In less than four full years as a PGA Tourist, Woods ranks No. 3 on the career money list. It's a joke. He has taken choking completely out of the equation. He doesn't have to worry about feeding his family. For that matter, he doesn't have a family, which is also a significant factor in his relentless pursuit of perfection, if you'll forgive my mixed luxury-car metaphors.
Golf is the highest form of self-indulgence.
It's my game, my putter, my driver, etc. When you have to start thinking about other people, when you're singing Happy Birthday to the kids over the phone from the Holiday Inn after a tough round, it gets a little more complicated. Most players, as a rule, don't evolve into championship-caliber golfers until they're of the age when they already have the wife, the children and the white picket fence. Woods destroyed this normal growth curve. His weakness used to be putting, back during the period when he was winning but once over 43 starts.