Recently, a close family member who is a proud parent of three once told me, “You know what my goal is as a parent? To make sure that I haven’t #### up my children so much that they can not undo the damage.”

I used to think that that kind of thinking was a case of setting the bar a bit low – until I looked in the mirror. Far too much of a man’s life can be wasted getting out of one’s own way.

Earl Woods was "called home" (as my kinfolk call it), the other day at age 74. Most obituaries will list him as the father of Tiger Woods, the original architect of the most dominant sports cultural force of Generation X. Oh and the kid turned out to be a decent golfer.

Much has been made through the years about Earl Woods' tendency for bombast. After all, he is supposed to have said that Tiger would one day be bigger than Gandhi. Not enough has been made of the fact that he first and foremost was Tiger’s father – and from all accounts a very good one. I don’t pretend to know either the father or son, and Kirby Puckett and Barry Bonds are recent cautionary tales in how not to judge books by their covers. But having a few years under my belt as a father’s son, I’ll take my chances with the subject.

For almost 30 years Tiger and Earl have been in the public consciousness on some level. If Michael Jackson’s special gift was magic with a 3 wood, you get the idea. A toddler Tiger was nailing shots on the Mike Douglas Show (if you're under 35, Mike Douglas was a prime time Jay Leno). A golf prodigy before he could speak, it always seemed as if Tiger's ascension to PGA champion was merely a matter of when, not if.

If you believe that, you not only trivialize the son, you dishonor the father.

Every time you see a prodigy - and we all know of some incredibly precocious kid; be it a musical prodigy, the class bookworm, or the 10 year old with the fastball in the mid-80s - you usually have a parent who is a driving force.

Driving force. Countless parents force The Drive. Or they instead become the driver, rather than the guide, attempting to live their dreams through the child. In wanting so much for their progeny, parents often choke the joy out of the gift. Playing (or studying) becomes a duty, a task. All too often, the parents forget that they have a child, not an adult in training. The only thing more predictable than the parent is the result.

Burnout. Resentment. Underachievement.

And in the tragic case of Michael Jackson, aberrant behavior.

What separates Tiger Woods (or the Williams sisters) from Todd Marinovich, Andrea Jaeger, Mary Pierce, or (to a lesser extent) Jennifer Capriati?  What about the thousands of less famous children with endless promise derailed?

Earl Woods passed his deep passion for the game to the son; his other gift was passing on the joy. As driven as Tiger is to win, to joy of the competition shines through equally. Both come from within. Let Earl explain it, “It was never a question of me forcing Tiger to play golf. Everything came from him. We transcended the father-son thing when he was five. We became best friends, equals. The normal way of things is that the father is always in command. That wasn't the case with us because when we went to a golf tournament I would be the father until we signed in, then Tiger took over as the father...and then as we were checking out of the hotel or going to the airport, our roles were reversed back again. I became the father again.

'I tried to interest him in other sports. I introduced him to baseball - he was a natural switch hitter - and he said no thanks, it interferes with my golf… he went to high school I convinced him to try out for the cross-country team. Within two weeks he was the number two man on the team. He quit after a year because it interfered with his golf…He chose golf on his own. I never pushed him.”

Real pushy dad eh?

Perhaps it came from prior experience. Earl Woods had three children from a previous marriage, and he admits that Tiger was a second chance to make up for whatever shortcomings he had the first time around.

For all of the occasional bombast of Richard Williams, what is the worst thing that Serena and Venus can be accused of? Having interests outside of tennis such as being multilingual and wanting to develop alternative careers.

Imagine that. Twenty-somethings that want to have a rounded life. All parents should be so cursed. 

I think of Todd Marinovich. His dad, Marv, used to feed him vitamins. Started him on a stretching program when he was a toddler. Supposedly, Todd never touched a processed sugar until his senior year in high school. I remember thinking Todd was like a kid who had to live in one of those plastic bubbles. Fine inside the bubble - Dead Man Walking when he left it and encountered a germ. When Todd got to USC, he left The Bubble. Life was the germ, and his passion for the game was gone soon after. The crash of his career was as predictable as it was tragic.

I think we can begrudge Tiger’s not becoming the Muhammad Ali of this era. It would be nice if he did, but that gig isn’t for everyone. Like Excalibur, it’s a sword that is not meant for the strongest or richest, but for the Chosen One. We mortals don’t always get to make that choice for ourselves. We may have to settle for a Tiger Woods who appears to be a grounded, balanced man, and great athlete.

For all of the jokes we all have made (myself included) about the "Cablasian" label that Tiger slapped on himself, he hasn't gone out a gotten a nose job or skin lightener. Not even Vijay Singh would accuse him of living in a hyperbaric chamber. It’s safe to say that Tiger Woods won’t be on Dr. Phil trying to sort out his ambivalent relationship with his father. In short, nothing you hear or see on Eldrick Woods makes you feel that he is anything but a reasonably rational, balanced multi-millionaire. That speaks more to Earl Woods than 10 Majors won.

Earl Woods, rest in peace. You did all right.