Miami – Woods and Federer. Roger and Tiger. Minimally, they’re the ultimate in water cooler currency, capable of lending even the most nebbish wonk an assured cool.
“Did you see Tiger at Augusta?”
“Wow, Federer won another Wimbledon.”
But in an athletic landscape devoid of legend – due to either retirement (Jordan, Schumacher) or the dark clouds of suspicion (Bonds, Armstrong) – the two have become much more – the world’s most superior athletes. Woods has been at the top of the golf rankings for 435 weeks and is seven days away from his quest for a fifth Masters green jacket and his 13th major championship (second most all-time).
Federer, meanwhile, is in the midst of a run that even Woods can only categorize as “sick” – in the past two-plus seasons, the native of Switzerland has won 23 championships, including six of the past seven Grand Slam titles and 10 overall. His singles record since the start of 2006 is 90-5.
“What he’s done over the last three years, no one has ever done,” Woods said.
Being in South Florida last week must have been akin to dropping in on a play date on Mount Olympus. In what must have seemed like Nirvana to sports fans, both men competed in the Miami area, Woods at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship and Federer at the Sony Ericsson Open.
While enterprising hustlers were selling ticket packages to both venues, enabling the masses to at least catch a glimpse of the greatness, the more fascinating tableaus were played out on a much more private scale – Woods hosting Federer for dinner on his yacht, then violating PGA Tour policy the next morning by ushering the tennis player inside the ropes for a chat as he went about his pretournament preparation.
“He was starting to get hassled pretty good,” Woods said. “That’s not why he came out here. He came out to enjoy himself and watch me slap it around a little bit.”
A sense of understanding
After meeting in a contrived Nike photo op last year, Woods visiting with and sitting in Federer’s box during the U.S. Open final, the two have actually become good friends, in part because these days they might be the only men who understand where the other one has been – and is heading.
“When I came maybe on the really, really big stage, I actually had time to deduce the situation and really work hard, not chase down all the tournaments and guarantees and all these kind of things,” Federer said of his ascent into the sporting consciousness. “I had to take time to really get comfortable with who I was.”
From Federer’s perspective, Woods, nearly six years his senior, has been an invaluable sounding board for such matters. Meanwhile, despite his age, Tiger has played the role of impish instigator. When Federer won this year’s Australian Open for his 10th Grand Slam title, Woods immediately shot off a text message reading “12 vs. 10.”
Asked last week if anything about Federer’s training routine surprised him, Woods cracked, “He gets to tournaments half a week to a week early. He’s not able to get over the jet lag, I guess.”
One topic that doesn’t come up between the two is the proximity-spawned argument that has dominated conversation in these parts for more than a week, a discussion pitched with the same fervor as Anna Nicole’s baby or whether Britney’s stubby pate has been scared straight after another stint in rehab.
Who’s the No. 1 athlete in the world?
“I think we’re probably the last two guys to care about that,” Federer said with a laugh.
Woods, who was named The Associated Press athlete of the year in 2006, said the award should have gone to Federer, “the most dominant athlete on the planet.”
One reason for that line of reasoning, Woods said, is the difference in the nature of their respective sports.
“In our sport, you can’t physically dictate what somebody else is going to do. In tennis, if you’re physically dominant, you can dominate the other person,” Woods said. “In golf, you can’t all of a sudden hit a drive past somebody and say, ‘OK, I win the hole.’
“In tennis, a person who actually is more physically gifted and physically dominant can actually just overpower somebody, and that just doesn’t happen in our sport.”
Jim Courier, a former world No. 1 in tennis, not only said winning a tennis tournament is more difficult than winning a golf tournament, but that playing tennis is a more difficult endeavor.
“Golf vs. tennis? I have two words to settle that debate: Scott Draper,” Courier told The Miami Herald.
Draper, a one-time winner on the men’s professional tennis tour, turned to golf about a year ago after suffering a knee injury and retiring. Last month he won a tournament on the Australasian Tour.
“I play these golf events, and the golfers make fun of my swing,” Courier told The Herald, “but I have a 4-handicap, and other tennis players have 2 or 3. Put a pro golfer on a tennis court and there’s no way he’s close to a 4-handicap player.”
Peers: Tiger beats Roger
Breaking down along party lines, the golfers stand up for their man.
“I have all the respect in the world for Roger Federer and what he’s done, but he’s no Tiger Woods – there’s just no way,” Charles Howell III said.
As good – and dominant – as Woods has been, the golfers’ argument isn’t based on on-course results as much as how good he’s been for the game’s bottom line. In the face of declining television ratings throughout the sports landscape, and with it a precipitous drop in sponsors willing to fork over the millions of dollars necessary to keep tournaments afloat, the PGA Tour nonetheless somehow managed to negotiate a television deal that actually increased its take.
The reason? Tiger Woods.
Until Federer does that, the thinking goes, there’s no question about who’s the most powerful individual in sports.
“It’s nice to be compared to someone outside the sport,” Federer said. “What he’s been able to do over all the years, being so consistent, is just incredible.
“We have to be talking about a longer period of time for me, because he’s older and has had more chances, but what he’s done, and the way golf has come along because of him, is phenomenal to see.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
