Not long after I first heard about Tiger Woods’ recent car crash, I began to dread the inevitable comparisons to Ben Hogan’s well-known crash, on February 2nd, 1949—and they weren’t long in coming. What I didn’t anticipate was a validation of their similarity, even with qualifications, from James Dodson, the author of one of the two most notable biographies of Ben Hogan. In response to queries of, “Isn’t this like history repeating itself?”, Dodson replied (in this column: With Crash Came Echoes of Hogan) with a qualified “yes”:
“…there are striking similarities in these tragedies as well as eerie echoes of each man’s struggle to reach the summit of the game only to pay a price for becoming the best in the world. In each case, though they were stars from very different eras, both also experienced something of a personal awakening—even redemption—along the way.”
(Insert face-palm emoji here.)
Right off the bat I take issue with the characterization of Woods’ February 23rd, 2021 crash as a tragedy. The injuries to his right leg, though serious, were not life-threatening, and no medical opinion has been expressed that casts serious doubt on his ability to walk or play golf again. There has been a lot of speculation about his ability to come back and play as well as he has in the past, but frankly, due in large part to his multiple back surgeries (the cumulative result of the violent lashing action of his swing over many years), his best years are well behind him, and have been for over a decade.
Woods’ crash can only be construed as a tragedy by sycophantic fans who consider him the be-all and end-all of the game of golf, and by any reasonable estimation can only be construed as being his own fault.
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I am also having a problem with the comparison related by the statement “…eerie echoes of each man’s struggle to reach the summit of the game only to pay a price for becoming the best in the world.”
How can Hogan’s crash be construed as “…pay(ing) a price for becoming the best in the world”? Don’t bother answering, I will: it can’t. It was the sort of thing that could have happened to anyone who happened to be driving along with all due care only to be victimized by the carelessness and poor judgement of another driver.
On the other hand, Woods’ latest automotive mishap, as well as the others, involved only himself (thankfully) and some combination of drugs and the consequences of his own bad judgement and bad behavior. Looked at in a certain way, refracted through a prism of fanboyish worship and a willful disregard for assigning fault, Woods’ most recent crash could be construed as arising from his well-publicized ruthless pursuit of perfection, and his frustration at not living up to his self-imposed goals. Entire books have been (and will continue to be) written about this.
The bottom line on that aspect of the issue is that Hogan achieved arguably his greatest professional and personal success after the car crash that left him with life-threatening complications. He was in the hospital for 59 days and at great risk of never being able to play golf again, yet he came back to rack up 11 wins (of which six were majors) in the six years following his accident, and this on a limited schedule—for example, in 1951 he played only five tournaments, and won three of them (including the Masters and the U. S. Open).
Woods’ return after the fire-hydrant incident and the subsequent implosion of his personal life and public reputation looked like this: two winless seasons in 2010 and 2011, then a mini-comeback with three and five wins, respectively, in 2012 and 2013 (playing 19 and 16 events in those years), before another round of back injuries and personal complications brought on the longest winless stretch of his career, from 2014 to 2017.
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Ben Hogan’s personal awakening in the wake of his crash consisted of a man who had always been something of a loner realizing that he had fans, that people liked him and were pulling for him to recover from the horrific injuries he had suffered. It was a sea change in his outlook on life that helped him persevere through his recovery and subsequent return to championship form.
Woods’ personal awakening in the wake of either or both of his earlier traffic misadventures, to the extent that he had one, was more along the lines of, “Holy s**t, I may lose sponsors (reader, he did…) if I don’t get my act together!” Woods also engaged in rehabilitation for substance and sex addictions, as a well as a public (and painful) mea culpa as a bone thrown to the general public (and potential future sponsors).
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Ultimately, the only similarity between the two events lies in the fact that they were vehicle crashes that involved a professional golfer; the differences are much more significant.
Ben and Valerie’s Cadillac was plowed into by a Greyhound bus when an inexperienced bus driver attempted to unsafely pass a truck, on a bridge, in foggy, low-visibility conditions, to make up time and keep to his schedule.
Tiger’s crash took place at approximately 7:12 am on a clear sunny day, on a lightly traveled (in these pandemic times) road that was dry and in good condition. The physical evidence at the scene indicated that his vehicle continued in a straight line as the road curved gently to the right, crossing a low median divider and two opposing-traffic lanes (luckily, there were no other vehicles in those lanes at the time), exiting the roadway, taking out a tree, and flipping/rolling to a stop in the “natural area” adjacent to the roadway.
So what caused it? Was it impairment? Inattention? Speculation is rampant, and fueled partially by the actions (or inaction) of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.
The LACSD declined to obtain blood toxicology information when Woods was taken to a local hospital, relying instead on the assessment of a deputy on the scene—a deputy who was untrained in the identification of clues of impairment—who said that Woods seemed lucid and in possession of his faculties in the aftermath of the accident.
Independent traffic-accident investigators who have reviewed the available information about the incident have questioned that decision, and late-breaking information about Woods’ responses, specifically the fact that he twice told deputies on the scene that didn’t remember how the accident happened and didn’t even remember driving, have raised further questions.
Woods is known to have had issues with the sleep aid Ambien in the past, a medication which carries a warning about impairment a day after taking it, impairment that includes disorientation and memory loss.
Several articles published in the weeks following Woods’ crash have stated that investigators have sought access to the vehicle’s so-called “black box” (actually an event data recorder, or EDR), but that device is unlikely to tell them much that cannot already be gleaned from the evidence at the accident site. An EDR collects data such as vehicle speed, throttle position, brake application, airbag deployment, seatbelt use, steering angles and other data for a period of about 20 seconds before the crash, during the crash, and 20 seconds after the crash.
This type of information is used by vehicle manufacturers to determine if a mechanical malfunction was a contributing factor in a crash, but it is not necessarily going to be strongly indicative of human-error factors that may have precipitated an incident. For that, other avenues of investigation have to be pursued.
Phone records, and blood toxicity reports (if available), would allow investigators to determine if inattention or physical impairment were causal factors—and should be pursued. If another vehicle had been involved and innocent people in that car had been injured or killed these factors would certainly not have been ignored. Even lacking that complication the seriousness of this accident would warrant a thorough investigation to determine its cause in order to support a charge of DWI or reckless driving.
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I’ll be honest—I have never understood the rah-rah enthusiasm of Tiger’s fan base, which drove a frenzied outpouring of well-wishes and “thoughts and prayers” comments that has washed over social media like a tidal wave in the three weeks since he crashed that SUV. Of course only a sociopath wouldn’t wish him as complete a recovery as possible, if only for the sake of his future life as a parent to his two kids, but the level of grief and outpouring of emotion for injuries that weren’t life-threatening surpasses understanding in my book, especially when those injuries were his own fault.
Various columns that have come out since the crash have warned Woods’ fans not to expect a rousing comeback—an assessment that is based on: a) his age, and b) the pre-existing physical issues that have already taken their toll on his game, so the apex of their hopes, that he will equal or surpass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major victories, is essentially out of the question.
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To reiterate: the cold, hard fact of the matter is that the only commonalities between the crash that broke Tiger Woods’ leg and the crash that narrowly missed claiming the lives of Ben Hogan and his wife, Valerie, is that they were automobile crashes that each involved a professional golfer. The two men were in very different places in their careers when their respective crashes occurred, and the incidents happened under very different circumstances, for very different reasons—namely, Ben Hogan was hit by a bus, and Tiger Woods threw himself in front of one.
