Tiger Woods’ father passes away

In some of the saddest news to come out of sports in the past few years, Tiger Woods' father passed away Wednesday morning of cancer. Earl Woods was a fighter all his life and is probably the best example of a perfect father I've seen in a long while. When Tiger was young and still learning how to excel at golf, Earl Woods made Tiger's practices grueling, even talking and yelling and Tiger while he was mid-swing. Earl always meant good though – in this case, he wanted Tiger to improve his mental toughness.

Earl Woods has suffered from cancer for some time, and Tiger often left tournaments early and skipped tournaments so he could tend to his father and be at his side during his last days. Earl missed the Masters last month because he was too frail to come and had to stay in the hospital.

As Doug Ferguson from AP writes, "Perhaps the lasting image of Earl Woods came the next spring, at the 1997 Masters, when he stepped onto the 18th green and wrapped his arms around a 21-year-old son who shattered records at Augusta National, a watershed victory that changed the appeal of golf and sent him to the greatness his father had always predicted." Not surprisingly, Earl Woods was present at one of the most remarkable sports events of all time.

I wish the best for the Woods family. Hopefully Tiger can keep Earl in his heart during his future matches and continue as the best golfer in the world.

EDIT: Shaq, of all people, decided to forgo his post-game celebrations and instead send his condolences to the Woods family when being interviewed after the Heat's playoff series win last night. Speaking of how great of a father Earl Woods was to Tiger, Shaq decided to give some advice to the viewers watching the basketball game.  "If you're having problems with your fathers, don't have problems with your fathers. Fathers should be your best friends."  Well said, Shaq.