As someone who was never blessed with any amount of athletic ability, I have always marveled at the true freaks of nature who are dominant athletes. I am old enough to have appreciated Muhammad Ali (although he was past his prime in my memories). I do not remember, but have see enough video of Jim Brown to have appreciated him. Michael Jordan is probably my biggest athletic marvel. I loved Barry Sanders too for the freakish things he did. And currently, I marveled at Lance Armstrong in cycling and John Smoltz in baseball. Both are just machine-like and super-human in their athletic abilities.

So when this young hot shot golfer named Tiger Woods was coming up, I was enthralled with him as I watched his game. Bret Sims will disagree, but Tiger made golf into an athletic sport. He is so dominant BECAUSE of his athletic ability. He's revolutionized golf. Not just the game, but the TV coverage, the equipment used to play it, the way to play the game and even course design (as in Tiger-proofing a course). Today, I witnessed an athletic thing of beauty when I saw the US Open. It wasn't Tiger's most athletically dominant performance. Tiger, in fact, looked quite human at the beast that is Torrey Pines. You could also tell that Tiger is not 100% yet after having his knee surgically repaired 6 weeks ago. And yet, there he was, needing to sink a 12-footer to tie Rocco Mediate and force a playoff for our country's national golf championship. And as only Tiger could do, he drained it, leaving no doubt who this generation's greatest athlete is.

No other athlete is as dominant in their sport as Tiger Woods. No other athlete can do the things he does. No other athlete has changed his sport like Tiger Woods. And yet, after all he's done, I hear a lot of the Tiger-haters out there. Why? I hear some people still not give the man his due. Why? Is it possible that Tiger is underrated or at least underappreciated?