Another major golf tournament has come and gone and Tiger Woods was not in contention. In fact, in missing the cut at the Open after shooting seven over par through 36 holes, Woods failed to play into the weekend at consecutive majors for the first time in his career.

It’s clear Woods has much work to do on his new swing before he can contend for his 15th major or consider himself in serious pursuit again of Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18. But Woods is still only 39 and, while he’ll never regain the dominance of his 20s, if any golfer can work through these struggles and emerge on the other side as a top 10 player who is a threat to win at every major, it’s Tiger Woods.

Or he should just quit.

Yes, that’s the new prescription for the former world No1 that has emerged in recent days, weeks and months: Tiger Woods should stop doing golf. Forever.

“BAG IT, TIGER: GOLF’S BIGGEST STAR SHOULD CALL IT QUITS” – Vice



“TIGER WOODS SHOULD RETIRE” – CBS

“SHOULD TIGER WOODS RETIRE?” – Golf Channel

“I FEEL LIKE TIGER WOODS SHOULD RETIRE” – Stephen A Smith

It’s a remarkable phenomenon that is unique to sports: a working media that believes it has a say on when someone should stop their career, their life’s work.

You don’t see the same thing in other public fields. Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino are among the most accomplished actors alive today. That’s indisputable. That said, much of their work over the past decade-plus hasn’t been worthy of critical acclaim. A Little Fockers here, a Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium there. Some Al Pacino playing Al Pacino over there. It’s not exactly been Raging Bull, The Graduate and The Godfather Part II as far as the eye can see. Yet there’s not a outcry from the entertainment media after each new stinker for them to quit acting and never be seen on the screen again. Align themselves with better scripts? Sure. But stop doing forever the only thing they’ve ever done? Nope.

In most careers, continuing to plug away is celebrated. The person who keeps coming into the office and doing the job even after age 65 and Social Security eligibility? Way to go! The old lady who has been working at the school cafeteria longer than anyone can remember? Adorable! You don’t hear non-stop bellyaching because she doesn’t serve tater tots with the same speed as she did in 1974. “Look at the way her hand trembles on the ladle. She needs to quit.”

Yet for some reason, many in the sports media believe it’s up to them to decide when an athlete should step away. Willie Mays should have retired. Johnny Unitas should have retired. Michael Jordan should have retired. Brett Favre should have retired. Kobe Bryant should retire. Every European soccer star who goes to the MLS should just give it up already.

Teams were willing to pay them large sums of money to do something they love. So they continued to do it. That’s really not a hard decision. It’s not even a decision. Every sports writer alive would dream of being able to play one game as “bad” as Michael Jordan’s worst performance with the Wizards. Or quarterback a team to a conference title game like Favre did in 2010. Or shoot 76-75 at St Andrews.

BUT THEIR LEGACY! THEY ARE TARNISHING THEIR LEGACIES!

Really? Yeah, it’s hard to watch Tiger Woods right now, but it doesn’t change the fact that he dominated golf for a generation and won 14 majors. In fact, as bad as he is now, it makes you appreciate even more how good he was before his decline. To my knowledge, despite Michael Jordan’s two years with the Wizards and one year playing minor league baseball awfully, he is still considered vastly superior to every human who steps on a basketball court, almost to an absurd degree. Great athletes believe they can be great even when other say they can’t. That mindset is a huge part of becoming a great athlete. Writers tell people they suck and let them know what they can’t do. That’s apparently a huge part of working in the sports media.

If the current state of Woods’ game is hard for people to watch, if it somehow makes them think about their own mortality and decline, then don’t watch him play. He’s not banging on your front door and demanding you watch him slice a ball into the rough. It’s not hard to miss him when he’s not on TV during the weekend. Just don’t watch him. But Woods’ past dominance shouldn’t be held against him now. Stewart Cink won the Open in 2009. It’s his only major. He hasn’t won a tournament since. Where are the calls for him to retire? Have I missed them? I guess it’s okay for him to keep cashing checks and missing cuts because he never was remotely good as Woods? That seems fair.

Or how about Zach Johnson? Sure, he just won the Open. But he probably should have retired before the tournament began, don’t you think? He’s the same age as Tiger Woods: 39. His last major came in 2007 at the Masters, more than a year before Woods won his last major at the 2008 US Open. Woods won five tournaments as recently as 2013. Johnson had only won five tournaments over the previous five years.

I guess you should enjoy your Claret Jug, Johnson. But know that you don’t deserve it. You should have quit the sport a week ago. That’s indisputable sports media logic.

Tiger Woods may continue shooting in the mid-70s in every round until his mid-70s. Or he could get it together and win the PGA Championship next month and tie Nicklaus’ record at next year’s Open. My hunch is that the former is more likely than the latter, but so what? Tiger’s golf career is his golf career, not ours. He can play as long as he wants. I hope I’ve made that exceedingly clear. If not, then that’s my mistake. I messed up. I will have to heed the calls to never write again.