Tiger Woods and Tom Lynch of Richmond. Two great wins for Tigers on opposite sides of the world at the weekend
The article you are about to read may be in the running for longest bow ever drawn in less than 700 words and it most certainly is the product of a mind suffering delirium from staying up way past its normal bedtime.
Nevertheless, having just witnessed what I’m sure will become many people’s greatest sporting moment of all time, I am drawn to the number of similarities shared by the Tiger who just won at Augusta and the Tigers who won on Saturday at Adelaide Oval.
The obvious kicking off point is the name, and whilst Eldrick Woods and Richmond are their respective official titles, both are universally known as Tiger or the Tigers.
The name evokes a powerful image, perfectly suited to famous victories such as those enjoyed on the weekend, though the colour of the image does differ. For the footballing Tigers, it has been and will always be yellow and black, worn with pride by their fans and sung with extra gusto whenever a rendition of the club song is called for.
Tiger Woods is equally as easily recognisable, though he has abandoned the traditional colours of the big cat after which he was named and instead made the colour red his own by wearing it in the final round of all events he competes in.
Let’s graduate from nicknames and colours to the more important points of synergy between golfer and Australian Rules football club.
Both wins were considered major upsets and given how quick we are to write people off in this country, the weekend of the Tiger surely serves as a permanent reminder to never write off a champion or a champion team.
By the way, Richmond has the right to claim being the “best team in the colony” at present having won more games than any other side in the two seasons preceding the one we have just embarked on.
Both Tigers have had their crosses to bear.
It’s hard to believe it’s over nine years since Tiger Woods last won a major, and for many that meant he would never win one again.
For Richmond, taking the field without the “big four” of Trent Cotchin, Dustin Martin, Alex Rance and Jack Reiwoldt, whilst also missing the previously non-connected underrated three of Bachar Houli, Shaun Grigg and Jayden Short, had them without hope in the eyes of most.
Here is where the two victories share the most meaningful common ground.
Tiger Woods at Augusta this week and the Richmond team that took on Port Adelaide, were able to shield themselves from the outside noise and compete with a steely resolve reserved for champions.
Watching Tiger overnight and Richmond on Saturday night was for me at least an eerily similar proposition. I genuinely felt both were certain winners within five minutes of sitting down in front of the old gogglebox to watch their respective events.
Of course, one can’t compare winning a single home and away game of AFL football to winning the US Masters, but in all likelihood one hasn’t been up all night. Has one?
Still, call it the sleep deprivation speaking, but I think there are great similarities between two famous victories that will be remembered by those who are diehard fans of the golfer, the footy club, or both, till the day they draw their last breath.
And a footnote to the Tiger tale above. Two days ago, I asked my youngest daughter Harper, who is a Richmond supporter and a predictably feral one at that, whether she was excited to see Tiger Woods playing golf so well again.
She asked me why I thought that would make her happy, and I reminded her that her Richmond devotion had made her a sucker for anything Tiger-related and that Tiger Woods is the most famous Tiger of the human variety in the world.
She then informed me that whilst Tiger Woods has a ripper of a first name, his surname is so offensive to her and all Richmond supporters, that it cancels out the good part of his name!
