Ty Schadt, Managing Editor
On April 14, Tiger Woods won the 2019 Masters Tournament, securing his 15th career major win and first since 2009. The next day, President Trump announced via Twitter that he would award Woods a Presidential Medal of Freedom, — the highest recognition a private U.S. citizen can attain.
Britannica says the Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded to individuals who “have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Woods, the same man who engaged in so many extramarital affairs that blogs were created to list all of his mistresses encyclopedia-style, will now share an award with influencers like Stephen Hawking, Martin Luther King Jr., Hellen Keller and Billy Graham.
Trump’s tweet said the award will be given “because of [Woods’s] incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE.”
Emotional and physical trauma in recent years have not been kind to Woods’s career. He entered the golf world in 1997 and won 14 majors by 2008, but then things turned for the worst. Injuries and affairs kept him out of the game physically and mentally.
Woods has had three back surgeries since 2014, leading him to rely on painkillers to function. In May 2017, Woods was arrested for a DUI, which he said was a result of “an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications.” Regardless, it was a new rock bottom for Woods, and questions swirled about whether or not he would ever step foot on a golf course again.
But now, the 43-year-old is set to don one of the nation’s highest awards.
Winning this year’s Masters was a storybook moment, but is Woods’s redemptive narrative on the course enough to mitigate the moral missteps of his personal life? And if so, can someone with his track record inspire us to the point where a Presidential Medal of Freedom is justified?
Ask anyone watching the final found on April 14, and you’ll get a resounding yes.
That answer has less to say about Woods and more to say about us. Why did we find ourselves pulling for him to win, despite the poor choices he’s made in his life?
Because we all make poor choices. We all do things we regret. We all get knocked down, and while our mistakes may not be on as grand a scale as Woods’s, they exist.
Mistakes help us see celebrities and star-athletes as humans, instead of perfectly successful specimens. And we love that.
On his talk show the day after Woods won, sports commentator Colin Cowherd explained why he believes the victory was culturally impactful. Though he did not mention the Presidential Medal of Freedom, many of the things he discussed seem of the same ideology as the president’s.
“Don’t ever let anybody marginalize sports to you,” said Cowherd. “Sports shapes us; it heals us; it empowers us; it connects us; it turns poor into rich and broken into healed.”
Interestingly enough, Woods joins a list of 32 other athletes who have received a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among those names are legends like baseball player Jackie Robinson, boxer Muhammad Ali and tennis player Billie Jean King. Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, Ali fought racism in his sport and King was an activist for social justice and women’s equality.
What he and the other 32 athletes, as well as every other recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, have in common is the notion that their actions united people. And perhaps Woods’s 15th major win came at just the right time in our country.
“This country is more divided than it has ever been,” said Cowherd. “I can’t remember the last time in America we were all pulling for the same thing.”
Robinson made us do that. Ali made us do that. Woods made us do that.
And while his history may not be as spotless as his Presidential Medal of Freedom cohorts, Woods’s recent Masters victory at Augusta certainly deserves to be recognized as the impactful and unifying moment it was.
