Beyond the question of what it means to the sport of golf, coverage of the Tiger Woods affair reflects that never-ending battle between the American Puritans and the European sophisticates.
Continuing our coverage of this European-American cultural fissure, sports columnist Jean-Louis Aragon writes for France’s Le Monde:
A few casual sexual encounters are exposed and, presto, the most beautiful kind of Tiger, exemplary in every respect both on and off the green, is transformed into a Tiger of paper-mâché. His image, based on the best PR advice our consumer society has ever known, has come tumbling down.
Two worlds collide in the Tiger Woods affair. The world of the Puritans – or those whose business is either political or spiritual Puritanism; and the world of those who aren’t weighed down by moral considerations, least of all when it comes to sex and entertainment. Between the public images of leading athletes, people who we want to see playing the role of exemplary citizens in societies that are witnessing a precipitous decline in values, and the reality of their daily lives, there is an entire ocean of behavior that morality tolerates mainly because they aren’t exposed to the light of day.
It’s difficult to reconcile these two aspects – sport and outside sport.
And what about the impact of Tiger’s absence on golf?
For many players, Tiger Woods made the smartest decision by taking a break from the tour until things settle down. This absence may be brought to an end, not by the champion directly, but when the demands of the golfing community become sufficiently insistent. Without him, the tournaments suffer from much lower media coverage, and a prolonged absence would have repercussions on the motivations of certain event sponsors and on the business of his own partner organizations, foremost among them, Nike.
As part of the collateral damage, Tiger could lose his world number one ranking and back up the words of his late father, who said at the beginning of the career of his son, who was then unmarried, that only marriage could stop him from being the best player in the world. His rivals could benefit, but if they win without true competition they also risk triumph without glory.
By Jean-Louis Aragon
Translated By Helene Grinsted
December 20, 2009
France – Le Monde – Original Article (French)
A few casual sexual encounters are exposed and, presto, the most beautiful kind of Tiger, exemplary in every respect both on and off the green, is transformed into a Tiger of paper-mâché. His image, based on the best PR advice our consumer society has ever known, has come tumbling down. The mirror on which we saw the reflection of an exceptional American athlete, one of the greatest golfers in the world, irreproachable as a husband as well as a father of two children, has been shattered. Beyond the mirror’s silvery surface an unrepentant womanizer has been revealed – the sexual side of a Tiger that we weren’t able to see.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US