Professional golf is the only sport I follow with any degree of passion. But I must say watching Tiger win 60-70% of the tournaments he bothers to enter is getting a little tiresome.

Not that he doesn’t deserve to win. He is obviously the perfect-storm combination  of God-given talent, parental preparation, and personal dedication and drive.  I don’t want Tiger to do worse. I want other guys to do better. 

Talent aside, the fact is, Tiger is often one of the only guys on the course who actually looks like a professional athlete.  Frankly, a lot of the guys out there look like, uh, me. Or him. . .

There was a time in professional baseball when guys like Babe Ruth could party, smoke, be fat, and generally let themselves go and still perform at a pretty high level because, like golf, the game had a lot do with hand-eye coordination. But aspiring major leaguers realized those days died back in the 60s. And when the money for being good at baseball got crazy huge, guys not only did everything they could (naturally) to be in top physical condition, some have been willing break the rules and do everything they can unnaturally.

Today there are more gifted golfers than ever before chasing a finite number of slots on the tour. But until more begin to think and act like professional athletes, Tiger may remain alone on the top tier of the world’s players.