LET’S GET IT ON – Losing that loving feeling

One of my favourite movie scenes comes from the 1986 movie “Top Gun” where Tom Cruise (Maverick) and Val Kilmer (Goose) ‘serenaded’ Kelly McGillis’ character with the 1964 hit by The Righteous Brothers “You’ve lost that loving feeling.”
I was trying to look for words to describe former world no. 1 Tiger Woods’ funk until my memory brought me back to that old school melody.
I ask myself, has Tiger Woods lost ‘that loving feeling?’
It has been seven years since Tiger’s last major championships in Torrey Pines for the 2008 US Open and eight months since he last reigned as the world no. 1. In short, Tiger is in a slump and is desperate to get out of that funk.
In three tournaments thus far after a knee surgery, Tiger has not finished twice and was cut in his first tournament this year with a ballooning 82 on the first 18 holes. For those of us who saw Tiger from his Stanford days to his 18 PGA title conquests, the images in our minds are of Tiger pumping his fist and roaring to victory on a Sunday with his red shirt on.
There was a time when people see an invincible Tiger once he is on the golf course. On a fourth day when Tiger wears his signature red, the enemy can only see a second place trophy not the championship. It seemed like the trophy is waiting at the clubhouse with Tiger’s name already engraved on it.
Aahh…those were the days.
The past seven years have been a struggle. Alright, Tiger was still no. 1 by May 2014 but that was more of winning Tour titles and consistently placing in the top 10 each time. Slowly, people no longer see a daunting shadow from Tiger. Slowly, he became vulnerable. He turned from kryptonite to human. In time, Tiger became a mere golfing mortal who had lost his mojo.
Greg Norman, the feisty Australian legend nicknamed the Shark, doubts if Tiger can get back on track. He pictured it as like standing over the back of the 12th green at Augusta National, and chipping it down there, Rae’s Creek right in front of you, or the back of the 15th of Augusta National.
All those gremlins are going to be sitting on Tiger’s head, says the Shark.
Let’s break it down quickly. Tiger have had swing changes. Of late, his chipping was aweful. Golf analysts say it is his swing change that’s really the culprit. Some say Tiger will, in time, recover his old deadly form.
But there were also other events in Tiger’s career that somehow led to the downslide. His marital woes and his reported adventures with women. Early this year, he lost a tooth while attending his girlfriend Lindsay Vonn’s medal ceremonies.
I am no golf expert nor swing analyst but I suspect it could be more than just the swing. From my own experience, I know golf is a cruel, demanding sport. It’s not just the body but the mind that matters. Each shot is conceived on the mind. It’s your brains that tell your muscles to move this way or that way.
Baseball great Hank Aaron took seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. It took him one afternoon on the golf course.
My golfing lawyer-friend Vincent Paul Montejo should know that by now. Golf is like lawyering. Practice makes perfect. You will soon learn that golf and lawyering are actually best friends. Learn not from me but from your partner, Atty. Ed Batacan. He will inspire you to play golf, but never expect him to teach you his secrets. 
Don’t watch me play either, Atty. Paul, but take this: On every fairway, in every stretch of rough, in every clubhouse, in every golf bag, at every swing at the ball, in every set of plans for a new course, in every application for club membership, there lurks a potential lawsuit.
That said, the fairways is an extension of your office. And if your office is the golf course, there’s no bad day at all.
Now back to Tiger. Has he lost that loving feeling?
Only his balls can tell if Tiger no longer closes his eyes when he putts.
Postscripts: Listen to “Let’s Get It On with Neil Bravo” on 105.9 Balita FM every Saturday 8-10 a.m.