Tiger dumps rehab

July 09, 2017 - 09:00

Tiger Woods checks out of rehab for substance addiction after two weeks. Robert Bicknell feels this is the worst thing he could do.

 
Viet Nam News

By Robert Bicknell

OK, so I’m now officially a year older… Meh, I don’t feel any different. I still drive 300+ yards, hit 150 yard pitching wedges and still three putt from inside the flagstick.

Sixty years old (in Việt Nam) means I can get senior citizen discounts somewhere? In Việt Nam it also means I can act like I’m retired and yet still work. Come to think of it, I know a lot of thirty year old staff who do that now. Whoops sorry, they “act like they’re working” as well. Silly me.

Also, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to send me a happy birthday wish on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. It meant a lot to me.

OK, the world goes on and so do I.

Tiger Woods checked himself out of a “private rehabilitation clinic” after being “successfully treated for substance abuse” for two weeks.

I call bullshit on this one.

There is no way in Hell that someone can be successfully treated for addiction in two weeks. Heck, you cannot even quit smoking cigarettes in two weeks (Sure, you can stop smoking cigarettes for two weeks, but that isn’t anything close to actual quitting. It’s months before the urge leaves you).

Why does Tiger keep trying to take the shortcut and end up doing himself more damage in the long run? He should face reality and do things by the numbers. Do it right get himself healthy and on a realistic recovery schedule.

He forced his comeback after knee surgery, then ended up back under the knife. Then he forced his comeback after back surgery and, yup, ended up back under the knife again… and ended up with an addiction to painkillers.

What makes him think he is different than anyone else?

There are scores of professional athletes who ended up hooked on painkillers. In almost every case it was because they were afraid of being out too long and losing their position on the team. Or they were injured and tried to play through the injury by loading up on pills.

This is exactly the wrong way to do things and almost never ends well.

Tiger has no pressure on him to return. He is already a non-entity on the Tour as other players have stepped up. Just returning doesn’t guarantee a win. He will have to play himself back into contention and he cannot do that with a substandard game and a mouthful of pills.

He has to heal first and then do the rehab.

Rehab sucks, there is no way around it. It’s painful and often seems like torture, but if you’re planning on returning to competitive form, it’s something that you cannot skimp on, or cut short without risking serious consequences.

Once rehab is completed, he can slowly start to rebuild his swing one shot at a time. Slowly rebuild a solid foundation. Do a little more each day, or even each week if that is what it takes. Once that is done, he can start playing “golf” again, but without competition. He needs to get out onto the course and smell the grass. He needs to remember why he is out there.

If he’s returning because of any reason other than the “love of the game” than he is out there for the wrong reason. If he’s going back because of sponsors, limelight or his ego, he will fail yet again.

Golf is the type of game that simply cannot be played well if your heart isn’t truly in it. If you have things other than golf running through your mind, if your heart is not calm and if you aren’t enjoying what you do out there, you cannot play well.

It’s simply impossible.

Every teacher will tell you that golf is 80 per cent mental and only 20 per cent physical and they are absolutely correct.

So why is Tiger pushing himself towards yet another failure?

It seems to me that the same “I’m Tiger Woods” mindset that got him into trouble with his wife is still dominating his life. This is not a good thing. Self-confidence is one thing, arrogance is another.

If Tiger continues to normal rules do not apply to him, he will fail yet again and, to be honest, people are getting tired of this act.

Enough is enough. VNS

 

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