Tiger Woods Needs a New Name

Tiger Woods was born Eldrick Tont Woods. A man of mixed descent, the traditionally Thai name Tont reflects his mother’s Asian heritage. I don’t necessarily follow the world of golf too closely, so I did a little research on him and learned that he has been given lots of names over the years: everything from Athlete of the Year to Athlete of the Decade.

I was aware of his success as an adult, but I didn’t realize the extent to which how much of his life was spent in the limelight; beginning at around age 3 he putted with people like Bob Hope and appeared on the Mike Douglas Show. Soon thereafter he was noted in Golf Digest and won the Junior World Golf  Championships multiple times. It was during these early years that his father gave young Eldrick the nickname “Tiger” in honor of a friend who had the same nickname. Eldrick has been known only as “Tiger Woods” beginning back to the days of these junior golf tournaments.

Rod Liddle commented in a TimesOnline article that he originally thought the nickname “Tiger” had to have some satire involved. Mr. Liddle asks in his article, “how could you give the title ‘Tiger’ to the most relentlessly boring man in the entire history of the world’s most boring game, golf.”

As anyone within earshot of recent news can testify, we have learned that Tiger is not as boring as he was originally typecast. Larry Ackerman, leading authority on organizational and personal identity, describes in his Identity Circle Blog that Tiger was told from an early age how special he was and how he would be a “catalyst of change in the world.” This, combined with Tiger’s continued golf success, led to the creation of a person living a life that is more than humanly possible. It’s a common theme in our frail, human existence: Hoping for some form of immortality only to have our humanity hit us like a Mack Truck in the middle of the night. Larry’s recommendation? Tiger should try to “achieve a more realistic understanding of himself – his earthly, rather than his ‘saintly,’ gifts.”

In fact, Larry recommends this for all of us:  Be yourself, know your limits as well as your strengths, keep both feet on the ground at all times.

A great prescription and I would like to add one more. The name “Tiger” has some superhuman connotations to it. The thing is, he is like the rest of us — only human. A nickname given by your father can be a wonderful thing, but it can also carry a price tag that is too high. There have been others with nicknames passed down by their fathers – Barrack Obama is one example of that. Now that his humanity has come to light, it might be time for Mr. Woods to create his own life and choose a name that corresponds with his more human existence.