Tiger's absence opens doors

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I have to admit that I am a little upset with Tiger. He chose my vacation to announce that he was calling it a year. Then as if he were the puppet master pulling media strings underpaid radio producers all over the country rang my cell phone to schedule four or five minutes with their talking head to discuss what this means for the game. I am going to let you in on a little secret: Tiger doesn't let any of us in on his little secrets. In other words, I was just as shocked as everyone else.

John Maginnes

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So what does it mean for the PGA TOUR that the No. 1 athlete in the world will be sidelined for the rest of the year? Of course, it stinks. Well, it may not stink for the guys who win the last two majors this year. And it probably doesn't stink for the guy who will win the FedExCup. Not to mention, someone other than Tiger is going to win the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron -- and no one can remember the last time that happened.

Don't worry. Tiger will probably be back in December to pound everyone at the Chevron World Challenge presented by Countrywide. I think he won that tournament, another one that he hosts, by about 32 shots last year. If it is his first event back, even though it is unofficial, there will probably be a few people watching. Do you think that I am the first to think of that? Me either.

But I don't think that Tiger being sidelined for the season is the worst thing to happen in the history of the game. And, quite frankly, I don't think that his victory at Torrey Pines was the most courageous victory in the history of the game. But we can talk about Ben Hogan some other time.

Right now we are getting a glimpse of the future -- just as we did in Milwaukee or more accurately, Las Vegas, a dozen trips around the sun ago. We knew that Tiger was going to be one of the greats. It was too obvious from the start and it was time. What we didn't know was how much fun the ride was going to be. We knew when Tiger took the 54-hole lead in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines that we were looking at No. 14. But Rocco Mediate dared us to believe and for one glorious afternoon we did, even while suspecting that the conclusion was foregone.

For the next five months we can look into the future at what the TOUR may be like as He-Who-Can't-Be-Stopped finally is. The light of so many promising careers has been dimmed in the past 12 years by him. So many incredible personalities have been muted by the media for a sound bite from The Chosen One. And any suggestion that today's players aren't as good as those who challenged the greats of bygone eras is either ill informed an exercise in vanity.

Other sports are full of stories about players who stepped up their games in the absence of a fallen teammate. Tom Brady may go down in history as the greatest clutch quarterback of all time. His rookie season he was the fourth-string QB. If not for an injured Drew Bledsoe in his second season and fourth-quarter heroics in Brady's first playoff game we may have never heard of him.

Is there a Tom Brady somewhere halfway down the money list waiting to emerge this season as a potential challenger to Tiger? The simple answer is that we don't know. You know the list of players who have tried and failed to knock Tiger off his throne. You also know that even the greatest players of any era eventually fall off form and are replaced.

In golf, dominance seems to skip a generation or two. But we live in a different era today than at any other time in the history of the game. Tom Brady's hero was Joe Montana. The next great TOUR player's hero will undoubtedly be Tiger Woods. At 32, he has influenced an entire generation of players who are just coming into their own. In his absence some of those players have an opportunity to flourish that otherwise seemed unlikely. And upon his return he may just find a playing field that is a little fuller than the one that he limped triumphantly off of last week.

Tiger will be back, that is certain. And his return will come with even more media hype and hoopla than his latest victory. I apologize for that: I will be carrying a banner myself at the parade. But today's players are younger, fitter and more determined than ever to make their mark. And while Tiger will not be replaced, he just may find himself with company for the first time in his career. And in true Tiger fashion, he will welcome the challenge.