Woods incident (which is laughable not only in its poor quality, but in that they have Tiger attempting to drive off in a van).

If any of the speculations prove to be true, most people will wonder how in the world a man who has it all—money, fame, beautiful wife, healthy kids, adoration from fans, respect of many—risk it all for a tryst? Most of us would like to believe that with a billion dollars handy and the world as our stage we wouldn’t screw it up, but we’ll never have the opportunity to fail (or succeed) in those extremes. So, naturally, we project how we would have handled things on someone we don’t even know.

Sure, Tiger’s richer than all the readers of this site combined, but that doesn’t make this circumstance any less painful and any less difficult to navigate. He has a marriage to fight for, kids to protect, a job to maintain and partnerships to uphold. Whether he fabricated a story, cheated, lied or all of the above, no one knows the extent of the story better than Tiger himself.

Known as one of the most stoic and secretive sports figures, Tiger is suddenly facing his worst nightmare. It is a lonely jungle he’s traversing through, and I want to hope for something great to come out of this. I want Tiger to fight for his family, his legacy and his reputation as a role model for the next generation of golfers. I want Tiger to shock the media world and turn their indulgence for negative press into intervention for positive change. If I’m being honest, 12 hours ago I wasn’t even thinking about Tiger the person. I was just another set of eyeballs on the Internet scouring for the latest news on the collapse of a modern icon. Then it hit me, Tiger is just a man. A sentiment I discussed in my most recent post.

Life, like golf, is not just about how you begin on the front nine, it is all about how you finish on the back nine. Tiger has hit some major roughs and if there’s one thing we can all agree about real life is that mulligans are rarely offered. And as if I haven’t already used every golf metaphor in the book, excuse me as I continue. People describe the game of golf as more mental than it is physical. One’s ability to keep the outside distractions at bay determines the success on the golf course, and no one performed better under intense pressure than Tiger Woods. This is easily the toughest course he’s ever faced.

There’s something about a father’s love that is pretty special.  I was reminded of it today as I spent Father’s Day Eve with my own dad hitting golf balls.  I was reminded again this evening at Church when my pastor preached on our Heavenly Father’s love for all of us.  And I was so very grateful of my earthly father’s and Heavenly Father’s love for me as I witnessed members of my church family seek out the blessings their Heavenly Father gives, that their earthly fathers were unable (or unwilling) to articulate.  

Our Pastor, Mike Erre (also a Conversant blogger, by the way), painted this picture from another pastor at our church:  imagine a father, sitting alongside his son or daughter, looking them in the eye and saying, “Out of all the little girls in the world, the blond ones, the brunette ones, the short ones, the tall ones, the ones that can run fast and jump high, or the ones that can’t, the ones that are serious, or silly, out of all those little girls, I would choose you.  If I had to do it over and over again, I would choose you again and again.”