Shane Bacon’s Word of the Week: Tigermania

I just wrapped up my second viewing of “The Last Dance” this past week. I hadn’t watched it since 2020, and upon second watch I thought the show’s biggest shock was remembering (if you’re old enough) or being introduced to (if you’re too young for the prime Jordan years) the global popularity of Michael Jordan.

He was the most famous person in the world for basically the entirety of the ‘90s.

As golf fans know, the second coming of MJ was Tiger. When he burst onto the scene with those amateur wins and then “Hello, World,” you knew you were witnessing something spectacular.

But like rewatching “The Last Dance,” seeing the boom online this week with Tiger being back in our lives was a bit shocking. You almost forget how important Tiger playing golf is to the professional side of the sport, especially now.

Tiger was drilled with questions about all the stuff that I’m sick of talking about when it comes to golf earlier in the week, but on Thursday, Tiger was on a golf course grinding. That excitement online? It can sometimes seem forced, almost mandatory, if you consider yourself a golf media person or influencer.

“Have you tweeted about Tiger in a bit? Well, you must for the clicks!”

And then you see him on the golf course hitting big tee shots and rolling in lengthy birdie putts with a sly grin that emerges as he walks to grab the ball out of the hole and you are brought back to the early 2000s and the mid-2000s and ’08 and ’19 and all the times in between that captivated all of us.

Very few athletes bring us back to moments like music and moves do. Tiger is one of those that can. He takes us to a place that makes us feel something. And the reason that’s important is that, at least for me, golf hasn’t made me feel much the last year and a half except embarrassment or exhaustion.

Tiger playing golf and grinding over certain shots? That’s something I can get behind. The greats practicing their craft is what all of us truly want to watch over everything else, and it’s why the buzz exists each time Tiger makes a return to the turf.

This piece originally appeared in The Fried Egg newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.