KEY POINTS:
You could hardly expect a 53-year-old bloke whose training is based on playing tennis with his wife to hold on and win one of golf's major events.
Greg Norman had a great excuse for falling short at the British Open on a windswept Royal Birkdale course, even though swapping ground strokes with Chris Evert is not a pedestrian love match.
But what about the rest of them - Michael Campbell, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson etc?
It says a lot that rather than a middle-aged golfer moving up to enhance the green pastures of the seniors tour, the reverse occurred and a golden-haired oldie was needed to save the most famous proper tournament in the world.
It is inevitable, and understandable, that we have been reminded about Norman's penchant to choke. But if Greg gagged on Monday, what the heck does it say about all those whiz-bang legends who supposedly take the game seriously. They weren't within cooey. No wonder Tiger Woods can win a major on one leg.
Try as you might to find otherwise, you have to concede that the injured Woods is sorely missed.
His humourless and obsessive charge towards flattening everything in his path - including the Jack Nicklaus record of 18 majors - gives golf a charisma bypass.
But Tiger means what he says and says what he means. The results of his determination are staggeringly brilliant.
In contrast, by the end of the British Open you could only agree with the wonderful TV commentator Peter Alliss. "That's about enough from Royal Birkdale," was the way he signed off, with a characteristically grumpy edge.
Faced with a Tigerless tournament, Woods' rivals emerged as toothless.
Padraig Harrington only had to come up with a few nice shots to win again. His one challenger turned out to be Ian Poulter, whose pink trousers were a faded reminder that the famous red shirt was missing.
Norman's could have been a marvellous story that briefly obscured the truth. His final round decline left golf exposed - there are very rich men out there who are not consistently earning their keep. In days of old, even a great man like Nicklaus had to keep swinging for a decent supper and golf was all the better for it.
The miracle about Woods is that he has not been distracted by immense fame and fortune. He even drags new if brief heights out of moderate opponents, like Bob May and Rocco Mediate.
Maybe Woods has raised the standards to everyone else's breaking point. Maybe the game merely appears soft without him. Maybe he is an addiction that many of us can't do without.
It was actually nice having a break from his overbearing presence, but unfortunately there is nothing else to do but admit the game is stuffed without Tiger.
