Ah yes, our friend Tiger Woods: The world’s best golfer.  There is no doubt that Tiger Woods has brought both new fans and great excitement to golf.

More people watch golf now, than ever before.  More people play golf now, than ever before.  Yes, Tiger Woods is largely responsible for that and that’s a great thing.  But it's not ALL great.

We as golfers, watch Tiger Woods.  Whether you are a fan of his or not, you watch him.  You can’t help but watch him.

When you do watch him, you see something of yourself in him.  Oh yes, you do.  Don’t even try to deny it.  Why do we do that?  We do it because Tiger plays “our” game.

No matter who you are, no matter what shape you’re in, for the most part, Tiger plays the same game as us.

He looks like a normal human being.  There’s nothing particularly extraordinary about his appearance.

He’s not like a Shaquille O’Neil, 7 feet tall and 300 plus pounds.  We don’t look at Shaquille and say to ourselves: “I could do that.”

We know better.  Tiger is different.  He looks like us.  He’s not getting knocked around by a bunch of people nearly his own size.  He plays golf and so do you.

So, your tendency, even if it’s a deep, dark secret known only to you (well, and now to me too) is to sometimes say: “I could do that.”  Worse than that, you actually act upon that misguided thought process.  The truth of the matter is: No.  You cannot do that.  In fact, you can’t do any of that! 

When we watch an NFL football game, we never say: “I could do that.”  The thought never enters our minds.

When we watch an NBA game we never say: “I could do that.”  That also never enters our minds.

If you watch the Indy 500, you’re not thinking: “I could do that.”  You know better.

But, our tendency when we watch Tiger is to think: “Maybe, that I could do.”  WRONG!

Tiger Woods was trained all his life to do what he does.  We tend to assume that because that’s the case, he doesn’t have to work at it.

I’ll let you in on a secret.  Tiger Woods works harder at his golf than almost anyone on the planet.  Yes, he has certain God-given abilities but he has; and continues to, work extremely hard at maximizing those abilities.

I’d venture to say that Tiger Woods probably works way harder at his job than you do yours.  Folks, it’s not all God-given ability.  I assure you that.

Tiger Woods came out with a book.  It's titled "HOW I PLAY GOLF."  It’s fun to read.  However, there was something important left OUT of the title: “OH, BY THE WAY: YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO DO ANY OF THIS!  BUT ISN’T IT GREAT THAT I CAN?”

Think about this for a moment.  Tiger Woods is the best golfer in the world.  He’s ranked number one.  IN THE WORLD!  That means that all the other professional golfers in the world are ranked lower than him.

If the second best player on the PGA Tour is at least 10,000 times better than the best player you know (which he is), can’t emulate Tiger, how can you expect to?  You can’t.  Tiger Woods is for watching and enjoying.  He is not a “goal” for you.

Trust me, you don’t want to try to have Tiger Woods’ swing.  No one else on the PGA Tour can do what he does.  Certainly, you can’t do what he does and you shouldn’t even try.

This is what I mean by Golf magazines causing you problems.  One of them had Tiger on the cover with the caption : "How to hit my 2-iron Stinger."

You can’t hit his 2-iron stinger.  I can’t hit his 2-iron stinger.  No other TOURING PRO can hit his 2-iron stinger!  Only Tiger can hit that shot.  That’s it.  It's value to you?  Zero!  But, it is a very cool shot.  To watch him hit!

Am I saying that we can take absolutely nothing away from watching Tiger?  Well, if we’re speaking in absolutes, no, I’m absolutely not saying that.

What we can take away and learn from watching Tiger is his focus.  We can emulate his total commitment to every shot.  We can emulate his ability to not “tank” an entire hole because of one bad shot.

In the same vein, we can emulate his ability to not give up on a whole round because of some bad holes.

We can learn something valuable in watching his ability to forget a bad shot as soon as it’s over and refocus on making the next shot better.  Those are the “Tiger Things” you can and should do.

So, by all means, do watch Tiger Woods.  Enjoy the special things he does.  Be amazed.  Be thrilled.  Be astounded.  But, don’t be fooled.  You can’t do that. Nor should you ever try.

Remember the commercials that were aired shortly after Tiger Woods turned professional and joined the PGA Tour, where people were saying “I Am Tiger Woods.”  Yeah.  Sure you are.  And I’m Santa Claus.

My goal is to help you become the Tiger Woods of YOUR group.  You'll have a swing that looks JUST LIKE HIS!

You'll probably beat everyone you play with just like he does.  Just remember...it's lonely at the top.  But, you can deal with it.