The early months of 2012 provide golf fans with an opportunity to reflect upon the legacy of our sport’s most prolific and iconic athlete, Tiger Woods. After his dramatic victory at the Chevron World Challenge in early December, expectations of him are high for 2012.

However, before we look forward to 2012 and beyond, let’s take a look back at the history of Woods with a new lens. A lens wiped clean of moral judgment and, by its clarity, illuminating the extraordinary achievements of one of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen.

Woods’ recent poor play is only remarkable because it comes on the heels of what is, arguably, the greatest era of dominance individual professional sports has ever seen. It is an era that began with three absolutely dazzling victories in one the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments, the U.S. Amateur

Woods brought a level of competitive fire and charisma to his U.S. Amateur victories that had not been seen since the days of Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones. His match play victories over Trip Kuehne and Steve Scott were nothing short of sensational.

His remarkable come backs in those matches were punctuated with charismatic fist pumps that conveyed to the golf viewer a hypnotic level of competitive energy. All of a sudden, golf fans and non-golf fans alike were getting pumped about golf. 

Wood's level of competitive fire brought to golf an entertainment factor that could appeal to the masses, and it all started with his U.S. Amateur victories. 

Golf was not a geek sport before Tiger, but we must acknowledge that Woods single-handedly made golf cool, thereby expanding its popularity and marketing power by immeasurable levels. It is with Wood’s dazzling U.S. Amateur victories that golf started to become legitimately cool.

Fast forward to the 1997 Masters Tournament. Tiger’s masterful 12 stroke victory not only rocked the golf world, it also struck a major blow to racial attitudes and barriers that had quietly survived the American civil rights movement. 

For racial and cultural purposes, Wood’s 1997 Master’s victory was a moment not seen since the days of Jackie Robinson. For sports purposes, it was an athletic performance worthy of comparison to great athletes such as Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. 

Woods' 1997 Masters victory broke records too numerous to mention here. Just as his match play victories over Trip Kuehne and Steve Scott in the U.S. Amateur, Wood’s 1997 Master’s victory was nothing short of sensational. It was a watershed moment in the history of golf.

Fast forward to the 2000 U.S. Open Championship at Pebble Beach, Calif. Woods was coming off a hard fought victory in the 1999 PGA Championship over a young charismatic golfer in Sergio Garcia. Up until this point, his good buddy Mark O’Meara, having won the 1998 Masters and Open Championship, had more major championships under his belt than Tiger.

Woods crushed... no, lacerated the field, winning his first U.S. Open Championship by an astonishing 15 shots. And, we thought nothing could ever top his 12 stroke victory at the Masters. 

Then came the 2000 British Open Championship at St. Andrews in Scotland, the most historic golfing grounds on the planet – the home of golf. It was here that Woods completed the modern career grand slam at the tender age of 24, thereby, joining an elite group of golfers that included Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen. In addition, Nicklaus and Woods are the only ones to have ever completed the circuit more than once; each with three career grand slams.

Woods electrified the world with his playoff victory over Bob May in the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla. His magnetic charisma and white hot competitive fire were on full display as he executed pressure shot after pressure shot, and drained pressure putt after pressure putt. 

With the 2000 U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in hand, Woods entered the 2001 Masters with an opportunity to accomplish what no golfer had ever accomplished before – to be the reigning champion of all four modern major championships simultaneously.

There, with rounds of 70-66-68-68, Woods defeated David Duval by two strokes to achieve a feat not likely to ever be duplicated, except perhaps by Woods himself.

Between 2000 and 2008, Woods would emerge victorious in many professional tournaments, including four major championships. However, his victory at the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines was nothing short of heroic. There, he played 90 holes of U.S. Open golf with a double stress fracture in his left tibia. He won the tournament with a broken leg, playing against his doctors’ instructions to immediately stop playing golf and spend some time on crutches while resting for more surgery.

All of this is but a snapshot of Woods’ achievements on the golf course to date. All told, Woods has amassed 98 worldwide victories since turning professional in 1996, with 14 of those victories at major championships. Only Sam Snead (82 wins) and Jack Nicklaus (73 wins) have won more professional tournaments than Woods. 

We all know that since November 2009, Woods' personal life has been challenging, to say the least. However, we must remember that his personal life is exactly that ... personal. While Tiger was married, we had no business in his marriage. We have no business in his bedroom either. His marital difficulties are a private matter between himself and his, now, ex-wife). 

Since his extra-marital affairs were exposed, Woods has been absolutely vilified by the public and the media. For what? Because he had sex? Because he had sex with women other than his wife?

This icon of professional sports has suffered dearly for his mistakes. His family was shattered by his poor decisions; decisions that will have a lasting detrimental impact on the lives of his two children. 

Woods appeared in public on February 19, 2010, and offered his fans and the general public an overly generous mea culpa for his marital transgressions. None of it was anyone’s business, but he nonetheless apologized profusely.

His public apology was a mistake, and simply added more fuel to the media inferno that had engulfed him. If he owed apologies to anyone, it was his wife and children. He certainly owed no apologies to anyone one else who is not a member of his immediate family, or a very close friend. 

Woods cheated on his wife – it's not as if he was the leader of the free world and performed illicit sex acts in the oval office, then lied about it under oath.

As a new golf season commences in 2012, it is important to be honest with ourselves about the contributions Woods has made to the game of golf, and the broader global community. He sparked a fitness craze amongst tour players who were sick and tired of losing to him. He was a major catalyst behind the growth of the PGA Tour and the game of golf since 1996. Tournament officials lengthened classic golf designs shortly after he began to dominate the Tour.  The phrase "Tiger proofing" was widely used to describe these design changes.

Will Tiger ultimately go on to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major championships? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

However, as we embark on the 2012 golf season, this is not the right question to ask ourselves. As golf fans, we owe it to the game and to Woods himself to honestly reflect upon everything he has meant to the game of golf and the broader global community before focusing on what he has yet to achieve in the game.

At the age of 36, Woods is already one of the greatest athletes of all time. May his greatness continue to thrive and endure.