Haugen: Pursuing Excellence Like a Tiger
Released on: Sunday, 17, 2007 8:00 AM
Haugen: Pursuing Excellence Like a Tiger
by Randy Haugen On a cool Monday afternoon in February 2000, the golfing world was focused on the Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament in California. Tiger Woods was attempting to become the first PGA player since 1948 to win six consecutive tournaments. But it seemed the monumental feat was not to be. With just eight holes to go, Woods was seven strokes behind Matt Gogel and Vijay Singh - an insurmountable lead in anyone's book. |
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Anyone's, that is, except Tiger Woods.
In a comeback unparalleled in PGA history, Woods shot two pars, five birdies and an eagle to outpace Gogel and Singh by two strokes and notch up one more amazing victory in one of the most illustrious careers in sports history.
Yet at least twice in his short career experts and fans have wondered if Tiger’s game was gone, if he was fading as quickly as he had risen. In the late 1990s and again in 2004 Woods seemed destined to sink into the obscurity reserved for those who held great promise but could not deliver in the long run. But both times he came soaring back, better than ever.
Tiger’s amazing accomplishments have not come easily. He has worked very hard all of his life, and has never taken his eyes off the goal of being the very best – the pursuit of excellence. But Woods understands that excellence is not the struggle to be the best there ever was, or even the best in the world right now. He acknowledges that such things are out of his control. Rather, his goal is to be the best that he can be. And that is most often better than he thinks he can be. This is excellence – pushing ourselves to the very limits of our capabilities, and even beyond, never settling for second best, never letting “good enough” be good enough. And no one exemplifies such undaunted determination like Tiger Woods.
“All I know is, I’ve tried to do my best.” – Tiger Woods
On the net: Tiger Woods’ amazing career,
Leading Business News Note:
The people we’ve chosen to write about have/had their quota of human foibles just like the rest of us... But they share one transcendent quality: All of them in some way, at some time, acted courageously. We appreciate columnist, Randy Haugen focusing on Tiger’s commitment to excellence because this better equips us to lead ourselves.
